28 / 10 / 2020


EARTO Policy Event and Innovation Awards Ceremony 2020 – 28 October 2020

EARTO organised its Policy Event and Innovation Awards on 28 October 2020 which was held digitally. The Policy Event gathered more than 350 representatives from all over the world (RTOs, EU institutions, industry as well as other key R&I stakeholders). The programme featured two keynote speeches from Isidro Laso Ballesteros, Cabinet Expert of Commissioner Mariya Gabriel in charge of Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth at the European Commission, and Manuel Heitor, Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education of Portugal. EARTO also celebrated its 20 years anniversary, demonstrating its added-value over the last years and its strong collaboration with EU officials as well as relevant stakeholders.   The 12th edition of the EARTO Innovation Awards Ceremony was held right after the Policy Event. Six RTOs’ innovations were rewarded by Muriel Attané, Secretary General of EARTO on two categories: Impact Delivered and Impact Expected. Helmholtz Association received the award in the Impact Delivered category for the development of a novel non-invasive biomarker (CIM) method, which contributes to early diagnose calcium loss and osteoporosis in humans. VTT received the award in the Impact Expected category for the development of a unique cellular agriculture-based technology, which enables mass production of high value proteins (e.g. egg proteins), without using animals and with low environmental impact (see EARTO Innovation Awards press release). On the same day, EARTO has published the 2020 edition of its Innovation Awards brochure, a collection of thirty two innovations featuring EARTO members, which gives a flavour of the wide range of RTOs’ work. Such innovations demonstrate RTOs’ capacity to support Europe’s innovation performance and their focus on solving today’s challenges and delivering impact. The brochure includes articles on all RTOs that took part in this year’s competition, with a special focus on the 6 finalists which are, in addition to the two above-mentioned winners: CSEM, Fraunhofer, TECNALIA, RISE, as well as articles from RTOs International Network (RIN). Mr Jean-Eric Paquet, Director-General of DG R&I also delivered a keynote speech at the closing of the event.   You can have a look back at the previous editions of the Policy Event here and the Innovation Awards Ceremony here.   EARTO 20 Years Celebration Video