European Inventor Awards honour the top names shaping the future through innovation

June 27, 2023 9News Nigeria Europe 0

Run by the European Patent Office (EPO), the European governmental body that grants patents to new inventions, the European Inventor Award is a coveted symbol of innovation across technical fields in European and beyond.

On 27 June, the EPO will formally award this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award to Avelino Corma Canós. You can tune in here to watch the ceremony. Then, on 4 July, the full ceremony will take place to hand out awards across four categories, as well as the Young Inventors Prize and the Popular Prize. Tune in for a live stream of the event on July 4 at 12:00 am CEST.

Inventors shaping the future

From biotech to aerospace with food chemistry and artificial intelligence in between, the European Inventor Awards highlight the top talent developing cutting edge technology. Launched in 2006, the first year recognised the development of methods for making yeast proteins, the invention of DNA microarray, and research into macular degeneration.

Last year’s awardees included teams who developed a no-waste car body paint system, an adaptable children’s exoskeleton, a cancer vaccine, and renewable energy batteries. In 2022, the Lifetime Achievement Award went to Katalin Karikó for her research on mRNA vaccines.

Spanish chemist Avelino Corma Canós will receive this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his work making important chemical processes cleaner and more efficient. Corma Canós worked on synthetic catalysts called zeolites which removed many of the energy-sapping steps from chemical reactions. Today, Corma Canós approximately one fifth of the 150 existing synthesised zeolite structures were developed by Corma Canós and his team.

This year’s theme is Tomorrow Shapers. The EPO wants the awards to highlight the best inventors whose perseverance, ingenuity and creativity are paving the way to a brighter future.

The four main categories for the awards are: Industry, Research, Non-EPO Countries, and SMEs. Of those four categories, there is also a Popular Prize which is voted for by the public for their favourite inventor and the Young Inventors Prize, which celebrates inventors under 30 working towards sustainability solutions.

Here are this year’s finalists:

Industry

Finnish team Pia Bergström, Annika Malm, Jukka Myllyoja, Jukka-Pekka Pasanen and Blanka Toukoniitty have developed a unique process that converts plant and animal waste and residues into renewable products, such as fuel.

Belgian professors Michiel Dusselier and Bert Sels have developed a cheaper and more bio-friendly method to produce bioplastics that will contribute to a circular economy.

Austrian team Josef Faderl, Siegfried Kolnberger, Thomas Kurz and Andreas Sommer pioneered a method to manufacture steel car parts up to six times stronger, lighter and more corrosion-resistant than those made from conventional steel.

Research

German professor Harald Haas and his team have developed a mobile technology that uses light to transmit data. Like Wifi but using LED lights, LiFi is fast, secure, reliable and set to play a role in the connectivity mix.

Icelandic scientists Thorsteinn Loftsson and Einar Stefánsson have developed an effective and less invasive treatment option: nanotechnology-based eye-drops, for diabetic macular edema.

French team Patricia de Rango, Daniel Fruchart, Albin Chaise, Michel Jehan and Nataliya Skryabina have pioneered a method to store hydrogen as a solid disc, making it safer and easier to store and transport.

Non-EPO countries

Australian inventors Thomas Oxley and Nicholas Opie have developed an implantable brain-computer interface that enables patients living with paralysis to communicate through thought.

The Indian and US mechanical engineer team of Kripa Varanasi and David Smith have invented frictionless coatings that prevent viscous substances from sticking to their surfaces, maximising product use and eliminating waste.

Chinese scientist Kai Wu and his team have pioneered a series of features to improve the safety and performance of li-ion batteries, helping the shift to cleaner motoring.

SMEs

French biochemist Antoine Hubert and his team have developed a new method of farming insects to produce food for plants, farm animals, pets and eventually humans.

Italian aerospace engineer Luca Rossettini has developed an autonomous system to safely remove space garbage from Earth’s orbit.

Irish physicists Rhona Togher and Eimear O’Carroll have developed an advanced acoustic material that can reduce noise with applications ranging from aerospace to automotive.

Young Inventors Prize

The three finalists for the Young Inventors Prize are Irish 22-year-old Fionn Ferreira, who is removing microplastics from water with magnets; Portuguese researcher Filipa de Sousa Rocha who has developed an accessible educational system to teach digital literacy to visually impaired children; and Maasai Kenyan conservationist Richard Turere, who has developed a light system to deter lions from attacking livestock, preventing human-wildlife conflict and helping to boost the Kenyan lion population.