Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, and Věra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, launched the 2019 EU Prize for Women Innovators at the Web Summit in Lisbon.
This is a cash prize awarded every year to European women who founded a successful company and brought an innovation to market.
From US and Norwegian universities good practices it is now clear that, in order to make IT jobs attractive for women, in depth changes are needed in the studies and the professions.
Why is there a prize?
Women are underrepresented in terms of creating innovative enterprises. This is untapped potential for Europe, which needs to optimise all available resources to remain competitive and find solutions to our societal challenges.This award recognises the role of women in bringing about game-changing innovations to market and honours the outstanding achievements of female entrepreneurs running innovative companies.
The prize will be awarded to up to 4 women innovators in total, who have had the largest impact on the innovation ecosystem by transforming ideas into new and advanced products and/ services for the benefit of European citizens.
Who can apply?
The contest is open to women from across the EU and countries associated to Horizon 2020, who have:
- founded a successful company and
- brought innovation to market