European Commission: EU prize for Women Innovators 2014

The Contest is on!

12/09/2013 |

The award ceremony in 2011. From left to right: Ilaria Rosso, 3rd prize winner; José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission; Gitte Neubauer, 1st prize winner; Fabienne Hermitte, 2nd prize winner; Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science; Antonio Tajani, Vice-President, Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship.

Apply now to get a chance of winning one of the three prizes!

The European Commission has launched the 2nd edition of the EU Prize for Women Innovators. The competition is open until 15 October 2013!

The EU Prize for Women Innovators aims to raise public awareness about the need for more innovation and more women innovators. It will reward three women who have developed outstanding innovations and brought them to market.

The awards

First prize: EUR 100 000
Second prize: EUR 50 000
Third prize: EUR 25 000

Who can participate?

Any woman innovator complying with the following criteria:

You reside in an EU Member State or in a country associated to the Research Framework Programme.
You must be the founder or co-founder of an existing and active company.
Your company must have been registered before 1 January 2011.
The annual turnover of the company must have been minimum EUR 100 000 in 2011 or 2012.
Either you or the company you founded/co-founded have received or is receiving funding from the European Union or the European Atomic Energy Community Research Framework Programme, or from the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP).

How to participate?

You can apply in 6 easy steps online via the contest website www.ec.europa.eu/women-innovators before 15 October 2013, 5:00 p.m. (Brussels time). An independent panel of judges from business and academia will examine and select the winners who will be announced in Spring 2014.

Why did the European Commission create this Prize?

Although women are more and more active in research, there are still too few women creating innovative enterprises. This represents an untapped potential for Europe which needs all its human resources to remain competitive and find solutions to the great challenges that we are facing.

The EU Women Innovators Prize was launched in 2011 to give public recognition to outstanding women entrepreneurs who brought their innovative ideas to market and to inspire other women to follow in their footsteps.

More information

Check the contest rules and the application guide on the website!
Discover also the winners of the EU PRIZE for WOMEN Innovators 2011
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