EPO Reveals 12 Finalists for European Inventor Award 2026: Malaria Vaccine, Quantum Sensing, and Semiconductor Probe Cards Among Honorees

The European Patent Office (EPO) on May 13, 2026 announced 12 finalists for the European Inventor Award 2026, with winners to be revealed at a ceremony in Berlin on July 2. Now in its nineteenth year, the award recognises individuals and teams whose patented inventions have advanced society, the economy and technology, across four categories: Industry, Research, SMEs, and Non-EPO Countries.

This year’s nominees span biotechnology, healthcare, renewable energy, semiconductors, digital technologies, food technology, quantum, rail transport and advanced manufacturing. The finalists come from China, Chile, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Industry Category: Semiconductors, Data Storage, Food Technology

The Industry category recognises inventors at large European companies. The three finalists are as follows.

Giuseppe Crippa, Roberto Crippa, Stefano Felici, Riccardo Vettori, Raffaele Vallauri and Flavio Maggioni at Italy’s Technoprobe developed a method for the rapid, localised production of semiconductor probe cards. Probe cards are essential components for testing the electrical characteristics of semiconductor wafers, and the team’s invention improves test throughput in the era of AI and 5G chips.

Evangelos Eleftheriou, based in Switzerland and with Greek roots, is honoured for advances in digital storage technologies spanning magnetic storage, flash memory, and in-memory computing. He led research on storage hierarchies and computing architectures at IBM Research – Zurich for many years.

Angeliki Triantafyllou, working in Greece and Sweden, invented an enzymatic process that improves the stability, taste and functionality of oat-based beverages. As plant-based drinks expand, balancing palatability and texture has become a manufacturing challenge, and her process has seen industrial adoption.

Research Category: Malaria Vaccine, Cancer Antibody, Cryogenic Quantum Sensing

The Research category recognises inventors at universities and research institutions.

Sir Adrian Hill of the University of Oxford is a finalist for his work on the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine. The vaccine uses Novavax’s Matrix-M adjuvant and was recommended for immunisation programmes by the World Health Organization in 2023. Large-scale rollouts are under way in African countries, with the potential to substantially reduce the estimated 600,000 annual malaria deaths worldwide.

Paula Videira and team in Portugal developed an antibody that distinguishes cancer cells from healthy tissue by targeting tumour-specific glycan modifications, with potential applications in imaging diagnostics and targeted therapeutics.

Mikko Möttönen at Aalto University in Finland is a finalist for his cryogenic microwave sensing technology. Qubits in quantum computers are extremely vulnerable to electromagnetic interference and power leakage; his sensor detects leaks and disturbances inside dilution refrigerators, improving diagnostics, reliability and qubit measurement for quantum hardware. Möttönen is also known for pioneering work on quantum thermal power sensors.

Non-EPO Countries: Chile’s “Living Biofilter” and Battery Material Recovery from China

The Non-EPO Countries category recognises inventors based outside the EPO’s 38 member states.

Chilean agricultural engineer Aníbal Montalva Rodríguez and architect Miguel Ángel Fernández Donoso are finalists for a “living biofilter” that uses plant and microbial metabolism to clean urban air pollution. The system integrates into building façades and has been deployed in Latin American cities.

Chinese inventors are also finalists for a technology that efficiently recovers critical minerals (nickel, cobalt and lithium) from spent lithium-ion batteries. Against the backdrop of EV-driven battery growth and US and EU restrictions on Chinese critical minerals, recycling-economy implications are drawing close attention.

SMEs Category: Czech Industrial Nanofibre Manufacturing and More

The SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) category includes Jan Čmelík and team from the Czech Republic, who advanced needle-free electrospinning to enable reliable, industrial-scale nanofibre production. Nanofibres are expected to find applications in medical filtration, protective masks and electrode materials for energy storage.

Winners Announcement and the Popular Prize

Category winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on July 2, 2026 in Berlin. The Lifetime Achievement Award winner will be revealed earlier, on June 10. All 12 finalists are also eligible for the Popular Prize, decided by a combined public vote and independent jury.

The European Inventor Award was established in 2006 to promote the European patent system and to honour inventions with broad social impact. Past laureates include Emmanuelle Charpentier, who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for CRISPR-Cas9, and Katalin Karikó for mRNA vaccine research.

This year’s lineup illustrates that the European patent system reaches inventors well beyond EPO member states, and that climate change, public health, and quantum computing have become explicit evaluation axes for innovation deserving of public recognition.