Sir Adrian Hill wins the European Inventor Award Research Category

Standard YouTube Licence 

Jane Lambert

The European Inventor Award is a biennial "celebration of the inventive spirit, the individual contributions of talented inventors, and the European patent system that protects inventions and encourages innovation" established by the European Patent Office in 2006.  Prizes are awarded for inventions in the following categories:

• industry
• research
• Non-EPO countries
• SMEs
• lifetime achievement, and
• popular prize.

Winners of each category receive a trophy in the form of a sail designed by Miriam Irle.

The research category celebrates inventors working at universities, research institutions or their spin-offs. The winner of this year's research category is Professor Sir Adrian Hill, Founding Director of the Jenner Institute and Chair of the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford.  The invention for which this year's research award was granted was the R21/Matrix-M vaccine against malaria, more particularly described in European patent specification EP2945649 B1

According to Wikipedia, Sir Adrian was born in Ireland.   He attended Belvedere College SJ in Dublin, read medicine at Trinity College Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford and carried out his doctoral research on the molecular genetics of thalassemia at Oxford.   As well as being a leader in malaria vaccine development, Sir Adrian was a co-leader of the research team that produced the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.  He was knighted for his services in 2021.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or the European Inventor Awards in general may call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during normal office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

European Inventor Awards 2017

Standard YouTube Licence

Jane Lambert

Every year the European Patent Office recognizes outstanding inventors from around the world who have made exceptional contributions to social development, technological progress and economic growth with the European Inventors Awards.

Nominations are sought in the following categories:

• Industry: for outstanding and successful technologies patented by large European companies
• Research: for pioneering inventors working at universities or research institutes
• SMEs: for exceptional inventions at small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
• Non-European countries: for all inventors who are not European nationals but have been granted a European patent
• Lifetime achievement: honouring the long-term contribution of an individual European inventor.

The most recent award ceremony took place in Venice on 15 June 2017 and this year's winners were 

• Industry: Jan van den Boogaart and Oliver Hayden (Netherlands/Austria)
• Research: Laurent Lestarquit, José Ángel Ávila Rodríguez, Günter W. Hein, Jean-Luc Issler and Lionel Ries (France, Spain, Germany, Belgium)
• Non-EPO countries: James G. Fujimoto, Eric A. Swanson and Robert Huber (USA, Germany)
• Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): Günter Hufschmid (Germany)
• Popular Prize: Adnane Remmal (Morocco)
• Lifetime achievement: Rino Rappuoli (Italy).

The above film shows the presentations. The winners were chosen from 15 finalists one of whom was Steve Lindsey from the UK who invented an energy-saving rotary air compressor.

Nominations are open for next year's awards. Anybody can propose any inventor including him or herself (see the Nominations page on the EPO's website).

Anybody who wishes to discuss this article or the legal protection and commercialization of innovation generally should call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.