Today (2 July), the European Inventor Award 2026 is being held, where the EPO is awarding groundbreaking inventions and advances, from quantum technology to transplants. The ceremony will be in Berlin.

Industry

● Giuseppe Crippa and team from Italy for a method for the rapid, local production of semiconductor probe cards.
● Evangelos Eleftheriou and team from Switzerland and Greece for advances in digital storage technologies spanning magnetic storage and flash memory.
● Angeliki Triantafyllou from Greece and Sweden for a patented enzymatic process that improves the stability, taste and functionality of oat-based drinks
Non-EPO Countries
● Yu Haijun and Xie Yinghao from China for their method to recycle spent lithium-ion batteries into high-performance materials.
● Emily Morris and Thorsten Stoesser from the United States and Germany for a modular hydropower system that actively channels water through turbines in existing canals. Find out more here.
● Aníbal Montalva Rodríguez and Miguel Ángel Fernández Donoso from Chile for a living biofilter system to clean polluted air.
Research
● Sir Adrian Hill and team from Ireland and the United Kingdom for a highly effective malaria vaccine. Find out more here.
● Mikko Möttönen from Finland for an ultrasensitive cryogenic microwave sensor to diagnose interference in quantum computers.
● Paula Videira and team from Portugal for L2A5, a highly specific antibody that distinguishes cancer cells from healthy tissue.
SMEs
● Jan Čmelík and team from the Czech Republic for advancing needle-free electrospinning technology for reliable, industrial-scale nanofibre production.
● Przemek Ben Paczek and team from Poland for a magnetic levitation system designed to retrofit existing railway infrastructure.
● Franck Zal from France for a universal oxygen carrier based on haemoglobin derived from marine worms to preserve organs and tissues.