The European Commission wants to encourage the participation of women in innovative enterprises. With the EU Prize for Women Innovators, three women innovators will be rewarded for their hard work and success on Europe's research scene, developing, managing and commercialising the results. The condition to apply is that at some point during their careers women were or have been beneficiaries of EU funding for projects under the RTD Framework Programme (FP) or the Competitive and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP).

The EU has opened the registration for its first Prize for Women Innovators through a call for proposals published last 20 of July. The prize is addressed to three women innovators, who have seen the fruits of their labour with innovation go to market. The EU Women Innovators prize intends to boost the awareness of why innovation is important, and why an increasing number of women entrepreneurs are needed in both research and industry. In this topic, to promote research to tackle the biggest societal challenges facing Europe and the world, the European Commission has published the grants for research and innovation which are the biggest ever such funding package in this field. The EU believes these women could help foster innovation and entrepreneurship in other women too.

Those keen to take part in the contest must submit their applications by 20 September 2011 at the Women Innovators prize application site. Furthermore, interested parties must meet six conditions in order to participate in the competition: the contestant must be a woman living in either a EU Member States or Associated Country to the EU's Research Framework Programme; she must be a founder or co-founder of an active company; the company must have been registered before 1 January 2009; the company should have posted a turnover of at least €100,000 in 2010; the contestant must be a recipient of EU funding from either the EU Research Framework Programme or Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP); and the candidate must be active in research and innovation activities, linked to the origin of the product or services, provided by the company she founded or co-founded.

With regard to the prizes, the first prize worth €100,000, second prize €50,000 and third prize €25,000. After the candidates selection, the award ceremony will take place at the Innovation Convention in Brussels, Belgium on 5 December 2011.