EU Prize for Women Innovators

The European Commission has launched the second edition of the EU Women Innovators Prize to reward three women who have achieved outstanding innovations and brought them to market. The Prize aims to raise awareness of the need for more female entrepreneurs and to inspire other women to follow in their footsteps.

The contest is open to all women who have founded or co-founded their company and who have at some point in their careers benefitted from the EU’s research Framework Programmes (FP) or the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP).

Three prizes will be awarded in total:

First prize: EUR 100,000;
Second prize: EUR 50,000; and
Third prize: EUR 25,000

An independent panel of judges from business and academia will examine and select the three winners who will be announced in spring 2014. Full details of the eligibility and evaluation criteria are available through the competition website, which is indicated below.

The deadline for applications is 15 October 2013.

The winners of the previous edition of the Prize were:

Dr. Gitte Neubauer (Co-founder and Vice-President for Research Operations of CELLZOME – recently acquired by GlaxoSmithKline) whose groundbreaking research into chemo-proteomics is driving her company’s work on new, better targeted drugs against inflammatory diseases and cancer;
Fabienne Hermitte (Co-founder IPSOGEN, Senior director, Research and Development – Regulatory Affairs) whose work made her company a pioneer in personalised healthcare diagnostics, which allow more individualised treatments for cancer patients; and
Ilaria Rosso (Co-founder ELECTRO POWER SYSTEMS, Vice- President of IP Policy and Public Funding Programmes) whose company developed the first self-recharging hydrogen fuel cell system for backup power – a clean, renewable alternative to lead-acid batteries and diesel generators.

The following conditions need to be fulfilled:

The contestant must be a woman.
The contestant must be a resident of an EU Member State or a Countries Associated to the Research Framework Programmes
The contestant must be the founder or co-founder of an existing and active company.
The company has been registered before 1 January 2011.
The annual turnover of the company was at least EUR 0.10 million in 2011 or 2012.
Either the contestant as a natural person or the company founded/co-founded by the contestant have received or is receiving funding from the European Union or the European Atomic Energy Community Research Framework Programme, or from the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP).

Full details:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/index_en.cfm?section=women-innovators