EIT Awards 2020 celebrating Europe’s top innovators working on novel solutions to pressing global challenges

The EIT’s mission is to create an environment that enables entrepreneurship and innovation to flourish across Europe and beyond. To support this, the EIT organises annual awards to showcase some of the leading entrepreneurial talent and innovative projects that Europe has to offer.

On 8 December 2002, 28 EIT Award Nominees from 13 countries representing the EIT Innovation Community will e-pitch their innovations. We will find out the winners of the five categories during a live EIT Award 2020 ceremony on 9 December.

  • EIT CHANGE Award celebrates graduates of EIT-labelled education programmes who spur innovation and entrepreneurship and bring about a change in the areas of climate change, digitalisation, energy, health, and raw materials addressed by the EIT and its Innovation Communities.
  • EIT Innovators Award recognises EIT Community innovation teams composed of individuals from across the knowledge triangle who have developed a product, service or process with a high potential for societal and economic impact.
  • EIT Venture Award puts the spotlight on successful entrepreneurial start-ups that have been supported by the innovation communities through dedicated business creation or business development processes.
  • EIT Woman Leadership & Entrepreneurship Award recognises the outstanding work and achievements by an exceptional woman from the EIT Community.

Each EIT Award will have a prize of EUR 50 000 (first place), EUR 20 000 (second place), and EUR 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 (Citizen) Award. Online voting for the EIT Award will open on 16 November 202o on the EIT Awards website.

This year, the EIT RawMaterials Innovation Community will be represented by four outstanding innovators contributing to the sustainable development of the raw materials sector with groundbreaking solutions.

Discover high-impact EIT RawMaterials Community innovators!

EIT CHANGE Award Nominee

Arpit Singh Parmar, Project Manager at METHEORE, is a graduate of the EMerald Master in Georesources Engineering, EIT-labelled programme. During his studies, Arpit realised the potential impact of digitalisation on the raw materials sector. This prompted him to work on a prototype which eventually transformed into a commercial solution. 

Arpit works on a LaserSieve, a non-intrusive and non-disruptive online 3D solution that measures the throughput, size and shape of materials operating in harsh industrial environments. The real-time information helps users to detect any process deviations and take corrective action promptly. METHEORE solution enhances the occupational safety standards of the workplace by reducing human exposure to high dust environment and hazards. Its implementation optimises industrial operations through continuous productivity improvement, efficient use of energy and raw material resources, eventually resulting in reduced carbon emissions. 

EIT RawMaterials Accelerator Programme allowed us to identify our beachhead market and establish a scalable business model.

Arpit Singh Parmar, Project Manager at METHEORE

EIT Innovators Award Nominee

María José Jurado, staff Researcher Spanish National Research Council CSIC, is dedicated to innovation for efficiency in subsurface exploration. María works on the INNOLOG innovation project that aims to transfer sensor technologies used in labs and surface exploration to subsurface exploration.

INNOLOG solution increases efficiency by minimising sampling coring and other standard analyses, optimising diagnostic times and performance, and by reducing exploration-derived waste. Metals, minerals and raw materials are essential to securing a transition to green energy technologies. The results of the INNOLOG project will lead to an increase in resource efficiency and environmental impact. Another field of interest for the society is the use of these new tools to assess and minimise geo-hazards (instability and active faults that can cause earthquakes), as some of them are generated in the subsurface. 

As a PhD student in subsurface geology, I was not only very interested in this field, but also in the technologies that allow for its exploration.

María José Jurado, staff Researcher at the Spanish National Research Council CSIC

EIT Venture Award Nominee

Frank Jackel co-founded Metalshub that has disrupted the metals marketplace. Metalshub provides players in the metals industry with a transparent and efficient digital trading platform. Transparent pricing and efficiency reduce trading costs to the benefit of final consumers. Metalshub offers a highly efficient and user-friendly platform that allows participants to negotiate and trade easily. Additional services increase the rate of concluded deals. Metalshub data are used to create reliable indices based on real offers, bids, and transactions instead of market noises.

In the future, Metalshub also wishes to make the origin and supply chain of raw materials traceable and display CO2 emissions for different sources of metals. 

My co-founder and I experienced first-hand the market inefficiencies that triggered our wish to find a game-changing digital alternative.

Frank Jackel, Co-founder & Managing Director at Metals Hub

EIT Woman Leadership & Entrepreneurship Award Nominee

Manuela Brotto, CEO at OPIGEO, founded her start-up inspired by an idea of giving a second life to steel waste. OPIGEO converts waste into new materials for construction or manufactured goods. Offering a “zero waste” service to the steel industry, the team develops geopolymeric formulations to produce hydraulic binders and market their low environmental impact applications.

OPIGEO innovative technology enables the aggregation, separation, recovery, and enhancement of iron oxide particles. The open structure of formulations enables the mixing of waste produced by different steel industries in a common treatment site, thereby diminishing costs and making our secondary raw materials economically viable. By converting production and efficiently using raw materials, OPIGEO greatly contributes to the development of circular economy solutions. 

We believe that the reshaping of value chains to make them more sustainable offers many opportunities for innovation.

Manuela Brotto, CEO at OPIGEO

The online voting opens on 16 November to give an opportunity to EU citizens and the EIT Innovation Community members to give their vote and support one of the top nominees. Stay tuned!

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