ACQUA & SOLE SRL

Their core work

ACQUA & SOLE SRL is a small Italian company based in Milan working in the circular economy and biowaste treatment space. Their demonstrated work covers organic waste valorisation — turning waste streams into biogas, biochemicals, and recovered nutrients — with a particular emphasis on operating or hosting demonstration-scale facilities. In SYSTEMIC, they contributed to a large Innovation Action focused on recovering minerals and secondary raw materials from organic waste at industrial scale. Their involvement in biological waste-to-energy (ABWET) as a third party suggests they provide real-world operational context — likely as an industrial site or process partner rather than a pure research actor.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

ACQUA & SOLE entered H2020 through ABWET (2015-2018) as a third party in a training network on biological waste-to-energy — a supporting role likely providing an industrial site or practical context for PhD researchers. By the time SYSTEMIC started in 2017, they had moved into a funded participant role in a large-scale Innovation Action targeting the full circular economy loop: nutrients, minerals, biogas, biochemicals, and secondary raw materials. The shift is from a passive industrial contributor in a research training project to an active partner in a demonstration-focused circular economy programme.

They are moving from energy-only waste treatment toward full circular economy value chains — recovering nutrients, minerals, and biochemicals — which aligns with the direction of EU industrial policy and Horizon Europe's circular economy mission.

How they like to work

ACQUA & SOLE has not coordinated any H2020 projects; they join as a participant or third party, suggesting they are a specialist contributor rather than a project driver. Their two projects pulled them into large consortia — SYSTEMIC had 34 unique partners across 14 countries — which indicates they are comfortable operating within complex multi-partner structures. Their third-party role in ABWET (an MSCA training network) points to an industrial partner function: hosting researchers, providing data, or running real-world processes that academic partners cannot replicate.

Despite only two projects, ACQUA & SOLE has worked alongside 34 unique partners spread across 14 countries — an unusually broad network for a two-project SME, reflecting the large consortium size of SYSTEMIC. Their network is predominantly European, with no evidence of activity outside the EU research space.

What sets them apart

As a small Italian private company with a track record in demonstration-scale circular economy projects, ACQUA & SOLE fills a gap that universities and research institutes cannot: they bring an operational industrial perspective to waste valorisation — real plants, real process constraints, real throughput data. For consortium builders targeting Innovation Actions that require industry partners with hands-on biowaste or biogas facility experience in Italy, they represent a credible industrial anchor. Their small size also makes them agile and easier to integrate compared to large corporate partners with slower procurement cycles.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SYSTEMIC
  Their only funded project and most substantial contribution — a large Innovation Action on circular economy and mineral recovery from organic waste, placing them inside a 34-partner European consortium with real demonstration plant ambitions.
• ABWET
  An MSCA Joint European Doctorate network on advanced biological waste-to-energy, where ACQUA & SOLE served as a third-party industrial partner — indicating they hosted or supported PhD-level research in a real operational environment.