European Inventor Awards 2011

The race is on to nominate candidates for the European Inventor Award 2011 which is presented by the European Patent Office and European Commission. The annual award scheme was launched in 2006 and was set-up to recognise inventors whose work has achieved an outstanding and enduring success in Europe.

The award is presented in five categories:

• Industry;
• SMEs;
• Research;
• Lifetime Achievement; and
• Non-European Countries.

To enter yourself or recommend someone else for the award click here

The principal requirement across the categories is that the nominee has been awarded a European Patent.

The deadline for entries is 30 September 2011 and the finalists are to be announced at the beginning of 2011. The award ceremony is due to take place in Budapest in May 2011. Winners of the award are presented with a trophy resembling a sail – one of the world’s oldest and most enduring inventions.

Last year’s winner in the “Lifetime achievement” category was Wolfgang Krätschmer a German Nuclear physicist who according to the European Patent Office website “broke ground with a procedure that allowed for the production of research quantities of Fullerenes, a new group of carbons. The tiny nano particles can now be fully investigated and are used in a wide-range of industries”.