The European Patent Office (EPO) has anounced on 20 June that Corma is the Lifetime Achievement laureate in the 2023 European Inventor Award. The EPO will pay tribute to his work during the ceremony in Valencia on 4 July at 12:00. 

Recognising inventors that transform our world and our lives: European Inventor Award 2023 finalists announced

• The European Patent Office (EPO) announces the twelve individuals and teams shortlisted for Europe’s foremost innovation prize
• The finalists have been nominated in four categories: Industry, Research, Non-EPO countries and SMEs
• The Lifetime Achievement award-winner is yet to be announced
• Public voting for the Popular Prize is open starting today on the website
• The European Inventor Award ceremony will be held on 4 July in Valencia, Spain and will be broadcast online here 
• These global finalists and their inventions are advancing sustainability efforts on land, sea and even in space, as well as energy efficiency, food waste and ground-breaking medical and mobility innovations

The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced on 9 May the 12 finalists of the European Inventor Award 2023, Europe's top innovation prize. The award honours inspiring and innovative inventors not only for their contributions to scientific and technological progress but also for the impact they and their patented inventions have on our daily lives. The finalists were selected by an independent international jury.

Eurovision News Events has published multimedia and broadcast-quality material on our NewsDirect digital platform

The winners of the 2023 edition of the European Inventor Award will be announced at a hybrid ceremony on 4 July 2023 at 12 pm CET taking place in Valencia (Spain). The ceremony will be broadcast online here.

More information can be found on the EPO Inventor Award web page and in the press release published in our Documents section above.

The material can also be retrieved here

Password: EPO_media

The finalists

The finalists come from a wide array of sectors. Many of their innovations aim to improve the everyday lives of people around the world and tackle society’s biggest challenges in areas such as sustainability on land, sea and even in space, energy efficiency, medical devices, food chain optimisation and mobility solutions, among others.

The 2023 finalists represent 12 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy and the United States. The independent jury is made up of former finalists, drawing on their wealth of technical, business, and intellectual property expertise. Once again, Wolfgang M. Heckl, Director General of the Deutsches Museum in Munich, is the jury chair. The jury selected the finalists from over 600 proposed candidates from around the world.

The finalists are:

Industry:

• The Finnish team of Pia Bergström, Annika Malm, Jukka Myllyoja, Jukka-Pekka Pasanen and Blanka Toukoniitty for turning waste into renewable fuel.
• Belgian scientists Michiel Dusselier and Bert Sels for producing bioplastics using a cheaper and greener process.
• Austrian physicist Josef Faderl and team for making steel stronger and lighter in vehicles to improve safety and reduce emissions.

Non-EPO countries:

• Australian researchers Thomas Oxley and Nicholas Opie for developing a brain implant for two-way communication with external devices.
• The Indian-US duo, Kripa Varanasi and David Smith, for creating non-stick packaging that leaves no product waste behind.
• Chinese inventor Wu Kai and team for lowering the risk of car explosions with lithium-ion batteries.

Research:

• German researcher Harald Haas for making it possible to transmit high-speed internet through LED lights.
• The French team of Patricia de Rango, Daniel Fruchart, Albin Chaise, Michel Jehan and Nataliya Skryabina for developing a safe and efficient way to store hydrogen.
• Icelandic scientists Thorsteinn Loftsson and Einar Stefánsson for developing a treatment that replaces needles used in ocular diseases with non-invasive eye drops.

SMEs:

• French scientist Antoine Hubert and team for their vertical insect farms that produce food, feed and fertiliser.
• Italian astrophysicist Luca Rossettini for his technology that's helping clean the Earth’s orbit of space debris.
• Irish physicists Rhona Togher and Eimear O'Carroll for reducing noise damage with an advanced acoustic material.

For more information about the inventions’ impacts and the inventors’ stories, please click here.

The Lifetime Achievement Award, Popular Prize and Young Inventors Prize

A key award category is the Lifetime Achievement. This year, the Lifetime Achievement category winner will be announced two weeks before the ceremony.

As from today, the public can participate in the European Inventor Award 2023 by voting online to decide which of the 12 finalists above should be awarded the Popular Prize. Voting will remain open until the day of the ceremony.

For the second year, the winners of the Young Inventors Prize will be announced on 23 May. The prize casts a spotlight on three ground-breaking initiatives and highlights the power of younger generations in shaping our world. Nominees must be 30 or under at the time of the award. Their initiatives must aim at using a technical solution to solve a problem within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Media contacts European Patent Office

Luis Berenguer Giménez
Principal Director Communication / EPO spokesperson

EPO press desk

press@epo.org
Tel.: +49 89 2399-1833

A look back at 50 years of European patents

In 2023 the EPO celebrates the 50th anniversary of the founding of the European patent system. When 16 countries signed the European Patent Convention in Munich on 5 October 1973, they ushered in a new era of co-operation on patents. This laid the ground for a patent system supporting economic and technological developments that have shaped our lives and continue to do so today. Find out more about the history of the EPO and the anniversary events planned in 2023.

About the EPO

With 6,300 staff members, the European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the largest public service institutions in Europe. Headquartered in Munich with offices in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague and Vienna, the EPO was founded with the aim of strengthening co-operation on patents in Europe. Through the EPO's centralised patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain high-quality patent protection in up to 44 countries, covering a market of some 700 million people. The EPO is also the world's leading authority in patent information and patent searching.

Eurovision News Events will be distributing the Award Ceremony LIVE on satellite over Europe, Asia and the Americas as well as on our Newsdirect digital platform. Access to the signal (s) will be free of charge and free of rights.

To access the signals, please follow the on-line booking procedure by clicking on the BOOK NOW button above, then click on Participation+ and select the signal for which you would like to receive the synopsis with the satellite parameters or contact bookings@eurovision.net