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essenscia

Belgian Federation for Chemistry and Life Sciences Industries

essenscia Innovation Award 2025

With two-thirds of all industrial investment in R&D, 6.8 billion euros in 2024, and 44% of all Belgian patent applications at the European Patent Office, the chemical, plastics and life sciences sector is Belgium’s undisputed innovation champion.

To honor this innovation-oriented mindset and to highlight breakthrough technologies and products, essenscia is launching the sixth edition of its Innovation Award.

Through this prestigious prize, the most important prize for industrial innovation in Belgium, we intend to put leading innovation projects in the spotlight. We also want to encourage Belgian companies and organizations to innovate even more, and to protect their intellectual assets.

Who will win the essenscia Innovation Award 2025?

Ontdek alle innovaties

Why participate?

  • The essenscia Innovation Award is a unique opportunity for all participants to gain visibility within the broad innovation network of essenscia, both at academic and industrial level.
  • The nominees as well as the winner will benefit from an extended media coverage.
  • Moreover a video dedicated to their innovations will be produced to highlight their projects during the essenscia Innovation Award ceremony, in the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid.
  • Participating start-ups and SMEs can benefit from the support of the essenscia Patent Cell to define a strategy to protect their intellectual property
  • The winner will be awarded a prize of 30,000 euros.
Apply for the essenscia Innovation Award 2025

The essenscia Innovation Award ceremony will take place on 25 November 2025 in Brussels.

Wall of Fame

2012
Emulco & BASF
Breakthrough technology in the field of polyisobutene. Finalists: Nanocyl & Lippens Paints, Promethera Biosciences, Proviron, Total R&D Feluy
2012
2014
Agfa Graphics
New generation of low-migration inks. Finalists: Airopack, Eurogentec, Proviron, Recticel, Realco and Taminco
2014
2016
GSK
Candidate vaccine against shingles. Finalists: BASF, Evonik, IRE ELiT, Mithra Pharmaceuticals and Qpinch
2016
2019
Mithra
New generation contraceptive pill. Finalists: Beaulieu, Eastman, Eurogentec, Janssen Pharmaceutica and Kaneka
2019
2022
Agfa-Gevaert
Breakthrough membrane technology for green hydrogen. Finalists: GSK, Power to Methanol, Quantoom Biosciences and Soudal

Discover more in Dutch or French.

2022

Presentation of the Jury

François Cornélis

President of the Innovation Fund for Chemistry & Life Sciences and former Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee of Total – President of the Jury

Holder of a master degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Louvain, François Cornélis started his career at PetroFina. In 1983, he became the Vice-President of American PetroFina in Dallas and was appointed CEO and Managing Director of PetroFina in 1990. From April 2000 to December 2011, François Cornélis served as Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee of Total (originally known as TotalFinaElf). In 2015, he created the Innovation Fund for Chemistry and Life Sciences. He is the Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium and was awarded the Légion d’honneur.

Véronique Goossens

Chief Economist at Belfius

Véronique Goossens has been Chief Economist at the Belgian bank-insurance company Belfius for more than 6 years. She is also an independent board member of the Antwerp Management School and was previously a board member of the non-profit organisation ‘Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs / Ondernemers voor Ondernemers’. Véronique Goossens worked as a professional journalist for more than 20 years, mainly for the financial-economic broadcasting Company Kanaal Z.

Inge Neven

CEO of VITO

Before becoming CEO of VITO (Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek) in 2023, bioengineer Inge Neven was crisis manager for the Brussels region during the COVID crisis.

Between 2016 and 2020, she was Chief of Staff, CIO, ERM & CPMO at Imec. Inge Neven has always had a strong interest in sustainability and innovation. She has worked as a consultant in the biotechnology sector for many years. Inge Neven is a member of the Supervisory Board of Stichting tegen Kanker and the P&V Board.

Jean-Christophe Troussel

Partner at Bird & Bird LLP

Jean-Christophe Troussel is a partner at Bird & Bird LLP, an international law firm where he leads the Intellectual Property & Technology practice at the Brussels office. With over 25 years of experience, Jean-Christophe has in depth expertise in the technology, pharmaceutical, and industrial sectors, particularly on complex issues related to patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and copyrights.

 

He holds a law degree from the University of Louvain-la-Neuve and an LL.M. from the University of Chicago. He began his career in Brussels in 1990 and trained at Finnegan Henderson in Washington, D.C., in 1994. From 2000 to 2007, he led the IP team at Linklaters in Brussels before joining Bird & Bird in 2007 where he now manages multidisciplinary teams on contentious and transactional strategic, cross-border projects. He currently serves as President of the Licensing Executives Society International (LESI).

Yves Verschueren

Managing Director of essenscia

Yves Verschueren was appointed Managing Director of essenscia in September 2007. After graduating in law and economics from the Catholic University of Leuven, Yves Verschueren led a successful and international career at Unilever. Before becoming Chairman of Unilever Belgium, he acted in Belgium, Switzerland, Zimbabwe, Italy and for Unilever Europe as Senior Vice President Home Care. As Managing Director of essenscia, he is also a member of the Board of the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium (VBO/FEB).

Participation Rules

  1. Access to the competition is open to all industrial companies operating in Belgium including member and non-member companies of essenscia. The competition is also open to start-ups, and multi-partner innovation projects
  2. The proposed innovation project must have a clear link with chemistry, life sciences or materials.
  3. The proposed innovation project must demonstrate its contribution towards sustainable development. It must address a societal challenge and be future-oriented.
  4. The proposed innovation project should demonstrate its fit within a strategy for intellectual property management. Patent filing, trademark registration, brand protection, confidentiality agreement will be considered during the assessment of the projects.
  5. The proposed innovation project should preferably have an industrial application in Belgium or be able to demonstrate its value generation towards the Belgian economy.
  6. The proposal must contain the following information in a maximum of 5 pages:
    • an abstract
    • a description of the innovation, its unique character and its proof of concept
    • its contribution towards sustainable development
    • its intellectual property strategy
    • its contribution to the Belgian economy (investment, employment, know-how)
  7. The proposals shall be submitted in English using the application form or by e-mail to innovationaward@essenscia.be.
  8. The Jury will consider all valid applications and run a selection process on a confidential basis. No information will be shared with the outside world without the explicit consent of the submitters.
  9. The deliberations of the Jury will be secret and held confidential. The decisions of the Jury are not open for discussion.
  10. The winning project will be awarded a lump sum of 30,000 euros.

The proposals must be submitted by 30 June 2025 at the latest.

The essenscia Patent Cell at your service

The protection of innovation is a key factor to the successful development and commercialization of an innovation project. The Patent Cell created in 2011 by essenscia in partnership with the Federal Public Service Economy is therefore closely related to the essenscia Innovation Award as it intends to boost the protection of intellectual assets in the sector.

For SMEs without a well-defined IP strategy for their innovation projects, the essenscia Patent Cell offers support under the form of free consultancy in collaboration with an external partner. This offer is based on a first come, first served basis and is limited to the 10 first applicants.

To benefit from this support, please submit your request to:  octrooi-brevet@essenscia.be

Apply for the essenscia Innovation Award 2025

Ann Dierckx

Director innovation & circular economy adierckx@essenscia.be

With the support of: