Next generation of innovators celebrate success

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology has rewarded this year’s rising stars of European innovation and entrepreneurship at a special ceremony in Hungary.

The EIT Awards took place last night as part of the INNOVEIT 2015 conference in Budapest, one of Europe’s most important forums on innovation, which Horizon 2020 Projects attended. Three winners were announced from 17 nominees chosen by EIT ICT Labs, Climate-KIC and KIC InnoEnergy.

Co-founder of Nordic Power Converters in Denmark, Regnar Paaske, won the EIT Venture Award for his imaginative redesign of power converters, whilst the EIT Change Award was given to Govinda Upadhyay for his design of a simple and affordable solar LED lamp. Finally, the EIT Innovators Award went to the chief executive of EOLOS Floating LIDAR Solutions, Rajai Aghabi, for breaking new ground in the field of affordable wind energy.

Speaking about the winners, Martin Kern, EIT interim director, said: “This year’s EIT Award winners are excellent examples of how to transform great ideas into new, effective solutions for Europe. 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.”

Speaking about his power converter invention, Paaske said: “Billions of every day products require electricity power converters, but the technology has not developed significantly for 30 years”. The winner of the EIT Venture Award added that it was an “honour for us as a team” to win the award, for a product that was “relevant for society”.

Winner of the EIT Change Award, Upadhyay described the awards ceremony as “incredible”. He described his solar LED lamp project was all about “all about social impact” and “creating knowledge”, rather than “selling the product” and making money. Upadhyay said he hoped to encourage people to have “their own innovations” and was now “looking for partners and people with the same vision”.

Adding his thoughts, EIT Innovators Award winner Aghabi said: “We detected a gap in the market and saw an opportunity to reduce the cost of offshore wind energy. Offshore wind energy has enormous potential. We brought together expertise from marine engineering, remote sensing technology and full system integration. This is more than just a product, the next phase is to disrupt the offshore market with an innovative value proposition”.

The EIT Awards Ceremony was hosted during INNOVEIT 2015 conference taking place in Budapest from 5 to 7 May.