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Winner of the 2020 Innovation Radar Prize announced

The European Commission has awarded prizes to Europe's most promising innovations emerging from EU funded research and innovation projects. Nanocargo, from Wrocław University of Science and Technology in Poland, won the Innovation Radar 2020 Prize for their lead role in developing targeted nanoparticles-based cure for breast cancer. The awards ceremony took place at the Research & Innovation Days on 24 September 2020. In addition to the Grand Prix prize, three other EU-funded innovators also secured prizes at the awards ceremony.

Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said:

We will use Innovation Radar across all research areas to identify EU-funded innovations with market potential and steer them towards support for getting to market, that will be offered by the EIC and the new Digital Europe Programme.
We also want to use Innovation Radar to make it easier for investors and venture-builders across Europe to discover great innovators and innovations in Horizon Europe.
We will continue to champion such excellence and make it easier to discover this excellence through the public-facing Innovation Radar platform, enhancements of which will be launched in the coming months.

The overall Innovation Radar Prize 2020 goes to Nanocargo from Poland for their targeted nanoparticles-based cure for breast cancer (Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Poland).

Winners were also announced in each of the three following categories:

  • The prize for Tech for Society, which recognises technologies impacting society and citizens, was awarded to Hydrogenious from Germany for their revolutionary hydrogen fuel storage.
  • The prize for Innovative Science, which recognizes cutting-edge science underpinning tomorrow's technological advances, was awarded to Appentra from Spain for the parallelized computing they have made possible.
  • The prize for Women-led innovations, which recognises dynamic women developing and leading great innovations with EU-funding, was awarded to SDS Optics from Poland for their innovative way of cancer diagnosis.

About the Innovation Radar Prize

The Innovation Radar is a European Commission initiative, which identifies high-potential innovations and innovators in EU-funded research and innovation projects. 12 of the best EU-funded innovators were identified to compete in three for the Innovation Radar Prize 2020. These SMEs, university teams, spinoffs and start-ups reflect the diversity of EU-funded research and innovation and come from every corner of Europe.

The “final” took place on the 24th September, where a jury of 3 decided the winners on the basis of a 3 minute pitch delivered during a special pitching session at the R&I Days 2020.

More on the Innovation Radar

The European Commission's Innovation Radar is about finding excellence across all the EU funded research and innovation projects. It identifies high potential innovations and the key innovators behind them in projects that have received investment from Horizon 2020, the EU’s research and innovation programme. So far, more than 2000 innovative organisations have been included in the Innovation Radar.

In 2014 the European Commission's DG CONNECT started collecting a broad set of data about the innovative outputs of EU-funded Research and Innovation projects. Using a model developed with the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission has been analysing this data to extract insights and intelligence about the best innovations and innovators. Potential innovations and innovators are then identified with the help of experts. The Innovation Radar also provides guidance and support during the project duration to help the innovation reach the market.