Three Swiss projects contest for the EIT Awards 2020

The jury of the EIT Awards is looking for the most innovative startup in each of its four categories; EIT Change Award, EIT Innovators Award, EIT Venture Award and EIT Women Award. Three Swiss startups are competing in two verticals.

The EIT Awards highlight the entire innovation pipeline powered by the EIT, from student to entrepreneur, from lab to market, and from idea to solutions for Europe. Through the EIT, the EU invests in its brightest innovators who are helping to create a greener, healthier, and more sustainable society for Europe’s citizens.

The jury has nominated 28 innovators hailing from 13 countries to compete in four categories of the EIT Awards: EIT Change Award, EIT Innovators Award, EIT Venture Award and EIT Women Award. During the Virtual awards ceremony on 8th and 9th December 2020 the winners will be announced and awarded. For each category, the winners in the first, second and third place will receive EUR 50 000, EUR 20 000 and EUR 10 000 respectively.

Gioia Ghezzi, Chair of the EIT Governing Board, added: “This year’s EIT Awards recognise not only the impressive achievements of the innovators we support but also their resilience during these difficult times.”

Among the nominees are three Swiss startups in two categories

EIT Venture Award
TOLREMO, Stefanie Flückiger-Mangual
Based in Muttenz, TOLREMO is making personalised cancer therapies even more personal thus long-lasting. The startup is developing next-generation resistance-preventing combination therapies for cancer by combining classic mutational information with novel transcriptional information, defining the exact pattern of genes expressed in particular cancer The treatments will complement standard cancer therapies to offer better response rates, more prolonged survival and improved quality of life.

SwissdeCode, Brijdeep Sahi
Is developing a variety of DNA detection solutions to help boost confidence in the entire food supply chain to help food manufacturers to grow and produce high-quality food. the company's flagship solution DNAFoil technology (see image) is a unique, innovative method that is designed to detect a specific target DNA, providing reliable results in 30 minutes as well as real-time certification of products and premises.

EIT Innovators Award  
GeoFootprint, Xavier Bengoa  
The web tool combines satellite imagery with geospatial data to generate maps to visualise and simulate the environmental footprints of key commodity crops on an interactive world map. The map allows for making better sourcing decisions, identifying the location-specific factors contributing to ecological footprint, and modelling interventions to reduce it. An initiative launched by Quantis in 2018, geoFootprint was built collaboratively in partnership with more than 25 public, private and academic stakeholders.     

(RAN)