EIT Awards 2022
Meet the dust-busting, battery-crushing, glass-ceiling smashing finalists for the 2022 EIT Awards
EIT RawMaterials Nominees for the EIT Awards
The four finalists nominated by EIT RawMaterials for the prestigious 2022 EIT INNOVEIT Awards are all working in incredibly diverse fields. They all have one thing in common however, their work is revolutionising the European raw materials sector.
Nominated in the four different categories of the awards, these finalists are demonstrating deep innovation, and deep tech approaches, in their work to make raw materials a major strength for Europe.
Europe-wide Raw Material Innovation
The EIT RawMaterials nominees, and their fellow 23 nominees from across the EIT ecosystem, span 15 different countries across mainland Europe and the United Kingdom. Their cutting-edge developments are tangible proof of the progress Europe is making towards becoming an innovation powerhouse. They are putting into action the vision and mission of the EU Innovation Agenda.
The EIT RawMaterials nominees work with start-ups and SMEs across Germany, Hungary, and Netherlands. Their work ranges from battery recycling to biomineralisation, and from information systems to improving the participation of young women in geoscience. Read on to find out more about the award categories and our truly impressive RawMaterials nominees.
EIT VENTURE AWARD
This award recognises start-ups and scale-ups that have benefited from business acceleration and creation support by the EIT Community. Our nominee is Martin Spitznagel (Germany). Martin is CEO at Bind-X.
Bind-X focuses on sustainable dust control for responsible mining – by basically turning dust into stone! Applying deep tech to the natural principle of binding loose materials by biomineralisation, Bind-X makes industries and their products more sustainable and future-proof. For example, they protect mine workers from dust with their unique binding agent. Thanks to the broad range of potential applications for solidification, Bind-X is clearing the way for the use of biotechnological know-how for numerous industries.
Bind-X was also the 2021 winner of the Eramet Responsible Mining Challenge.
EIT CHANGE AWARD
The Change Award recognises top graduates from EIT entrepreneurial education programmes. The EIT RawMaterials nominee in this category is Anna Vanderbruggen. Anna is a processing engineer focused on lithium-ion battery recycling and is a PhD Candidate at ERZLABOR.
Ana is a researcher who has developed a revolutionary new way to extract valuable graphite from lithium-ion batteries. Her method, the first of its kind, separates the fine powder from crushed lithium-ion batteries into two valuable products instead of one. This work is enabling the efficient and highly selective recycling of both graphite and metals from used lithium-ion batteries. The objective is a truly circular battery supply chain. A supply chain that will help to decrease the environmental footprint and raw materials import reliance from outside the EU. Ana works with EIT RawMaterials-supported start-up Erzlabor.
EIT WOMAN LEADERSHIP AWARD
This award recognises the exceptional women in the EIT Community. Our nominee is Eva Hartai (Hungary). Eva is the Coordinator of the ENGIE Project and an Honorary Professor at the University of Miskolc.
She has been with the ENGIE project since its inception in 2018. In her role as coordinator, she orients young women and girls towards the geoscience profession, and encourages more diverse groups, especially women, to bring innovative ideas and solutions to the raw materials sector. Read more about Eva’s work in her interview with EIT RawMaterials.
EIT INNOVATORS AWARD
The Innovators Award recognises teams and individuals that have developed high-impact products and services. The EIT RawMaterials nominee is José Mogollón (Netherlands) – representing PANORAMA. José is an assistant professor at Leiden University.
The transition to a climate-neutral and circular economy requires a robust data system. This system must be able to link physical and economic information about industry sectors, product flows, and stocks, and materials flows and stocks. The PANORAMA project seeks to develop this transparent and easy-to-use information system that can represent a product-level structure of the EU’s material economy.
More about the EIT Awards
The EIT Awards recognise the most promising entrepreneurs and innovators emerging from the EIT’s ecosystem across Europe. Each award comes with a monetary prize of €50,000 (first place), €20,000 (second place), and €10,000 (third place). Visit the INNOVEIT Awards page to view all the nominees and to have your say in the public vote for the EIT Public Award. Online voting for this begins on 29 September 2022.
The Award Ceremony will be held during the EIT Summit on 11 October 2022 in Brussels, Belgium as part of the EIT’s flagship event series, INNOVEIT WEEKS.
You can also follow our social media channels for news and updates on the awards.
We wish our four nominees, and indeed all the incredible nominees, the best of luck!