Eit innovation: A Celebration of European Innovation
The EIT Innovation Awards 2025 open today at the Budapest Congress Centre, marking a significant event in the European innovation landscape. This gathering showcases Europe’s brightest innovators, bringing together leading entrepreneurs, researchers, and emerging startups from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s extensive ecosystem.
Highlighting Breakthrough Solutions
The EIT, recognised as the European Union’s largest innovation network, utilises these awards to spotlight groundbreaking solutions and the teams behind them. The aim is to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurial talent across Europe, showcasing how the EIT Community fosters skills and aids in developing products and services that address major societal challenges.
A Comprehensive Programme
This year’s event features a rich programme that includes the EIT Awards, the EIT Jumpstarter Grand Finale, and the EIT Red Kalyna celebrations. The EIT Awards honour exceptional innovators across four categories: Most Promising EIT Changemaker, Best Innovation Team, Most Promising Venture, and The Public Award. Prize money totals EUR 100,000, with first place winning EUR 50,000, second place EUR 30,000, and third place EUR 20,000.
Spotlighting Emerging Talent
The EIT Jumpstarter Grand Finale wraps up a seven-month pre-acceleration journey, during which early-stage innovators from moderate and emerging regions compete for awards up to EUR 10,000 across seven thematic fields. Additionally, the EIT Red Kalyna Awards recognise Ukrainian women who are making strides in innovation as entrepreneurs, educators, researchers, and mentors.
New Initiatives and Partnerships
During the event, EIT Director Martin Kern will announce the launch of the organisation’s tenth Knowledge and Innovation Community, EIT Water. This initiative aims to enhance innovation in water management. Kern will be joined by Hero Prins, Interim CEO, and Michelle Williams, Vice-Dean for Talent Development and Internationalisation at Aarhus University’s Faculty of Technical Sciences. Furthermore, the EIT is set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Malta to bolster the nation’s innovation capacity.
Finalists Showcase Diverse Innovations
Nine finalists have advanced to the grand finale, having been selected as exemplary innovators within the EIT community. The EIT Changemaker Award recognises role models who create significant social impact through their work. Among the notable finalists is Farnaz Baksh from Estonia, a researcher in the EIT Doctoral Programme. Baksh is developing an open-source, affordable, and fully 3D-printed social robot aimed at supporting university students emotionally and academically, a project supported by EIT Manufacturing.
Another finalist, Germany’s Laura Laringe, is an engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded reLi Energy. She is transforming battery lifecycle management through intelligent software that enhances performance and extends operational life, supported by InnoEnergy. The Netherlands’ Laurie Lancee, founder of AtVenture Platform, is also in the running, working to cultivate a more inclusive startup ecosystem by training new angel investors and connecting them with underrepresented founders, particularly in addressing Europe’s gender funding and wealth gaps, with backing from EIT Food.
Innovative Teams Making a Difference
The EIT Innovation Team Award focuses on multidisciplinary teams pioneering transformative solutions. The Italian team behind AI Automated Industrial Analytics is developing human-centric, shop-floor-ready artificial intelligence that allows operators to detect issues early and improve performance and sustainability, with support from an EIT Manufacturing grant. Similarly, the BRIGHT Project Innovation Team from Estonia is advancing personalised, risk-based breast cancer screening through polygenic testing, enabling earlier identification of high-risk women and targeted prevention, thanks to support from multiple EIT Health programmes.
Italy’s VoiceMed is also among the finalists, having created rapid artificial intelligence software capable of analysing voice and breath recordings to identify abnormal vocal biomarkers, a project backed by EIT Health and EIT Digital.
Emerging Startups with Growth Potential
The EIT Venture Award acknowledges emerging startups that demonstrate robust growth potential within the EIT Community. Spain’s ABLE Human Motion is developing intuitive and affordable robotic exoskeletons that enhance access to advanced gait training and neurorehabilitation for individuals with disabilities, supported by the EIT Health Headstart programme. Sweden’s Digiclean Solutions AB is minimising chemical use in factories through smart sensor technology that optimises industrial fluids in real time, creating cleaner and safer processes with support from several EIT Manufacturing and Supernovas programmes.
Finland’s Sofi Alchemist is also in focus, recovering ultrafine mineral concentrate from process waters to boost output by up to 20 per cent at a low operating cost, advancing more efficient and sustainable mining with assistance from the EIT Raw Materials Booster programme.
Promoting a Resilient Future
Together, the finalists exemplify the strength and diversity of Europe’s innovation ecosystem. The EIT Innovation Awards 2025 not only celebrate current achievements but also highlight the imperative for ongoing innovation to forge a more resilient, inclusive, and technologically advanced future.
