Falling Walls Finalists 2026
Congratulations to all 2026 Finalists!
We are pleased to announce this year’s Finalists and Winners, who are all now one step closer to winning the title Science Breakthrough of the Year. We will be celebrating all Finalists and Winners at the Falling Walls Science Summit from 6–9 November 2026 in Berlin.
Next steps:
• The Winners of the Women's Impact Award will be announced on 13 August via the Falling Walls newsletter and social media channels.
• Science Breakthroughs of the Year in the following five categories: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering & Technology, Social Sciences & Humanities, and Art & Science will be officially announced from the end of August onwards, week by week.
• The Science Breakthrough of the Year for the Engage, Emerging Talents (Falling Walls Lab) and Science Start-Ups (Venture) categories will be revealed on 6 November during the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin.
• The Science Breakthroughs of the Year from all categories will be invited to present their groundbreaking work live on stage in Berlin on 9 November.
• The 100 Finalists of Falling Walls Lab (Emerging Talents) will be announced on 1 October 2026.
We are eager to share their inspiring stories of breakthrough research with you.
Meet the breakthroughs finalists and explore their interviews to learn more about the ideas shaping the future of science.
Name | Category | Country | Breakthrough |
|---|---|---|---|
Stanford University | Life Sciences | United States | Breaking the Wall of AI-Engineered Phages Genome language models generate novel bacteriophages that could help overcome antibiotic-resistant bacteria. |
University of Bonn | Life Sciences | Germany | Breaking the Wall of Vision Loss by a Retina Implant The PRIMA retinal implant restores vision by converting camera-captured images into electrical signals that stimulate the retina. |
FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg | Life Sciences | Germany | Breaking the Wall of Autoimmune Diseases Engineered CAR T cells reset the immune system to achieve long-term remission of autoimmune diseases without lifelong immunosuppression. |
Chalmers University of Technology | Life Sciences | Sweden | Breaking the Wall of Lost Touch and Movement A brain–computer interface restores movement and touch by enabling intuitive control of a robotic arm through neural signals. |
University of Pennsylvania | Life Sciences | United States | Breaking the Wall of Non-Addictive Pain Relief A targeted gene therapy relieves chronic pain by mimicking opioid analgesia without causing addiction or systemic side effects. |
Blue Ice Labs GmbH | Life Sciences | Germany | Breaking the Wall of Invisible Lipid Transport in Cells A new imaging platform reveals how lipids move through living cells, opening new avenues for treating metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases. |
Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research | Life Sciences | Germany | Breaking the Wall of Deadly Bacterial Infections Neutralizing the main toxin of Staphylococcus aureus allows the immune system to clear severe pneumonia without directly targeting the bacterium. |
Stanford University | Life Sciences | United States | Breaking the Wall of Lysosomal Brain Disease New discoveries in lysosomal metabolism identify therapeutic targets shared across multiple neurodegenerative diseases. |
Cornell University | Life Sciences | United States | Breaking the Wall of Reversible Male Contraception Pausing sperm production at the onset of meiosis offers a reversible, non-hormonal approach to male contraception while preserving future fertility. |
Tsinghua University | Life Sciences | China | Breaking the Wall of Viral Infection and Defense Decoding the molecular machinery of coronavirus replication reveals new targets for antiviral therapies against current and future pandemics. |
City University of New York | Physical Sciences | United States | Breaking the Wall of Light-Matter Interactions Structured materials with tailored spatial and temporal properties enable unprecedented control of light for next-generation photonic technologies. |
University of Chicago | Physical Sciences | United States | Breaking the Wall of Quantum with Molecules & Proteins Molecular spin structures and proteins provide programmable qubits that can be chemically or biologically assembled into scalable quantum systems. |
Boise State University & Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research | Physical Sciences | United States & Germany | Breaking the Wall of Ice Making Newly discovered fungal ice-nucleating proteins enable controlled freezing for applications ranging from snowmaking and cloud seeding to cryopreservation and food technologies. |
University of Vienna | Physical Sciences | Austria | Breaking the Wall of Quantum Interferometry Advanced matter-wave interferometry demonstrates the quantum wave nature of increasingly large and complex molecules, pushing the limits of macroscopic quantum physics. |
Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC) | Physical Sciences | Australia | Breaking the Wall of Quantum Simulation: Quantum Twins A silicon-based quantum simulation platform enables atomically precise simulations of materials and chemical systems beyond the reach of classical computers. |
National University of Singapore | Physical Sciences | Singapore | Breaking the Wall of Sugar Synthesis Using Radicals A photochemical radical glycosylation method enables the sustainable synthesis of unprotected carbohydrates without wasteful protecting-group chemistry. |
Justus Liebig University Giessen | Physical Sciences | Germany | Breaking the Wall of Chemical Energy Storage The first stable hexanitrogen molecule introduces a new class of ultra-high-energy, carbon-free energy storage materials. |
Sorbonne Université, Paris, France | Physical Sciences | France | Breaking the Wall of Biological Opacity A breakthrough in wave physics enables holographic imaging through opaque biological tissue by overcoming light scattering. |
ETH Zurich | Physical Sciences | Switzerland | Breaking the Wall of Bio-Inspired Rare Earth Recovery Nature-inspired molecular frameworks recover rare earth elements from electronic waste, providing a sustainable alternative to conventional mining. |
University of California, Los Angeles | Physical Sciences | United States | Breaking the Wall of Quantum Materials Design Molecularly programmable quantum materials allow precise control over electronic, optical, and quantum properties through programmable molecular building blocks. |
Stanford University | Engineering & Technology | United States | Breaking the Wall of Optical Amplification A chip-scale optical amplifier delivers the performance of room-sized systems while consuming minimal power and supporting next-generation optical technologies. |
City University of Hong Kong | Engineering & Technology | Hong Kong | Breaking the Wall of Printing Transparent Materials Plasmonic photothermal printing enables room-temperature fabrication of transparent metal oxides with nanoscale precision using ultrafast lasers. |
Washington University in St. Louis | Engineering & Technology | United States | Breaking the Wall of Artificial Hibernation Focused ultrasound safely induces a reversible hibernation-like state that could protect the brain and other organs during medical emergencies. |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Engineering & Technology | United States | Breaking the Wall of the Photonics Yield Crisis A topology-inspired photonic chip architecture eliminates manufacturing errors, achieving the first 100% wafer-scale yield for quantum photonic devices. |
Nanyang Technological University | Engineering & Technology | Singapore | Breaking the Wall of Terahertz Electronics Novel electronic metadevices and nanoplasma devices outperform conventional transistors, enabling terahertz electronics and next-generation wireless communications. |
University of Edinburgh | Engineering & Technology | United Kingdom | Breaking the Wall of Plastic-to-Medicine Conversion Engineered microbes transform plastic waste into essential medicines, creating a circular and low-emission approach to pharmaceutical manufacturing. |
The University of Hong Kong | Engineering & Technology | Hong Kong | Breaking the Wall of Living Electronics Hydrogel-based transistors create living electronics that integrate seamlessly with biological tissue instead of adapting rigid electronics to the body. |
Peking University | Engineering & Technology | China | Breaking the Wall of Full-Spectrum Communication Integrated photonic transceivers unify fibre-optic and wireless communications across microwave-to-terahertz frequencies, enabling ultrabroadband data transmission. |
University of California, Los Angeles | Engineering & Technology | United States | Breaking the Wall of Cost-Effective Hydrogen fuel Cells A new fuel cell catalyst design combines exceptional activity and durability to enable cost-effective, long-lasting hydrogen energy systems. |
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor | Engineering & Technology | United States | Breaking the Wall of Distributed Ammonia Synthesis An artificial photosynthesis platform converts air and water into green ammonia using only sunlight, enabling decentralized fertilizer and fuel production. |
King's College London | Social Sciences & Humanities | United Kingdom | Breaking the Wall of Inequality in the Brain This research shows that macroeconomic inequality shapes children's brain development, linking economic systems directly to mental health. |
Stanford University | Social Sciences & Humanities | United States | Breaking the Wall of the Turing Trap Evidence shows that AI delivers the greatest economic benefits when augmenting rather than replacing human workers. |
University of California, Berkeley | Social Sciences & Humanities | United States | Breaking the Wall of Hidden Whale Vowels Using interpretable AI and linguistic analysis, this research reveals speech-like vowel structures in sperm whale communication, providing the closest known analogue to human language in another species. |
Harvard University | Social Sciences & Humanities | United States | Breaking the Wall of Rising Polarization This research shows that political polarization is driven not only by like-mindedness but also by people's preference for politically extreme and confident members of their own group. |
Chalmers University of Technology | Social Sciences & Humanities | Sweden | Breaking the Wall of Apolitical Climate Futures This research replaces overly optimistic energy scenarios with evidence-based forecasts that help align climate policy with realistic technology deployment. |
Université de Namur | Social Sciences & Humanities | Belgium | Breaking the Wall of Human-like Language in Machines A human-inspired approach enables AI to acquire language through communication and interaction rather than text prediction alone. |
University of Oxford | Social Sciences & Humanities | United Kingdom | Breaking the Wall of AI Political Persuasion Large-scale studies reveal how AI systems influence human beliefs while exposing a fundamental trade-off between persuasiveness and truthfulness. |
University of Cambridge | Social Sciences & Humanities | United Kingdom | Breaking the Wall of Cognitive Immunity This research builds cognitive immunity against disinformation by using "prebunking" to help people recognize and resist misleading information before they encounter it. |
Stanford Graduate School of Business | Social Sciences & Humanities | United States | Breaking the Wall of the Ethnic Growth Trap New evidence explains how societies can escape ethnic conflict and unlock the economic benefits of diversity. |
University of Chicago | Social Sciences & Humanities | United States | Breaking the Wall of Germany's Invisible Divide This research identifies the structural barriers that keep regions economically behind and provides a blueprint for restoring innovation and long-term growth. |
UCLA / SCI-Arc | Art & Science | United States | Breaking the Wall of Planetary Simulation Earth Engine' reimagines video games by placing the planet, rather than the player, at the centre of the experience through real-time environmental data. |
IKD - Institute for Composition, Conducting and Computer Music, Bruckneruni Linz | Art & Science | Austria | Breaking the Wall of Quantum Music BruQner' – The Sound of Entanglement – transforms quantum entanglement into an audiovisual performance that makes quantum physics tangible through music. |
Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research, University of Plymouth | Art & Science | United Kingdom | Breaking the Wall of Quantum Computing for Creativity Quantum computing is established as a new medium for musical composition, expanding the creative possibilities of both music and quantum technology. |
Art & Science | Breaking the Wall of the Intangible Liquid Strata' explores the hidden ocean by artistically visualising the limits of scientific knowledge and deep-sea exploration. | ||
Artist - freelancer | Art & Science | Germany | Breaking the Wall of Computation with Fluidics Fluid Anatomy' demonstrates analogue water and air computing as an alternative computational model through the dynamics of fluidics. |
Universidade Católica Portuguesa | Art & Science | Portugal | Breaking the Wall of Lithium Recovery with Bacteria Extremophile microorganisms recover lithium from electronic waste, proposing a regenerative alternative to conventional mining for the energy transition. |
Marco Donnarumma Studio | Art & Science | Germany | Breaking the Wall of Silence: I Am Your Body This work reimagines sound through the perspectives of deafness, prosthetics, and artificial intelligence, challenging conventional ideas of listening. |
Harvard University | Art & Science | United States | Breaking the Wall of Computation Compost Computational Compost' transforms waste heat from computing into fertile soil, connecting digital infrastructure with ecological regeneration. |
KU Leuven | Art & Science | Belgium | Breaking the Wall of Obligate Consumption Mi-Hy' converts household wastewater into electricity, clean water, and nutrients, transforming homes from consumers into producers of essential resources. |
Independent Artist | Art & Science | Japan | Breaking the Wall of the Human Operator xoxo-skeleton' is an AI-driven architectural exoskeleton that physically explores humanity's growing dependence on artificial intelligence by making the human body part of the machine. |
Technical University of Munich (TUM) | Women's Impact Award | Germany | Participatory Algorithmic Justice: A multi-sited ethnography to advance algorithmic justice through participatory design Participatory algorithmic justice co-designs AI interventions with marginalised communities across Europe, Africa, and Latin America to identify and redress algorithmic harms. |
University of Western Ontario | Women's Impact Award | Canada | Mobile-based Telemonitoring Program (Raabta) for Pregnant Individuals at High Risk for Preeclampsia in Pakistan Raabta, a culturally tailored mobile telemonitoring program, strengthens self-care and antenatal access for pregnant women at high risk of preeclampsia in Pakistan. |
New York University | Women's Impact Award | United States | Roots and Remedies of Extreme Heat Inequality in Cities Combining NASA satellite thermal imaging with socioeconomic analysis shows how income inequality drives deadly urban heat exposure in cities. |
University of Manitoba | Women's Impact Award | Canada | Partnerships for Progress: Co-designing community solutions to address intergenerational Type 2 Diabetes in First Nations. Community co-designed, culturally grounded interventions help prevent intergenerational Type 2 diabetes among First Nations families in Manitoba. |
University of Roehampton | Women's Impact Award | United Kingdom | Gender Empowerment through Politics in Classrooms (G-EPIC) A six-country classroom intervention narrows the gender gap in political confidence, raising political self-efficacy among disadvantaged teenage girls. |
Leibniz University Hannover | Women's Impact Award | Germany | EARTHWORM EARTHWORM uses fast MRI and AI to study hidden uterine wave motion, aiming to speed up the diagnosis of endometriosis. |
University of Birmingham | Women's Impact Award | United Kingdom | Breaking the Wall of Abortion Access: Activist Misoprostol Dosage Form for a Stagnant Technology The first activist-designed misoprostol dosage form, co-created with feminist networks, expands safe abortion access in criminalised, under-resourced settings. |
McMaster University | Women's Impact Award | Canada | Aftermath of COVID: Rise of Autoimmunity Simple blood tests reveal that Long COVID is driven by measurable autoimmune dysfunction, enabling earlier diagnosis and prognosis, especially for women. |
University of Uyo | Women's Impact Award | Nigeria | Promoting Disability-Inclusive Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Nigeria (Abia State) Data visualisation maps how climate change differently affects persons with disabilities in Nigeria, informing disability-inclusive adaptation policy. |
Kathmandu University | Women's Impact Award | Nepal | Empowering the Midlife Transition: Redefining Quality of Life Determinants for Women in Nepal Validating the MENQOL tool for Nepal gives clinicians a localised way to measure and address menopausal symptoms in midlife women. |
Fundación CoMunidad | Engage | Panama | Breaking the Wall of Citizen Exclusion Resilient Watershed is a community-led climate initiative in Panama’s Santa María Watershed. It combines climate science, local knowledge and participatory planning to co-create Nature-based Solutions for restoration, water security, and disaster risk reduction. By engaging citizens through workshops, resilience assessments, agroforestry, and mangrove restoration, the project supports ecosystems, livelihoods, and watershed governance as a scalable resilience model. |
ClearWater Futures Foundation | Engage | Canada | Breaking the Wall of Climate Fear Future Chicken is a climate science communication initiative that empowers children to care about the planet through animation, storytelling, and hands-on learning. It uses the time-travelling character Future Chicken to turn climate anxiety into hopeful action. Built on over 10 years of collaboration with 5,000+ children at ClearWater Farm Learning Lab in Canada, it has created 300+ SDG-aligned videos. With nearly 40 million views worldwide, it is inspiring young changemakers to use science and bold kindness to create a better future. |
German Aerospace Center | Engage | Germany | Break the Wall of Science Education Inequality CosmoAmautas is a science education initiative in Peru that uses astronomy to strengthen scientific literacy and climate awareness in underserved communities. By training teachers and building scientist–teacher networks, it integrates the scientific method and climate education into classrooms through inquiry-based learning. The project has reached over 200 teachers and 10,000 students, fostering local agency, gender equity, and long-term engagement with science, astronomy and climate action. |
BioTreaT | Engage | Austria | Breaking the Wall of Microbial Invisibility mikroVERSUM is a hands-on science center that makes the invisible world of microbes tangible through interactive exhibits, experiments, and sensory experiences. Visitors explore how microbes shape climate, soil health, and carbon cycles as both greenhouse gas producers and climate allies. Developed with 100+ researchers and students, the project promotes microbial literacy, inspires STEM learning, and empowers people to protect climate and biodiversity. By incorporating the arts, MikroMondo aims to increase the reach beyond science. |
Univeristy of Warsaw | Engage | Poland | Breaking the Wall of Fungal Invisibility in Conservation FunDive is a pan-European initiative using citizen science, AI, eDNA, and DNA-based identification to improve fungal biodiversity monitoring. By engaging volunteers across Europe, it generates high-quality, open-access data to map fungal distributions and support conservation. The project contributes to climate adaptation by improving ecological models, tracking biodiversity change, and building a long-term community for fungal monitoring and public engagement. |
Smartel | Engage | Rwanda | Breaking the Wall of Barriers to Local Climate Adaptation Smartel is a farmer-led science engagement initiative in Rwanda and Nigeria that co-creates climate-resilient food systems through smart hydroponics and circular economy practices. By transforming farmers into co-researchers, it combines scientific knowledge with local expertise to develop sustainable solutions. The project reduces water use, repurposes plastic waste, improves food security, and has trained over 5,000 farmers while deploying 500+ hydroponic systems for climate adaptation. |
Youth Climate Council Ghana | Engage | Ghana | Breaking the Wall of Exclusion in Climate Policy Youth Climate Council Ghana equips young people with climate science knowledge and leadership skills to drive locally led solutions and influence policy. Through training, ecosystem restoration, innovation hubs, and policy dialogues, over 6,000 young people have become active climate leaders. The model has supported community initiatives, informed local decision-making, and has been successfully replicated across multiple countries as a scalable science-to-policy approach. |
IEEE | Engage | Colombia | Breaking the Wall of Climate Decision Inequality AgrocolIA is an AI-powered device designed with smallholder farmers in Colombia to strengthen climate resilience. It monitors environmental conditions and crop health, detects pests and diseases, and provides accessible recommendations for planting, irrigation, and risk prevention. Through workshops and co-design, farmers actively shape the technology, enhancing climate resilience and sustainable practices. |
University of Manitoba | Engage | Canada | Breaking the Wall of Arctic Isolation The ACCESS project supports Indigenous Arctic communities facing climate-driven challenges such as unsafe ice, extreme weather, and limited connectivity. By co-developing solutions with northern communities, ACCESS addresses communication gaps through a drone airship that extends reliable, high-speed satellite connectivity. Technology enhances safety, environmental monitoring, and emergency response for people traveling beyond remote locations. |
Athens University of Economics and Business | Engage | Greece | Breaking the Wall of Urban Water Uncertainty Water-Futures, an ERC Synergy Grant, brings science, people and finance together to transform urban water systems for a sustainable world. Integrating water, socio-economics, decision sciences, AI and systems innovation, it co-creates climate- and ecosystem-resilient, fair, affordable solutions pathways through stakeholders Living Labs globally. Its open digital commons of data, models, evidence and tools empowers cities to demand transparent, science-based, beyond-GDP, future-ready water decisions for sustainable well-being for generations to come. |
Masungi Georeserve Foundation | Engage | Philippines | Breaking the Wall of Evidence Without Experience Masungi Georeserve transforms a threatened karst ecosystem near Manila into a living laboratory for climate action, conservation, and science engagement. Through low-impact biomimetic trails, guided experiences, and digital storytelling, it connects people with biodiversity and restoration. The project protects nearly 3,000 hectares of watershed forests, safeguards 800+ threatened species, supports climate resilience for 20 million Filipinos, and engages thousands of visitors annually. |
Smartphones For Water Nepal | Engage | Nepal | Breaking the Wall of Water Data Gaps Citizen Watch Water is a citizen science initiative that empowers citizens and young researchers to generate reliable hydro-meteorological data in data-scarce urban regions of Nepal using low-cost technologies and mobile applications. Since 2017, the initiative has engaged more than 700 citizen scientists, 3,000 students, and 100 young researchers, helping to strengthen hydro-meteorological data systems and support sustainable water management and evidence-based water governance. |
SustyVibes | Engage | United Kingdom | Breaking the Wall of Eco-Anxiety The Eco-Anxiety Africa Project (TEAP) by SustyVibes explores how climate change affects mental and emotional well-being in African communities. Through research, community dialogues, storytelling, and capacity-building, it helps people understand and respond to climate-related distress while staying engaged in climate action. By connecting scientific evidence with lived experiences, TEAP strengthens climate resilience and supports informed, community-led adaptation. |
Portland State University | Engage | United States of America | Breaking the Wall of Invisible Heat Risk Heat Science for All (HS4A) mobilizes residents as community scientists to map street-level heat, humidity, and air quality in 130+ regions worldwide. By combining citizen science with spatial analytics, it has generated millions of high-resolution data points that reveal hidden heat inequities and inform urban cooling strategies, forestry efforts, public health initiatives, and emergency planning. HS4A empowers communities to drive equitable, data-informed climate adaptation. |
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México | Engage | Mexico | Breaking the Wall of Fragmented Climate Thinking Climatón UNAM is a Mexican youth participation initiative created in 2020 by UNAM with UNICEF. The project invites young people aged 16 to 26 to understand the climate crisis through their experience and territories and build collective solutions to local problems. Since 2020, it has engaged over 1,000 young innovators from 26 states. Guided by specialists, participants combine scientific knowledge, community lore, and different disciplines to turn environmental concerns into viable solutions. |
Dr. Waldemar Hoffmann, CEO | Venture | Switzerland | Breaking the Wall of Organ Shortage Donated livers have hours before they're used or discarded. Apersys keeps them alive for days — saving organs and patients, while creating an unprecedented platform for drug testing, gene therapy, and regenerative medicine. |
Peter Hörstedt, CEO | Venture | Sweden | Breaking the Wall of Scalable Quantum Computers We develop a post‑fabrication tuning process that corrects frequency errors in superconducting quantum chips (like tuning a guitar, but we tune QPUs). The method improves yield and scalability by adjusting Josephson junctions after manufacturing. |
Dr. Nadia Regina Chalfoun, CSO | Venture | Argentina | Breaking the Wall of food preservation BioBlends develops gas-based bio-preservatives that protect food from spoilage using natural antifungal compounds produced by bacteria, helping manufacturers extend shelf life and reduce food waste without chemical additives. |
Dr. Joseph Perryman, Co-Founder, CTO | Venture | Netherlands | Breaking the Wall of Costly Carbon Removal Brineworks’ core technology is its electrolyzer, which pulls CO₂ directly out of the air using electricity and salt water. The same machine also makes green hydrogen, the second critical building block for clean fuels. |
Dr. Anthea Wirges, CEO | Venture | Germany | Breaking the Wall of ineffective and inaccessible CAR Ts CARTemis develops personalized immune cell therapies designed to eliminate hard-to-treat cancers by revealing a new targeting mechanism to strike both the tumor and its surrounding defense network, ensuring a more durable cure for patients. |
Dr. Clara Ganhör, CEO | Venture | Austria | Breaking the Wall of Silent Endometriosis Suffering Endometriosis is a disease affecting 1 out of 10 women, which is currently mainly diagnosed through surgery. We're building a self-sampling diagnostic test for endometriosis using menstrual blood - the first of its kind globally. |
Dr. Daniel Kaute, CEO | Venture | United Kingdom | Breaking the Wall to Circular Textiles Evoralis develops powerful enzymes that break down mixed and blended textiles into their original building blocks. Our goal is to make it possible to enable recycling for the fashion industry become truly sustainable and circular. |
Dr. Alexander Pichler, CEO | Venture | Austria | Breaking the Wall of ineffective Cancer Treatment. Over 80% of cancer treatments fail. exalt® provides a rapid test that identifies the most effective therapy for each patient by testing drugs directly on their tumor cells. This enables faster, more precise, and personalized treatment decisions. |
Dr. Tobias Schröter, CEO | Venture | Germany | Digitizing bioprocesses using industrial biosensors. For industrial manufacturers optimizing bioprocesses through digitization, FluIDect offers advanced sensor technology for immediate, on-site analysis of liquid products. |
Dan Gengenbach, CTO | Venture | Germany | Commercial Resource Extraction in Europe Resource extraction is incredibly expensive in Europe due to ultra-high drilling costs in hard rock. We invented a contactless drilling technology using lasers to decrease that cost by 10x and enable competitive Geothermal & mining. |
Dr. Rawand Rasheed, CEO | Venture | United States of America | Breaking the Wall of 100 Year Old AC Technology Air conditioners waste up to 80% of their energy removing humidity from the air. Helix Earth uses NASA tech to pull out moisture before it reaches the AC, cutting energy use by up to 50% and improving indoor air quality without replacing equipment. |
Prof. Glenn King, Chief Scientific Officer | Venture | Australia | Breaking the Wall of Catastrophic Heart and Brain Damage Infensa Bioscience is developing a new drug to protect the heart and brain from damage during heart attacks and strokes. This treatment works alongside standard care to reduce long‑term injury and improve recovery. |
Guillaume Pétriat, CEO | Venture | France | Breaking the Wall of AED Fear and Unavailability We are developing an external defibrillator that is truly pocket‑sized, intuitive for anyone to use, and as powerful as today’s professional devices. It is powered with AI, and connects to the user’s phone to automatically alert emergency services. |
InSpacePropulsion Technologies Dr. Felix Lauck, CEO | Venture | Germany | Breaking the Wall of toxic space mobility ISPTech provides propulsion solutions for every spacecraft and every mission. The company offers cost-effective, robust and quickly available in-space propulsion solutions based on more than 10 years of R&D at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). |
Dr. Jana Maria Weinand, CFO & Co-Founder | Venture | Germany | battery limitations blocking global mobility electrification leitspalt develops multifunctional battery packs based on an aerospace-inspired cooling structure that combines cooling system, inner frame and cell holding into one system, making EV batteries faster, safer, lighter and more cost-efficient. |
Dr. Samarth Vadia, CEO | Venture | Germany | Breaking the Wall of Data Center Efficiency Linque is building programmable silicon photonics based energy-efficient AI infrastructure. Our first product is an all-optical switch for data center networks that has 20x power reduction than conventional ethernet switches. |
Dr. Sarah Carroll, CEO | Venture | South Africa | Breaking the Wall of Aquaculture's Biological Blind Spot. Aquaculture loses billions yearly to disease and inefficiencies. MariHealth uses protein science to deliver precise biological insights, early diagnostics, and novel treatments - building the intelligence layer for a sustainable food system. |
Oliver Piepenstock, CEO | Venture | Germany | Breaking the Wall of Heart Failure Noah Labs Vox is an AI-driven software that detects worsening heart failure by analyzing 10-sec daily voice clips from a smartphone. The patented deep learning algorithm identifies fluid buildup in the lungs up to 21 days before hospitalization. |
Prof. Dr. Wael Hanna, President & Chief Medical Officer | Venture | Canada | Breaking the Wall of Indecision in Lung Cancer Treatment. Lung cancer kills more people than all other cancers combined because doctors can't match patients to the right treatment. NodeAI augments EBUS-TBNA (the biopsy that guides those decisions) so far more patients get the therapy that works for them. |
Dr. Juho Uzkurt Kaljunen, CEO and CTO | Venture | Finland | Breaking the Wall of Wasted Nutrients NPHarvest recovers value from your wastewater. Our Nutrient Catcher technology, captures up to 90 % of nitrogen and phosphorus from liquid waste streams, e.g. liquid digestate produced by biogas and biomethane plants, to create renewable fertilizers. |
Dr. Robert Lo Bue, Head of Operations | Venture | United Kingdom | Breaking the Wall of Global Crop Disease Crop diseases cost the global economy over $200Bn each year. Our technology resurrects defeated resistance genes, giving crops the tools to defend themselves. |
Kirsty Lloyd-Jukes, CEO | Venture | United Kingdom | Breaking the Wall of Long-term Memory for Robots We are building long-term memory for robots - spanning hours, days, and weeks, not just minutes. Without this, robots cannot operate reliably or at scale in dynamic, unstructured environments unless they are under constant human supervision |
Dr. François SIMOENS, CEO and co-founder | Venture | France | Break the Wall of 3D Vision LiDAR Size and Scalability SteerLight reinvents 3D vision with on‑chip silicon‑photonics LiDAR. Our compact, high‑performance, affordable solution enables wide LiDAR adoption for safety uses: driver assistance, human–robot interaction, drone navigation, and urban mobility. |
Dr. Prantar Tamuli, CEO | Venture | United Kingdom | Breaking the Wall of Unsustainable Industrial Materials We program bacteria to sequester CO₂ and grow high-performance construction materials such as manufactured sand, insulation, and cladding. Our vision is to build a biology-driven manufacturing platform to produce industrial materials at scale. |
Dr. Til Schlotter, CEO | Venture | Switzerland | Medicine's Blind Spot: Reading Protein Isoforms One by One UNOMR solves one of medicine's biggest blind spots: the inability to fully read (i.e. sequence) proteins. As proteins govern every biological process, UNOMR's technology lays the foundation for the next medical revolution and longevity advances. |