EIT Award winners transform “great ideas into new, effective solutions for Europe”
“This year’s EIT Award winners are excellent examples of how to transform great ideas into new, effective solutions for Europe”, said Martin Kern, Interim Director at the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
Martin Kern
The EIT Awards honour Europe’s rising stars of innovation and entrepreneurship. “They are showing us new ways to innovate and I am proud that the EIT activities have contributed to their success. Europe needs more success stories like these and the EIT can deliver them.”
The 2015 winners of the EIT Awards were announced in Budapest during the #InnovEIT innovation forum from 5 to 7 May. The forum – organised by the EIT – brought together 600 entrepreneurs, researchers, policy makers, business leaders and students from across Europe to look at new ways to innovate.
Inspiring future change
“The EIT Awards promote innovation and encourage entrepreneurship. By putting the most innovative ventures, entrepreneurial graduates and innovation teams in the spotlight, they create role models that can inspire future change”, said Peter Olesen, Chairman of the EIT Governing Board.
Bertrand van Ee, CEO of Climate-KIC, said: “I’m very proud to see two of our start-ups win awards today. I see their hunger for success, determination and passion for tackling climate change through new technology. Climate-KIC only selects the best and we put all our efforts into developing these innovators to introduce them to markets.”
KIC InnoEnergy and Climate-KIC celebrate joint success
Co-founder Regnar Paaske of Denmark-based Climate-KIC start-up Nordic Power Converters won the EIT Venture Award for his imaginative redesign of power converters.
KIC InnoEnergy Masters School graduate and Climate-KIC entrepreneur Govinda Upadhyay – based in Switzerland – picked up the EIT Change Award for his design of a simple and affordable solar LED lamp.
The EIT Innovators Award went to KIC InnoEnergy start-up EOLOS Floating LIDAR Solutions and its CEO Rajai Aghabi for breaking new ground in the field of affordable wind energy.
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