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Research and innovation
News article15 September 2020Directorate-General for Research and Innovation

Horizon Impact Award 2020: 10 finalists short-listed

The European Commission has announced the 10 projects to reach the final stage of the second edition of Horizon Impact Award – a prize dedicated to EU-funded projects whose results have created societal impact across Europe and beyond. The prize acknowledges and rewards the most influential and impactful project results under Horizon 2020, the EU research and innovation programme, and its predecessor, the 7th Framework programme (FP7, 2007-2013).

The prize highlights concrete achievements that have demonstrable value for society, and will celebrate the people who made it happen.

The finalists of the Horizon Impact Award 2020 are:

ARCHES (Austria), enables inclusiveness for people with special needs to fully experience arts and culture and redefines the role of museums in contemporary society. Thanks to the application of novel technologies created by the EU funded project ARCHES, a new audience can be brought to museums where explanations of artwork are available in sign language and captioned text. Their initiative has already benefited a wide range of museum visitors and other end-users in countries such as the UK, Austria, Italy, the United States and Russia.

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OCEAN SENTINEL (France), creates environmental and a policy impact by preserving the most threatened marine species including albatrosses, sharks, sea turtles, thus protecting the ecosystem. The project comprises an innovative technology to detect illegal fishing activity and gathers information for authorities, regional fishing and conservation agreements and non-governmental organization that are fighting to preserve the ocean and its inhabitants. The results have not only been taken up and used, but serve as a basis for discussions in international fishing and conservation agreements.

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TRANSKRIBUS (Austria), uses artificial intelligence (AI) to access and analyse historical documents and archives, as a result contributes to the preservation of European heritage. TRANKSRIBUS technology merges the humanities with AI to pioneer a platform that enables immediate translation of historical handwritten documents. The National Archives of Finland, Italy and the Netherlands have now started to integrate it into their daily services. The technology is free and accessible not only to computer scientists, but also to researchers and scholars so making an impact in history and other relevant social sciences.

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UBORA (Italy), created an open biomedical engineering e-platform for generating, exchanging, improving and implementing creative ideas in Biomedical Engineering. UBORA has; built a community of +900 medical device innovators from more than 30 countries, trained 800 engineers, developed 2 medical devices following open-source schemes, created a spin-off company, and launched a foundation. It serves regions with limited scientific, technological and industrial resources, providing better and more accessible healthcare.

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INVISIBLE (Portugal), generated a new technological field, where the results of this project have endless applications in a wide range of industries. Manufactured in Europe and working with SAMSUNG, the project INVISIBLE has developed the first transparent display that is commercialised by several companies. This fundamental research lead to other innovative developments in other multi-billion-dollar industries such as ink-jet printing and smart medical diagnostics. Being the European pioneer in the field, INVISIBLE is an example of truly global scientific leadership.

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CARING (France), produced an ‘eco-software’ SkyBreathe®, which analyses millions of flights every year and identifies best practices to save fuel. The software has been deployed in every continent, with clients including Air France, CEBU Pacific, Flydubai, to name a few. The deployment in lower middle-income countries provides a means to reduce their CO2 footprint that contributes to global warming. Overall this technology has already helped 40 airlines to save $US150 million (€178 million) and 590 000 tons of CO2 and continues so on a daily basis thus creating an economic, environmental and societal benefit and supporting the aims of the European Green Deal.

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MACH (Germany), developed a mobile driving unit EXCOR®Active that provides mobility and independence to children with end-stage heart failure pending heart transplant operations. The driving unit for blood pumps is smaller, lighter and portable and allows children and their families to be mobile, eliminating time spent in the hospitals. The machine is already on the European market and benefitting little patients in Germany. The project created impact not only for the children, but also for healthcare workers as the device is lighter and easier to manage.  

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DIADEMS (France). Sensors developed under the DIADEMS project are capable of measuring magnetic fields with unprecedented accuracy. The technology is based on the use of the different properties of diamonds in order to create a new technological field. The impact of the results contributes to the “open access” of publications, freely accessible to the scientific community. The knowledge gained has seen many applications of the technology across prominent European companies like Bosch, Janssen, Nokia, and Bruker.

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CULPRIT SHOCK (Germany), set new standards in the treatment of cardiogenic shock after severe heart attacks. Thanks to the new guidelines in the treatment, the mortality rate was reduced by 8% for these patients by just treating the artery involved. The researchers were able to influence the guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology, which has a direct impact on European standards in cariogenic shock treatment.

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PEPT IN (Belgium), developed technology that revolutionizes antimicrobial treatment and provides an opportunity to rapidly identify molecules that are often resistant to antibiotics. The technology developed allows to target bacteria in a manner that has never been done before, preventing resistance to anti-bacterial treatment.To further exploit their biotechnology, the project consortia founded bio-incubator, a spin-off company to further commercialise the anti-bacterial drugs using the technology platform developed at an earlier stage.

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The winners will be announced at the award ceremony in Brussels on the 23 September at the European Research and Innovation Days. In addition, the Commission will award the EU Prize for Women Innovators, the European Capital of Innovation (iCapital) Award and EIC Horizon Prize for Affordable High-Tech for Humanitarian Aid.

Background

This Horizon Impact Award, launched in March 2019, aims to illustrate the wider socio-economic benefits of EU investment in research and innovation and to encourage project beneficiaries on how best to manage and exploit research results. The previous edition has demonstrated how research results can create societal impact across Europe and beyond. Each of the winners will receive €10,000.

More information

Horizon Impact Award

Details

Publication date
15 September 2020
Author
Directorate-General for Research and Innovation