Engineering and Technology

SUN-to-LIQUID uses a solar thermochemical cycle to convert sunlight, water and CO2 into renewable kerosene. The key components of the process are a highly concentrating solar field, a receiver-reactor and a gas to liquid unit. By direct conversion of thermal energy into chemical energy the process has a high theoretical…

The nominating institution Stanford University on the breakthrough: Efficient batteries are critical for our green energy strategy by powering electric cars and storing solar and wind electricity for grid integration. We pioneered nanotechnology-based materials design to enable novel breakthrough materials including silicon, lithium, and sulfur, which have ten times higher…

The optimal transport problem consists of finding the cheapest way of transporting a distribution of mass from one location to another. Alessio Figalli has used optimal transport’s techniques to mathematically understand: (1)the rigidity properties of crystals under the influence of external forces; (2)the behavior of large-scale atmospheric flows; (3)the universality…

The nominating institution KIT on the breakthrough: Electronic signal processing suffers from limited bandwidth. This wall can be teared down by combining electronics with photonic circuits and with optical frequency combs as ultra-precise clocks. This approach unlocks a wealth of applications – from ultra-fast data communications to material analysis via…

The nominating institution IBM Research Europe on the breakthrough: RoboRXN is a pioneering project, integrating AI, Cloud and Automation to change chemistry, from a traditional type of business into a high-tech business. A chemist (from a remote location) draws the molecule of interest and the AI models assist in the…

The nominating institution The Chinese University of Hong Kong on the breakthrough: Li-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and consumer electronics are both flammable and toxic. They pose real safety risks that can harm the development of clean energy. Dr Yi-Chun Lu’s breakthrough explores a safe alternative.   Tags: Engineering,…

The nominating institution ETH Zurich on the breakthrough: Pulling drug carriers with magnetic fields is difficult to scale up to humans. Schuerle developed a different control strategy using a combination of two fields: one that makes micro-magnets rotate, and a stationary field that limits this effect to the target site.…

The nominating institution Max Planck Institute on the breakthrough: Wireless, soft, miniature mobile robots, inspired by soft-bodied tiny animals, could navigate and function safely inside the human body. They could be programmed for complex and diverse capabilities never before thought possible. This includes medical device functions, like local drug delivery,…

The nominating institution EPFL on the breakthrough: Safe and affordable housing and infrastructure are key to sustainable global development and rely on construction materials such as cement. Cement production is responsible for ~8% of global CO2 emission. Limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) allows up to 50% reduction of CO2 emission…

The nominating institution Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH on the breakthrough: Playing LEGO with molecules promises to be an appealing approach to facile fabrication of unusual nanostructures. Attractive quantum functionalities have been shown, but there is a problem: Molecules defy intuitive handling, their behaviour is hard to predict. To address this challenge,…

The nominating institution Frauenhofer IZM on the breakthrough: Melanie Jaeger-Erben is dedicated to transdisciplinary and transformative research crossing boundaries between technology and society, environment and economy. In her research she brings together stakeholders from different societal sectors to foster joint actions for the SDGs. Her projects bridge the gap between…

The company is pioneering in its sector by operating the only grid-connected wave energy array floaters in the world, which is operational under a Power Purchase Agreement in Gibraltar. Upon its expansion to 5MW, this project will supply up to 15% of the country’s electricity needs. The project generates clean…

Our rich sites, monuments and artefacts are talking, but we cannot understand their stories. By using innovative digital technologies and linking together their multimodal data available we can recover their memories. Therefore, with the EU’s financial support we are developing ground-breaking ICT solutions to analyse this complex data, retrieve, reconstruct,…

The nominating institution SCHOTT on the breakthrough: SCHOTT is the first company to mass produce ultra thin alumino-silicate glass, as required for foldable mobile display covers. Thickness below 0.1 mm allows for bending radii below 2 mm, after a so-called chemical toughening process. The glass is produced directly in the…

The nominating institution Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the breakthrough: While salt is an industrial byproduct, cement is the second largest polluting industry. We developed a simple, room temperature process by compressing a formulation of 95% of halite, to form very strong bricks and tiles. The bricks made by this…