LEADERS call now open for Women Innovators in Manufacturing

What is “LEADERS” – Women Innovators in Manufacturing at EIT RIS?

LEADERS is a competition aiming to reach out to support the best women innovators (i.e. professionals, researchers, entrepreneurs) playing a leading role in developing solutions / initiatives addressing manufacturing-related challenges with strong financial, environmental, or societal impact.

In the first round of submissions, 30 applicants will be pre-selected and receive online pitch training. In the second round of submissions, six top-ranked applicants will be invited to a grand final awarding ceremony where three winners will receive publicity and prizes in the amount of:

1. EUR 10.000

2. EUR 7.500

3. EUR 5.000

Who can Apply?

EIT Manufacturing invites women innovators (i.e. professionals, students, researchers or entrepreneurs) who are citizens from an EIT RIS eligible country who have played a leading role in developing innovative manufacturing-related solutions to apply to the LEADERS – Women Innovators in Manufacturing at EIT RIS competition within the EIT Manufacturing’s RIS programme. Applicants must have played a leading role in developing innovative manufacturing-related solutions with strong financial, environmental, or societal impact. 

EIT RIS Eligible countries according to the European Commission’s Innovation Scoreboard

  • EU Member States: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain.
  • Horizon Europe Associated Countries: Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
  • Outermost Regions: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion, Martinique, Mayotte and Saint-Martin (France), the Azores and Madeira (Portugal), and the Canary Islands (Spain).

The applicant must be able to prove her citizenship of one of the aforementioned EIT RIS eligible countries or EU Outermost Regions.

Key Dates

  • Call opens: May 10, 2022
  • Call closes: July 5, 2022, 23:00 CET
  • 1st round of evaluation: July 2022
  • Online pitch trainings: August – September 2022
  • Submission video pitch: October 2022
  • 2nd round of evaluation: October – November 2022
  • Grand final awarding ceremony: December 2022

Apply by 5 July 2022! For the first evaluation round, please fill in and complete the online application form in English: https://eitmanufacturing.submittable.com/submit/224315/2022-call-for-leaders-women-innovators-in-manufacturing-at-eit-ris 

Find more about the 2021 Leaders Winners 

Within the EIT Manufacturing SUMMIT 2021 event, 6 finalists from 2021 LEADERS competition pitched their outstanding ideas and created a spin-off that will bring sustainability to the future of manufacturing from ceramic beehives, High-quality mushroom production to biodegradable laminating film. Three were awarded with financial prizes as well as international publicity through our network:

  • 1st place: Angela Ivanova, LAM’ON project: Biodegradable laminating film and packaging foil.
  • 2nd place: Raquel Verdejo, Akelite project: Endeavour to create a spin-off that will bring sustainability to a high-performance material.
  • 3rd place: Todorka Lepkova, Ceramic Beehives project: Dedicated to development and implementation of innovations mainly in the fields of ceramics.

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