Inventors of oat drinks, lugworm haemoglobin, a malaria vaccine, battery recycling and high-voltage direct current transmission win the European Inventor Award 2026

The European Inventor Award was presented at a ceremony in Berlin on 2 July. The award is given by the European Patent Office (EPO) to inventors who have been granted European patents for inventions that have had a significant positive impact on society, the environment or the economy. It is one of the most prestigious recognitions in the field of innovation and intellectual property rights in Europe.

The 2026 winners are:

Industry category: Angeliki Triantafyllou (Greece/Sweden), for developing an enzymatic process that improves the taste, texture and stability of oat drinks, helping to establish them as a widely accepted alternative to milk.

Research category: Adrian V.S. Hill (Ireland, UK), for developing the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine, which provides up to 75–80% protection against malaria and has been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for preventing malaria infection in children.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) category: Franck Zal (France), for developing a medical application of haemoglobin from the marine lugworm.

Non-EPO countries category: Yu Haijun and Xie Yinghao (China), for developing a new method of converting used lithium-ion batteries into high-quality cathode material.

Lifetime achievement award: Rainer Marquardt (Germany), for developing a groundbreaking innovation that became the international standard for high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems.

Popular Prize: Yu Haijun and Xie Yinghao (China), for their invention of a new method for recycling lithium-ion batteries.

Icelandic inventors have been nominated for the European Inventor Award on the last two occasions it was presented. In 2024, Guðmundur Fertram Sigurjónsson, founder and CEO of Kerecis, was nominated for his invention of using fish skin to heal wounds, and in 2023 Þorsteinn Loftsson and Einar Stefánsson, founders of Oculis, were nominated for their invention enabling eye diseases to potentially be treated with eye drops instead of injections.

A recording of the award ceremony in Berlin can be viewed here.