Beats Medical founder and CEO Dr Ciara Clancy and Akara Robotics co-founder and CRO Niamh Donnelly have won awards at the 2022 EU Prize for Women Innovators in Brussels
The Irish entrepreneurs were recognised by the European Commission and the European Innovation Council with the Women Innovators Awards and the Rising Innovators Award, respectively, at a ceremony on Wednesday.
The competition celebrates the women responsible for Europe’s most groundbreaking innovations, from tackling climate change to treating the world’s deadliest diseases.
In all there were six winners across the two categories from Ireland, Spain, France, Bulgaria and Portugal.
The three winners in the Women Innovators category will receive prizes of €100,000 each while the three winners in the Rising Innovators category will each receive €50,000. A third of the entrepreneurs nominated for the finals were from Ireland.
"This is great news for Ireland and reflects the notable rise of our women entrepreneurs in the start-up sector in this country," said Joe Healy, interim divisional manager for research and innovation at Enterprise Ireland.
"There were 14 finalists shortlisted for the six prizes, two of which were from Ireland. Both Dr Ciara Clancy of Beats Medical and Niamh Donnelly of Akara Robotics went on to win the overall prizes highlighting the international competitiveness and recognition of the calibre of women entrepreneurs emerging from Ireland."
The competition is funded by the EU’s Horizon Europe programme for research and innovation and managed by the EIC and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA).
Enterprise Ireland leads the Horizon Europe National Support Network which aims to secure as much Irish engagement with this funding programme as possible.
"Enterprise Ireland continues to support and promote Irish women entrepreneurs with the aim of growing our talent pool while helping them to scale their businesses and ultimately create jobs," Healy said.
"Overall, Ireland has enjoyed considerable success in EIC funding under the Horizon Europe programme with 15 Irish SMEs approved €86m in the last two years.”
This is the second successive ear in which Irish entrepreneurs have won in the Rising Innovator category for emerging innovators under the age of 35 after Ailbhe and Izzy Keane of Izzy Wheels won the award in 2021.
The prizes were announced by Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, during the EIC's two-day summit in Brussels.
Image: Niamh Donnelly, co-founder and CRO of Akara Robotics, (centre) with her EU Prize for Rising Innovators. Image: EIC/ Twitter
