site.btaBulgarian among Winners of Competition by European Innovation Council

Bulgarian Iva Gumnishka, founder and CEO of the social enterprise Humans in the Loop, is among the prize winners in the European Innovation Council's (EIC) awards for European Capital of Innovation, Women Innovators, and European Innovation Procurement, the EIC said Thursday.

The awards were announced at the two-day inaugural EIC Summit in Brussels, which ends December 8. They were presented by the Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel.

In the European Year of Youth 2022, the EIC awarded three prizes of EUR 50,000 each to young emerging innovators under 35. Among them is Bulgarian Iva Gumnishka, founder and CEO of Humans in the Loop, a social enterprise that provides people from conflict-affected communities with digital job opportunities. Niamh Donnelly from Ireland, COO of Akara Robotics, and Mehak Mumtaz from Portugal, COO of iLoF were also awarded.

The Grand Prize in the European Capital of Innovation category for the achievements of cities in creating an environment that enables and embraces innovation was awarded to Aix-Marseille-Provence (France). The winner received a cash prize of EUR 1,000,000. The new accolade of "Rising European Innovative City" was awarded to Harlem, the Netherlands, together with a prize of EUR 500,000. The runners-up for European Capital of Innovation 2022 are Espoo (Finland) and Valencia (Spain).

Three women are winners of the EU Prize for Women Innovators, each of whom will receive a cash prize of EUR 100,000. The winners are Rocio Arroyo from Spain, CEO of AMADIX, Ciara Clancy from Ireland, CEO of Beats Medical, and Ninna Granucci from France, President of Green Spot Technologies.