EGGPLANT SOCIETA A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATA

Their core work

Eggplant is a small Italian technology company based in Puglia focused on wastewater treatment within the food and agri-food processing sector. Their work centers on developing and commercializing filtration-based solutions that recover valuable fractions from food industry effluents — turning a disposal problem into a resource recovery opportunity. They first validated their core technology through an SME Instrument feasibility study, then joined a major Bio-Based Industries consortium (AFTERLIFE) to develop advanced filtration technologies for food wastewater at research scale. As an SME embedded in one of Italy's most agriculturally intensive regions, they likely bridge applied food-processing know-how with environmental compliance needs.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

With only two projects spanning 2016–2022 and no keyword metadata available, tracking a detailed evolution is not possible. What the data does show is a clear progression: they started in 2016 by self-coordinating a Phase 1 feasibility study around their own wastewater treatment technology, then moved in 2017 into a multi-year, multi-partner BBI research consortium as a contributing participant. This suggests they validated their commercial concept first, then embedded themselves in a larger R&D effort to deepen the underlying technology — a classic SME trajectory from near-market testing toward more fundamental innovation.

They appear to be moving from business-case validation toward applied research in bio-based filtration, which positions them for future projects at the intersection of circular economy and food processing.

How they like to work

Eggplant has experience on both sides of project leadership: they coordinated their own SME Instrument project and participated as a partner in a large BBI research consortium. With 15 distinct partners across 7 countries accumulated over just two projects, they are clearly comfortable operating in broad European consortia rather than bilateral arrangements. For a company of their size, this suggests they are an adaptable partner — capable of leading small initiatives while contributing specialist expertise to larger ones.

Their combined H2020 portfolio brought them into contact with 15 unique partners across 7 countries, an above-average breadth for a two-project SME. The AFTERLIFE consortium in particular would have connected them with research institutes and industrial partners across Europe focused on bio-based and water treatment technologies.

What sets them apart

Eggplant is one of very few southern Italian SMEs active in H2020's Bio-Based Industries programme, which typically attracts larger industrial players. Being based in Puglia — a region with intensive fruit, vegetable, and olive oil processing — gives them direct, ground-level access to the food industry wastewater problems they are trying to solve. For a consortium needing an Italian agri-food industry connection or a real-world deployment site for water treatment technology, they offer proximity to end-users that research institutes cannot replicate.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EggPlant
  A self-coordinated SME Instrument Phase 1 feasibility study that demonstrates the company has their own proprietary wastewater treatment concept they were developing for commercial scale-up.
• AFTERLIFE
  A five-year BBI Research and Innovation Action (2017–2022) on advanced filtration for food wastewater recovery — the most technically ambitious and longest project in their portfolio, connecting them to a broad European consortium.