EIT Health has taken first place in the Innovators Award category of the EIT Awards for the fourth year in a row.
The 2020 EIT Awards took place online and saw 26 nominees from across the EIT community competing in four categories; The Change Award, The Innovators Award, The Venture Award and The Woman Award. The public also had its say with the EIT Public Award that saw over 5,000 votes cast online.
EIT Health’s nominee Andreu Martínez Climent, CEO of Corify Care, won first place in the Innovators Award, making it four years in a row that EIT Health has taken the top spot in this category.
The €50,000 EIT Innovators Award, which recognises innovation teams developing a product or service with a high potential for societal and economic impact, went to Andreu and Corify for the ACORYS innovation project. ACORYS is a real-time measurement solution of Atrial Fibrillation (AF) complexity that can stratify AF patients, predict the ablation efficacy, and provide a guide for AF driver ablation.
“My heart is beating like crazy right now, I’m so honoured to be here today. I am here because I am the head of a great team and I want to thank all of them” said Andreu Martínez Climent when receiving the award.
“As a scientist specialising in the clinical environment, the ultimate goal of our actions is to improve the quality of life of patients and the work of clinicians. The EIT Community has provided [support] in areas including investment, management, and market access, which are helping to build a team that makes the innovation progress and succeed.”
The ACORYS innovation project partners include: SERMAS (ES), Universitat Politècnica de València (ES), University of Oxford (UK), ATOS (ES), FIBMED (DE) and GENESIS Biomed (ES).
Corify Care, which is supported by the EIT Health AF-FINE Innovation Project, also took third place in the Audience Award.
It wasn’t the only success of the event for EIT Health nominees as Martin Boutiere, founder of Nutr’Avenir, secured second place in The Change Award, with a prize of €20,000. Nutr’Avenir is a preclinical platform focused on nutrition for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Speaking at the Awards, Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said; “It is clear that innovation will play a key role in Europe’s recovery. The many bright minds and their technologies on show today further demonstrate that the EIT’s unique approach to innovation is powering a new generation of entrepreneurs and services for Europe. My congratulations to all the finalists, and, in particular, the 2020 EIT Award winners!’’
Gioia Ghezzi, Chair of the EIT Governing Board, added; “This year’s EIT Awards, not only recognise the impressive achievements of Europe’s brightest innovators and entrepreneurs but also their resilience during these exceptional times. With cutting-edge innovations in a variety of fields, from health to climate and food to digitisation, the 2020 nominees embody solutions to the many challenges currently facing Europe. This is why at the EIT, we will keep doing what we do best: powering, connecting and mobilising innovators, entrepreneurs and organisations to transform their ideas into ground-breaking technologies, for the benefit of us all.”
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