The finalists of the EU Prize for Women Innovators 2019 have been announced – and biotech pioneers are leading the way.
Among those in the running for a cash prize in the European Commission-backed initiative, are Lithuania’s Irina Borodina, co-founder and CTO of BioPhero, a ‘biotech company in Denmark producing pheromones as a safe and effective alternative to pesticides’; and Martine Caroff, from France, ‘founder of the biotechnological company LPS-BioSciences, which ‘specialises in bacterial endotoxins for vaccines, in vitro diagnostic, cosmetics, and medical devices’. They are two of the nine finalists in the Women Innovators category, which offers three prizes of €100k each, with €50k going to the winner in the Rising Innovator category. The winners will be announced on 16 May 2019 at the VivaTech Festival in Paris.
“This year we have had so many amazing innovators applying for the prize. It shows that there are a lot of women innovators who deserve recognition for their ideas and the impact they have on our daily lives. Yet, there is also still a lot of untapped potential and talent and I hope our finalists will inspire other women to become innovators themselves,” said Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation.
