Four EIT Health innovators in running for EIT Awards

28 of Europe’s top innovators will compete for prizes to be awarded 8-9 December 2020

Four EIT Health-backed innovators, offering different solutions for treating cancer patients, severe heart conditions and Alzheimer’s disease, are in the running for the EIT Awards 2020.

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is celebrating a total of 28 innovators from across Europe with EIT Awards 2020 nominations. The winners of the Awards will be chosen 8-9 December 2020 in a virtual Awards ceremony.

The EIT Awards highlight the entire innovation pipeline powered by the EIT, from student to entrepreneur, from lab to market, and from idea to solutions for Europe. EIT Health uses the EIT’s dynamic innovation approach to create a unique environment where innovators can develop and scale solutions to address health challenges. Other EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) address the fields of climate, energy, digitalisation, food, manufacturing, mobility and raw materials, and their innovators are also in the running for the EIT Awards.

“Through the EIT, the EU invests in its brightest innovators as they help to create a greener, healthier, and more sustainable society for Europe’s citizens,” said Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth. “The nominees for this year’s Awards are based in 13 countries and are a testament to the EIT’s ability to identify and drive the most promising innovation projects. I congratulate them all on reaching this stage and I look forward to the EIT Awards 2020 ceremony in December.”

Gioia Ghezzi, Chair of the EIT Governing Board, added: “This year’s EIT Awards not only recognise the impressive achievements of the innovators we support, but also their resilience during these difficult times. This year’s innovations range from new, more sustainable technologies to health care diagnostics and smart data analysis across sectors. The EIT Award nominees embody what Europe needs to face its current challenges: innovators who can quickly mobilise to transform ideas into pragmatic solutions.”

Four Award categories

The 28 nominees from all the EIT KICs are competing for four different Awards:

• EIT CHANGE Award, recognising top graduates from EIT entrepreneurial education programmes
• EIT Innovators Award, highlighting teams and individuals that have developed high-impact products and services
• EIT Venture Award, showcasing start-ups and scale-ups that have benefited from business acceleration and creation support by the EIT Community
• EIT Woman Award, putting the spotlight on inspiring female entrepreneurs and leaders

Each Award comes with a monetary prize of €50,000 (first place), €20,000 (second place), and €10,000 (third place).

The public will also be able to have its say by voting for the winner of the fifth category, the EIT Public Award. Online voting for the EIT Award will commence on 16 November 2020 at eitawards.eu.

The final selection of nominees will pitch their innovations publicly online on 8 December, and the winners of the five categories will be announced in a live Award ceremony on 9 December.

EIT Health nominees

EIT Innovators Award nominee

Andreu Martinez Climent (Spain) is CEO of Corify, makers of ACORYS®, the first real-time measurement solution of Atrial Fibrillation (AF) complexity that can stratify AF patients, predict the ablation efficacy, and provide a guide for AF driver ablation. Discover their innovation in more detail here.

Andreu Martinez Climent’s company Corify is supported through the EIT Health AF-FINE Innovation Project.

EIT Venture Award nominee

Stefanie Flückiger-Mangual (Switzerland) is CEO of TOLREMO, which is making personalised cancer therapies even more personal thus long-lasting. By combining classic mutational information with novel transcriptional information, defining the exact pattern of genes expressed in the particular cancer, they design and develop combination therapies that will prevent the development of drug resistance. Discover their innovation in more detail here.

Stefanie Flückiger-Mangual received support from the EIT Health Gold Track Programme.

EIT Woman Award nominee

Joana Isabel dos Santos Paiva (Portugal) is CTO and founder of iLof, which is developing an inexpensive, non-invasive solution for stratification of Alzheimer’s patients for clinical trials. By saving 40% of the total costs for screening and 70% of the time spent on patient’s screening, iLof will contribute towards finding a cure for Alzheimer’s faster. Discover their innovation in more detail here.

Joana Isabel dos Santos Paiva’s company iLof was formed and accelerated through the EIT Health Wild Card Programme.

EIT Change Award nominee

Martin Boutiere (France) is a PhD student and founder of Nutr’Avenir, a preclinical platform focused on nutrition for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Cancer patients are commonly fed with high protein diets to tackle malnutrition. This implies a risk of tumour growth. The Nutr’Avenir platform will make it possible to validate new concepts for preclinical research services and to patent new formulations, which can then be sold to the main commercial companies in the field. Discover their innovation in more detail here.

Martin Boutiere was involved in the EIT Health-labelled MTiH
programme

See all the EIT Awards nominees

The full list of nominees and their innovations can be found here.