{"id":482993,"date":"2026-06-04T16:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/482993\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T16:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:46:10","slug":"european-prize-for-women-innovators-2026-winners-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/482993\/","title":{"rendered":"European Prize for Women Innovators 2026: winners announced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, the European Commission revealed the winners of the 12th edition of the European Prize for Women Innovators<\/a> – jointly managed by the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) – at the European Innovation Council (EIC) Summit in Brussels. The prize celebrates women entrepreneurs whose work is advancing innovation across Europe and contributing to a more competitive, inclusive and forward-looking economy.<\/p>\n

Ekaterina Zaharieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, said:<\/p>\n

The European Prize for Women Innovators recognises the bold ideas and leadership of women who are transforming innovation into real-world impact. This year\u2019s finalists and winners show how entrepreneurship and diversity go hand in hand in strengthening Europe\u2019s innovation capacity. Their achievements are an inspiration for the next generation of innovators across Europe.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The prize showcases the remarkable achievements of winners and runners-up across three categories:\u00a0<\/p>\n

1) Women Innovators,\u00a0for all women founders and co-founders across the EU Member States and Associated Countries to Horizon Europe:<\/p>\n

Winner:\u00a0Katerina Spranger (Ukraine\/UK), founder and CEO of\u00a0Oxford Heartbeat<\/a>, applying artificial intelligence to support safer and more precise treatment of brain aneurysms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Runners-up:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elena Heber (Germany), co-founder and Managing Director of\u00a0HelloBetter<\/a>, expanding access to mental health care through clinically validated digital therapies and AI-supported solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Judit Camargo Sanrom\u00e0 (Spain), founder and CEO of\u00a0Roka Furadada<\/a>, addressing the rise in skin cancer through eco-friendly cosmetic ingredients that provide effective UV protection while minimising harm to marine ecosystems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

2) Rising Innovators,\u00a0for promising young women innovators under the age of 35:<\/p>\n

Winner:\u00a0Marta Oliveira (Belgium), co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of\u00a0ATMOS Space Cargo<\/a>, enabling reusable space capsules to safely return materials from orbit and support new research opportunities.<\/p>\n

Runners-up:<\/p>\n

Judit Gir\u00f3 Benet (Spain), founder of\u00a0The Blue Box<\/a>, developing a urine-based test to improve early detection of breast cancer, particularly for women underserved by existing screening methods.Carin Lightner (Switzerland), co-founder and CEO of\u00a0Enantios<\/a>, advancing the development of new medicines through faster and more precise analysis of complex molecules.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

3) EIT Women Leadership,\u00a0for exceptional members of the EIT Community:<\/p>\n

Winner:\u00a0Ella Frances Cullen (Portugal),\u00a0co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of\u00a0Minespider<\/a>, is pioneering digital traceability of products across supply chains. Her company’s blockchain and AI platform provides digital product and battery passports for supply chain traceability, increasing transparency, sustainability, and compliance.<\/p>\n

Runners-up:<\/p>\n

Stefania Raimondo (Italy), co-founder of\u00a0Navhetec<\/a>, is advancing plant-based nanomedicine by extracting particles with biomedical potential from citrus juice. Her company has developed and patented a method that allows the extraction and use of these particles to formulate health products with superior efficacy and novel functionalities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neide Vieira (Portugal),\u00a0co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of\u00a0IPLEXMED<\/a>, is accelerating the diagnosis of infectious diseases through the use of graphene-based biosensors. Her company has created a portable, rapid, and connected diagnostic platform that delivers lab-grade results by harnessing the superior electronic properties of graphene biosensors.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Managed jointly by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA)<\/a> and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)<\/a>, the European Prize for Women Innovators highlights the crucial contribution of women entrepreneurs to Europe\u2019s innovation ecosystem and its long-term competitiveness. Now in its 12th edition, the prize continues to recognise and celebrate outstanding women who are driving innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe.<\/p>\n

Background<\/p>\n

The European Prize for Women Innovators<\/a>\u00a0 is awarded to women from across the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe, whose disruptive innovations are driving positive change for people and planet.\u00a0It aims to highlight their achievements and encourage more women and girls to pursue careers in innovation and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

There are three prize categories:<\/p>\n

The Women Innovators category,\u00a0awarded to the most talented women innovators from across the EU and Associated Countries. The winner is awarded \u20ac100 000, and two runners-up are awarded \u20ac70 000 and \u20ac50 000 respectively;The Rising Innovators category, awarded to promising young innovators under the age of 35. The winner is awarded \u20ac50 000, and two runners-up are awarded \u20ac30 000 and \u20ac20 000 respectively;The EIT Women Leadership category, awarded to exceptional women leaders from the EIT Community. The winner is awarded \u20ac50 000, and two runners-up are awarded \u20ac30 000 and \u20ac20 000 respectivelyMore information<\/p>\n

EU Prize for Women Innovators 2026 – Winners page<\/a><\/p>\n

Contact:\u00a0EISMEA-WIP\"at\"ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (EISMEA-WIP[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today, the European Commission revealed the winners of the 12th edition of the European Prize for Women Innovators…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[72,191,61,1475,60],"class_list":["post-482993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-ie","tag-innovation","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}