European Inventor Awards - The 2026 trophy. (5)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Each year, the European Inventor Award winners receive a trophy in the shape of a sail. Pun intended in English, although when the power of the wind was first harnessed for sailing, circa 5000 BC, on Egypt’s River Nile, the invention is certainly assumed to have promoted new trade routes. In any event, the sail design holds up well across cultures as a symbol of adventure or discovery, and by extension, innovation.

The stunning sail trophy was designed by the German industrial Product Designer, Prof. Miriam Irle. Most importantly, the sail trophy was also designed with the insight that it would be fabricated each year in a material significant to the location of the awards ceremony. Thus, for example, when the European Inventor Awards ceremony was held in Venice, Italy, the trophies were made of Murano glass. Likewise, when the European Inventor Awards were held in Lisbon, Portugal, the sail trophies were made of azulejo porcelain. Whereas, when the ceremony was held in France, the sail trophies were fabricated using computer-aided parametric modeling for 3D stereolithographic printing. As a result, each of the 2018 sail trophies featured different and intricate latticework. Six lattice designs, for the six award categories, each evoking the landmark Eiffel Tower's revolutionary, open-lattice ironwork, created using 18,000 pre-cut iron pieces, and built from 1887 to 1889.

The year 2026 was no exception in Berlin, Germany. However, the fabricator’s name and the materials used for the trophies were both withheld at the EPO website.*  An image of the 2026 Inventor Awards Trophy, which appears to be crafted of metal, is inset above. 

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*Note: According to Pr. Miriam Irle (personal communication), the early agreed-upon trophy designer was the well-known Berlin jewelry maker Luise Zücker. A selection which could not be confirmed at the time of the Ceremony.  

References
European Inventor Award
https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/european-inventor-award
Miriam Irle
https://www.miriam-irle.com/

2026 European Inventor Awards - The Jury (3).

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann 

The members of the European Inventor Awards Jury included both Young Inventor Award and former European Inventor Award recipients. 

Wolfgang M. Heckl (Chair) is the former Director General of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. He is Emeritus of Excellence at the Munich Technical University, Senior Excellence Faculty, and holds the Oskar von Miller Chair for science communication at the Technical University in Munich, where he researches molecular self-organization in nanotechnology.

Mark Kennedy Bantugon is the recipient of an EPO Young Inventor Award in 2025. Bantugon is an aeronautical engineer, materials scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur, specializing in sustainable innovation. He established Pili AdheSeal Inc., to bring to market an aircraft sealant and adhesive made from Pili Tree resin agricultural waste.

Catia Bastioli is the recipient of a European Inventor Award in 2007. Bastioli is CEO and President of the Novamont Group (acquired by Versalis, part of Eni, in 2023).

Esben Beck is the recipient of a European Inventor Award in 2019. Beck is an inventor, entrepreneur, and founder of Stingray Marine Solutions.

Nuria Espallargas is the recipient of a European Inventor Award in 2022. Espallargas is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Joachim Fiedler is the recipient of a European Inventor Award in 2022. Fiedler studied at the University of the Arts in Berlin and worked as a professional cellist in several orchestras and ensembles.

Marta Karczewicz is the recipient of the European Patent Office, life-time achievement award in 2019. Karczewicz is Vice-President of Technology at Qualcomm, where she has driven advances in data coding algorithms since 2006.

 

Gaute Munch is the recipient of a European Inventor Award in 2018. Munch joined the LEGO Group as an electronic engineer in 1997, and currently leads the company’s electrical and digital product safety. 

Marie Perrin is the recipient of an EPO Young Inventor Award in 2025. Perrin is a chemist and entrepreneur. She is currently Pioneer Fellow at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH), in Zurich, leading the startup project REEcover. A project that invokes an innovative process to recover rare earth elements from electronic waste.

Laura van't Veer is the recipient of a European Inventor Award in 2015. She is Chief Research Officer and the co-founder of Agendia, a molecular diagnostics company focused solely on breast cancer. She is full professor of Laboratory Medicine at the University California, in San Francisco. 

Roujia Wen is the recipient of an EPO Young Inventor Award in 2025. She is the co-founder of Seabound, a company that builds modular, retrofittable carbon capture systems for cargo ships. 

Reference
2026 European Inventor Award  - About the Award.
https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/european-inventor-award/about-award

European Inventor Popular Prize - Vote here! (2)

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The European Patent Office (EPO) invites the public to vote for the Finalist who will receive the Popular Prize. The Popular Prize winner, solely decided by the public, will be announced on the occasion of the European Inventor Awards Ceremony, to be held in Berlin, on July 2nd, 2026. 

The rules for voting are the following:

• You may vote for one to three inventors each day until the votes are counted, during the Awards Ceremony on July 2nd. 

• Click on your first choice and then follow the prompts to accept the voting conditions.

• Registration to vote requires an authenticated email, or a social media account, the first time you vote. Click below to vote for your favorite inventors/inventions!

• Voting is free.

Click here to vote!

Reference
European Inventor Awards 2026
https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/european-inventor-award#finalists