The Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) has announced its 2019 Solutions grantees!

Launched in 2014 by MIT and Community Jameel, J-WAFS Solutions program provides commercialization grants to help develop products and services that will have a significant impact on water and food security. In addition to the year-long financial support, grantees are provided with mentorship from industry partners and additional networking and guidance, supporting the project teams as they advance their technologies toward commercialization.

This year’s projects include turning waste into fertilizer, early identification of identifying citrus diseases and creating affordable test kits to detect E. coli in drinking water.

John H. Lienhard V, director of J-WAFS and Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Water and Mechanical Engineering at MIT, describes the role of the J-WAFS Solutions program this way:

“The combined effects of unsustainable human consumption patterns and the climate crisis threaten the world’s water and food supplies. These challenges are already present, and the risks were made plain in several recent, high-profile international news reports. Innovation in the water and food sectors can certainly help, and it is urgently needed. Through the J-WAFS Solutions program, we seek to identify nascent technologies with the greatest potential to transform local or even global food and water systems, and then to speed their transfer to market. We aim to leverage MIT’s entrepreneurial spirit to ensure that the water and food needs of our global human community can be met sustainably, now and far into the future.”

The J-WAFS Solutions program is implemented in collaboration with Community Jameel and is administered by J-WAFS in partnership with the MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation.

Fady Jameel, President, International, Community Jameel says:

“Access to clean water, and better management of water resources, can boost countries’ economic growth and can contribute greatly to poverty reduction. We always aim through J-WAFS to support the development and deployment of technologies, policies, and programs which will contribute to help humankind adapt to a rapidly changing planet and combat worldwide water scarcity and food supply.”

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