12 / 10 / 2023
EARTO Policy Event and Innovation Awards Ceremony 2023 – 11 October 2023
EARTO organised its Policy Event and Innovation Awards on 11 October 2023 which took place at the BIP Museum in Brussels. The Policy Event gathered more than 160 representatives from more than 30 countries worldwide (RTOs, EU institutions, industry as well as other key R&I stakeholders).
The programme featured several keynotes’ speeches from:
- Mr Marc Lemaître, Director General, DG R&I, European Commission
- Mr Makus Beyrer, Director General, BusinessEurope
- Ms Salla Saastamoinen, Deputy Director General, DG R&I, European Commission
- Mr Tjark Tjin-A-Tsoi, CEO, TNO
- Ms Jane Amilhat, Head of Unit, Low Emission Future Industries, DG R&I, European Commission
The topics covered at this year’s Policy Event were wide-ranging and included the next framework programme, technology infrastructures, technology foresight, the role of RTOs, directionality and instability of framework programmes which gathered the interest of the R&I community through valuable speeches and panel discussions.
The 15th edition of the EARTO Innovation Awards Ceremony was held right after the Policy Event. Six RTOs’ innovations were rewarded by Mr Antti Vasara, President of EARTO on two categories: Impact Delivered and Impact Expected. Linz Center of Mechatronics (LCM), EARTO member through Upper Austrian Research (UAR), received the award in the Impact Delivered category for the development of eVSP, an electric propulsion solution with remarkable results to decarbonise the shipping industry towards a zero-emission model. Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and its Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology Fraunhofer-UMSICHT received the award in the Impact Expected category for the development of AEROPlaster, a revolutionary manufacturing process for superinsulating aerogels, which paves the way for the best insulation material to be made available to the mass market.
On the same day, EARTO has published the 2023 edition of its Innovation Awards online brochure, a collection of thirty-three innovations featuring EARTO members, which gives a flavour of the wide range of RTOs’ work. The brochure includes articles on all RTOs that took part in this year’s competition, as well as articles on RTOs International Network (RIN), with a special focus on the six finalists which are, in addition to the two winners: TNO, CEA, VTT and INESC TEC.
–Video of Impact Delivered Finalists
