European Inventor Award 2026 finalists revealed

• Twelve teams and individuals from Europe, Asia and the Americas have been selected as finalists across the 'Industry', 'Non-EPO Countries', 'Research', and 'SMEs' categories
• The winners will be announced by the European Patent Office during the award ceremony on 2 July 2026 in Berlin
• The finalists' inventions address major challenges across industries and countries
• Public voting for the Popular Prize opens today and will be running until the ceremony on 2 July 2026

MUNICH , May 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced the 12 finalists for the European Inventor Award 2026, recognising inventors whose work is helping to address some of the most critical global challenges. This year's finalists have developed inventions spanning sectors including biotechnology, healthcare, renewable energy, semiconductors, digital technologies, food technology, quantum, rail transport and advanced manufacturing.

Selected by an independent international jury, the finalists represent a broad range of technical fields and countries. Their inventions highlight how science, engineering and entrepreneurship can contribute to more sustainable societies, stronger healthcare systems and a more resilient economy.

The winners of the European Inventor Award 2026 will be announced during a livestreamed ceremony from Berlin on 2 July 2026.

The 2026 finalists

The 2026 finalists come from China, Chile, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The finalists by category are:

Industry

• Giuseppe Crippa†, Roberto Crippa, Stefano Felici, Riccardo Vettori, Raffaele Vallauri, Flavio Maggioni and team from Italy for a method for the rapid, local production of semiconductor probe cards. Find out more here. 
• Evangelos Eleftheriou and team from Switzerland and Greece for advances in digital storage technologies spanning magnetic storage and flash memory. Find out more here.
• Angeliki Triantafyllou from Greece and Sweden for a patented enzymatic process that improves the stability, taste and functionality of oat-based drinks. Find out more here.

Non-EPO Countries

• Yu Haijun and Xie Yinghao from China for their method to recycle spent lithium-ion batteries into high-performance materials. Find out more here.
• 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. Find out more here. 

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. Find out more here. 
• Paula Videira and team from Portugal for L2A5, a highly specific antibody that distinguishes cancer cells from healthy tissue. Find out more here. 

SMEs

• Jan Čmelík and team from the Czech Republic for advancing needle-free electrospinning technology for reliable, industrial-scale nanofibre production. Find out more here. 
• Przemek Ben Paczek and team from Poland for a magnetic levitation system designed to retrofit existing railway infrastructure. Find out more here.
• Franck Zal from France for a universal oxygen carrier based on haemoglobin derived from marine worms to preserve organs and tissues. Find out more here. 

Popular Prize and Lifetime Achievement

In addition to the category awards, the 12 finalists above will all be eligible for Popular Prize, that will be decided through a combined vote by the public and an independent jury. Voting opens today and will run until the award ceremony on 2 July 2026. Additionally, the Lifetime Achievement award winner will be announced on 10 June.

About the European Inventor Award 

The European Inventor Award is one of Europe's most prestigious innovation prizes. Launched by the EPO in 2006, the award honours individuals and teams, who have come up with solutions to some of the biggest challenges of our time. The European Inventor Award jury consists of inventors who are all former finalists. To judge proposals, the independent panel draws on their wealth of technical, business, and intellectual property expertise. All inventors must have been granted a European patent for their invention. Read more here on the various categories, prizes, selection criteria and livestream ceremony to be held on 2 July in Berlin. 

About the EPO 

With 6,300 staff members, the European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the largest public service institutions in Europe. Headquartered in Munich with offices in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague and Vienna, the EPO was founded with the aim of strengthening co-operation on patents in Europe. Through the EPO's centralised patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain high-quality patent protection in up to 46 countries, covering a market of some 700 million people. The EPO is also the world's leading authority in patent information and patent searching.

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SOURCE European Patent Office (EPO)