The winners of this month’s European Prize for Women Innovators are creating a future young people can finally get excited about.
Led jointly by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and the European Innovation Council (EIC), the Horizon Europe-funded competition has three categories: the Women Innovators Prize, open to women who have ‘founded a successful company’; the Rising Innovators Prize, for under 35s; and the EIT Women leadership prize, for ‘exceptional members of the EIT Community’.
“Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 European Prize for Women Innovators,” said Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation. “For eleven years, we have celebrated exceptional women driving innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe. Their bold ideas and leadership are breaking barriers and inspiring future generations of innovators. I hope their success encourages more women in Europe and beyond to pursue innovation and leadership.”
Here are the winners of the 11th edition of the Prize, held during the EIC Summit in Brussels:
Women Innovators
Winner: Agnès Arbat (Spain) – Co-founder of Oxolife, a company developing innovative drugs to enhance fertility, with a focus on improving embryo implantation and simplifying infertility treatments.
Runners-Up:
Rhona Togher (Ireland) – Co-founder with Eimear O’Carroll of Lios, a company that has developed SoundBounce, a smart acoustic material that offers up to four times more effective noise reduction in less space, while being 40% lighter and four times thinner, with versatile applications across industries like construction, automotive, aerospace, and home appliances.
Fanny Bardé (France/Belgium) – Founder of SOLiTHOR, which develops next-generation solid-state batteries using a non-flammable, environmentally-friendly solid electrolyte. develops next-generation solid-state batteries using a non-flammable, environmentally-friendly solid electrolyte.
Rising Innovators
Winner: Camille Bouget (France) – Co-founder of Scienta Lab, an AI-powered platform developed to address the therapeutic needs of immuno-inflammatory diseases. , an AI-powered platform developed to address the therapeutic needs of immuno-inflammatory diseases.
Runners-Up:
Claudine Adeyemi-Adams (United Kingdom) – Founder of Earlybird, an AI-powered platform that enhances employment support by engaging participants in voice-powered conversations, providing advisors with insights and recommendations to deliver more personalised assistance.
Héloïse Mailhac (France) – Co-founder of STH BIOTECH, a company that has developed SATIVITRO®, an in vitro bio-production platform that enhances the yield and accessibility of rare cannabinoids for pharmaceutical research through controlled bioreactor cultivation.
EIT Women Leadership
Winner: Débora Andreia Campelo Campos (Portugal) – Founder and CEO of AgroGrin Tech which developed an innovative and eco-friendly process to transform industrial fruit waste into functional food ingredients. AgroGrin Tech has been supported by EIT Food. AgroGrin Tech has been supported by EIT Food.
Runners-Up:
Olesja Bondarenko (Estonia) – Co-founder and CEO of Nanordica Medical, which develops nanotechnology-based wound care products that help prevent infections and promote wound healing. Nanordica has been supported by EIT Health.
Elizabeth McGloughlin (Ireland) – Co-founder and CEO of Tympany Medical, whose variable angle endoscopy technology improves patient and healthcare system outcomes. Tympany Medical has been supported by EIT Health.
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Innovators Magazine was in Brussels to cover the event – and have an interview with Rising Innovator, Claudine Adeyemi-Adams… coming soon to these pages.
