The 2011 EARTO Innovation Prize was awarded at a special ceremony at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences on the afternoon of 7th December 2011, followed by an evening reception.
The 2011 EARTO Innovation Prize was awarded to SINTEF for its Superconducting Induction Heater, a major breakthrough towards establishing superconductors as a key technology for sustainable power engineering. Second prize went to TNO for its Fast Atomic Layer Deposition technology and third to Tecnalia for its HYPERSPECTRAL process for electrical and electronic waste recycling (see press release on winners below).
Director General for Research and Innovation at the European Commission, Mr. Robert-Jan Smits, presented the 2011 EARTO Innovation Prizes to the winning teams, after sharing his thoughts on the recently published Horizon 2020 proposals and the important role to be played by RTOs.
Key highlights this year were the announcement of EARTO’s new President, Jan Mengelers, President of TNO (see press release below), and the publication of a second edition of Case Studies of high-impact innovations produced with a significant contribution by EARTO members.
Press Coverage
EARTO press release on the Innovation Prize winners, 8th December 2011 - link
EARTO press release on EARTO's New President Jan Mengelers, December 8th - link
Science|Business, November 3rd, "DG Research Director-General to speak at EARTO Innovation Prize 2011 event" - link
Projects Magazine, December 8th , "SINTEF is named winner of EARTO Award 2011" - link
SINTEF website, December 8th, "Honoured in Brussels for exploiting unutilised energy sensation" - link
TNO website, December 8th, "Jan Mengelers elected new president of EARTO" - link
TECNALIA website, December 8th, "EARTO Award for innovation in Europe" - link
Physorg.com, December 12th, "1,200 recycling sector companies will save up to 10% thanks to a new system developed by Tecnalia" - link
Scrap Monster, December 13th, "E-Waste: Tecnalia's new recycling system wins EARTO Prize" - link
AzoCleantech, December 14th, "Tecnalia Research + Innovation Introduces WEE Recycling and Detection System" - link
Pictures from the event - link
Videos
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2011 EARTO Innovation Prize Ceremony -
Innovation Prize Winner: "Superconducting Induction Heater", SINTEF (Norway) -
Second Prize Winner: "Fast Atomic Layer Deposition", TNO (Netherlands) -
Thrid Prize Winner: "Hyperspectral", TECNALIA (Spain)