European Inventor Award 2026 winners revealed

The European Patent Office announced the winners of the European Inventor Award 2026 during a ceremony broadcast live from Berlin.

This prestigious annual award ceremony celebrates the ingenuity, creativity, and determination of inventors who are shaping the world around us. This year, the awards recognized groundbreaking innovations in the fields of food chemistry, energy, biotechnology, and environmental technology.

The ceremony also featured a remarkable highlight, as one team of inventors received two awards, winning both in their category and the Popular Prize.

The winners are:

🥇 Industry
Angeliki Triantafyllou (Greece/Sweden) – An enzymatic process for producing oat-based beverages

🥇 SMEs
Franck Zal (France) – Harnessing the therapeutic potential of marine worms

🥇 Research
Adrian V. S. Hill (Ireland, United Kingdom) – A highly effective malaria vaccine

🥇 Non-EPO Countries
Yu Haijun & Xie Yinghao (China) – Smart battery recycling

🥇 Lifetime Achievement
Rainer Marquardt (Germany) – The Modular Multilevel Converter and its industrial application

🥇 Popular Prize
Yu Haijun & Xie Yinghao (China) – Smart battery recycling

View the winners’ profiles here: https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/european-inventor-award/meet-the-finalists?size=n_15_n&filters%5B0%5D%5Bfield%5D=year&filters%5B0%5D%5Bvalues%5D%5B0%5D=2026&filters%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=any&filters%5B0%5D%5Bpersistent%5D=false&filters%5B1%5D%5Bfield%5D=winner&filters%5B1%5D%5Bvalues%5D%5B0%5D=Winner&filters%5B1%5D%5Btype%5D=any&filters%5B1%5D%5Bpersistent%5D=false&sort-field=lastname_lowercase&sort-direction=asc

Following the successful conclusion of the European Inventor Award 2026 in Berlin, communications representatives from the national patent offices of the EPO Member States held their annual Annual Communication Meeting, reaffirming the pivotal role of their collaboration in promoting innovation and European inventiveness.

The meeting highlighted the importance of developing a shared narrative around European innovation, as well as the need for continuous exchange of expertise and best practices among the national patent offices.

Announcement from the EPO website: https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/news/european-inventor-award-2026-winners-revealed 

(Video credits to TatjanaTanaskovic)