EIT Food community members nominated for awards recognising Europe’s most promising innovators
Four members of the EIT Food community have been nominated in the EIT Awards, which recognise the most promising entrepreneurs and innovators in Europe.
Each year, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) celebrates ground-breaking innovations by putting the most innovative ventures, entrepreneurial graduates, innovation teams and women from the EIT Community in the spotlight.
The nominees are selected for driving European innovation through products, projects and services that tackle global challenges in the fields of climate, energy, digitalisation, food, health and raw materials.
The 9th edition of the EIT Awards 2022 brings together 27 outstanding innovators from 15 countries, competing in one of the four categories: CHANGE Award, Innovators Award, Venture Award and Women Leadership Award.
MEET THE EIT FOOD NOMINEES
This year’s EIT Awards features four innovators from the EIT Food community.
On 29 September join us to watch the nominees pitch live at the online semi-finals. Find out who will proceed to the grand final at the EIT Summit and decide who gets your vote for the EIT Public Award.
On 11 October, follow the EIT Awards ceremony live to discover who wins the Grand Final which will be held during the EIT Summit in Brussels.
CHANGE AWARD recognising top graduates from EIT entrepreneurial education programmes
Lisette Pruis (Netherlands)
Assistant General Manager, Food box
The food box aims to fight postpartum depression with nutritious meals for new mothers, that will not only meet the needs of their bodies but also support their mental well-being. The platform will offer women support and information about the positive effects of healthy nutrition.
Lisette attended the Master in Food Systems (MFS) EIT- Label Degree Programme at the University of Warsaw, University of Reading, and Autonomous University of Madrid.
INNOVATORS AWARDS highlighting teams and individuals that have developed high-impact products and services
Claudio Reinhard (Switzerland)
PHENOLIVA project
The EIT Food funded PHENOLIVA project brought together partners from the food industry, research and academia to develop a fully circular, integrated waste management concept for the olive oil industry. The project involved using a novel process to extract antioxidants from olive pomace, which can be used in foods and cosmetics as valuable natural additives.
VENTURE AWARD showcasing start-ups and scale-ups that have benefited from business acceleration and creation support by the EIT Community
Alejandro Trenor (Belgium)
CFO, Soil Capital
Soil Capital is an agronomy company that unlocks carbon payments for farmers. As Europe’s first certified carbon payment programme for farmers, Soil Capital places value on the way food is produced by rewarding regenerative practices through their software solution, providing a realistic incentive for farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture practices.
Soil Capital has benefited from EIT Food's network, identifying funding opportunities and financial support through the Rising Food Stars accelerator, which enables successful, impactful agrifood startups to scale to the next level.
WOMEN LEADERSHIP AWARD putting the spotlight on exceptional women in the EIT Community
Kristina Sermuksnyte-Alesiuniene (Lithuania)
Director, AgriFood Lithuania
AgriFood Lithuania DIH is the EIT Food Hub in Lithuania, and a Digital Innovation Hub that brings together major research, business and public stakeholders in Lithuania for the common pursuit of digital transformations in the agriculture, food and associated sectors. Kristina promotes women in the agrifood sector as regional ecosystems builders transforming the male-dominated agrifood industry. She was one of the experienced mentors involved in the EIT Food programme Empowering Women in Agrifood (EWA) which offers training and financial support to help women succeed as agrifood entrepreneurs.