Syntezia Open 2024

AI advisory

AI advisory

Syntezia Open 2025 — Inventions
The Endless Dance of Water — The Fragile Water Cycle
From 9 to 12 April 2025, Syntezia Open took place at Geneva Palexpo during the 50th anniversary of the International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva.
The edition brought together inventors and scientists around the theme The Endless Dance of Water – The Fragile Water Cycle, with a particular focus on water, blue energy, biodiversity, clean water, water reuse, environmental DNA, coastal communities and the blue economy.
EXPLORING THE FRAGILE WATER CYCLE
The main educational workshop explored the connections between rivers, lakes and oceans, using the human circulatory system as a way to illustrate how freshwater and saltwater systems are interconnected.
Participants explored both visible and invisible processes within the water cycle, from evaporation and rainfall to the movement of water between land and sea.
The workshop also examined how human activities affect these systems, particularly through pollution entering rivers and lakes and eventually reaching the ocean.

WATER POLLUTION & HUMAN HEALTH
A key focus was pollution caused by persistent pollutants and the relationship between environmental contamination and human health.
Participants were encouraged to consider how plastics, chemicals and other pollutants move through connected ecosystems and how actions affecting one water system can ultimately affect the wider environment.
The goal was to create a better understanding of the delicate balance that connects waterways, landscapes, ecosystems and human life.

CHALLENGES TO CO-CREATE
The edition offered a range of innovation challenges, including:
The blue economy
Reinventing the construction sector
Circular economy, safe food and drink
The festival of the future
Circular fashion
Blue circular economy
Circularity and mechanical industries
Blue economy and health
PFAS and water pollution
Cigarette-butt pollution
Protecting Posidonia and managing overtourism
Using smart-building data within strategy software

AN INTERGENERATIONAL OPEN LAB
The programme also included a science-popularisation workshop, an information session, an innovation game on gender equality and climate change, and opportunities for co-development with partners attending the International Exhibition of Inventions.
As with other Syntezia Open editions, the objective was to create an environment where people could meet, exchange, invent, test, experiment and co-create, while developing ideas and connections that could continue beyond the event itself.
THE AIM
The 2025 Inventions edition used the exhibition as a meeting point between science, invention, sustainability and collective intelligence.
By bringing inventors, scientists, partners and participants together around the fragile water cycle, Syntezia Open sought to turn environmental questions into opportunities for collaboration, innovation and action.
What results have we obtained in previous editions?
Carbon-free and active mobility
This was the theme of the 2022 edition, which took place in Geneva, and which allowed us to welcome the participants to the Geneva hotel school, for a day of pragmatic actions, which allowed us to generate around thirty innovative ideas and submit 5 complete files of radical innovations to seek funding.
We encouraged participants to take measures to come to our event in carbon-free mobility, and we were pleased to note that the parking lot remained empty throughout the event.
We want to keep the same approach for all future editions of syntezia open.
Meetings and exchanges between partners and participants
Feedback on the experience of previous Syntezia Opens tells us that participants appreciated being able to meet new people, network, and initiate a constructive dialogue on real issues. Consortia were created or strengthened during our times of informal dialogue, and allowed the teams formed to participate in calls for projects with the systems of Switzerland and the European Union to be able to carry out their feasibility studies, the validation of their value proposition, their prototype or their tests prior to placing their solution on the market.
Singular and original content, a new media that is emerging
During syntezia open, we share testimonials from innovative project leaders who have created businesses. We also conducted interviews that we broadcast in the All Inclusive SDGs podcast.
A gendered and balanced budget
We operate with parity in our organizational team and with a gendered budget.
We also measure the participation of women and men to ensure we have diversity in gender, background, experience, achievement and discipline.
Our carbon footprint under control
We measure our carbon footprint and we do our best to minimize the carbon footprint of our eco-responsible Syntezia Open event, and to raise awareness among participants about eco-friendly actions at every opportunity.
Zero waste, zero waste
No food was thrown away during the 2022 edition.
No leftovers, no waste!
We now know that it is possible and we intend to do it again!
Short circuits and local currency
By introducing Lake Geneva into the circuit at every opportunity, we are working on our scale to promote the local economy of the Lake Geneva region.
Bees, butterflies and little birds!
Because the protection of all forms of biodiversity is important to us, we have worked to disseminate flowers that bees, butterflies and birds love.
Innovative ideas, teams
This day resulted in several ideas being generated, and several of the teams were formed during our event.
Funding request submissions
Some teams have chosen to submit funding requests to see their projects financed and sustained.