The European Patent Office (EPO) and the European Commission have honoured the five prizewinners from Germany, Switzerland, the USA and Canada at a gala ceremony in Madrid under the presence of Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia of Asturias.

The prize recognises inventors and innovations that have made a significant and lasting contribution to technical progress in Europe and beyond and thus have strengthened Europe's economic position. The European Inventor of the Year Award was jointly instituted by the European Commission and the European Patent Office (EPO).

Last year, two major concerns of citizens – health and environment - were the big winners when the European Commission and the European Patent Office (EPO) in the 2009 European Inventor of the Year awards ceremony, in Prague

There are four categories:

Lifetime achievement

Wolfgang Krätschmer (Germany) who discovered a whole new field of research in physics, laying the foundations for the creation of new materials.

Industry

Albert Markendorf (Switzerland) and Raimund Loser (Germany). Their 3D scanning and measuring system opened up a new level of accuracy in industrial measuring systems and revolutionised the field.

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)/research

Jürgen Pfitzer and Helmut Nägele (Germany). With their Arboform liquid wood they made a breakthrough in the sustainable use of renewable resources.

Non-European countries

Sanjai Kohli and Steven Chen (USA). Thanks to their work, GPS systems can now also be used commercially and are a part of our everyday lives.

Ben Wiens and Danny Epps (Canada) who developed electrochemical fuel cells which are now a commercially successful alternative to fossil fuels.

Among the array of innovation awards, the European Inventor of the Year stands out not only because of the quality and prominence of the winning researchers, but also because of its unique selection procedure and geographical span. In selecting the award winners, an independent and high-profile international jury was able to draw on the expertise of the EPO and of patent examiners from national patent offices. Twelve candidates from nine different countries had been selected by the jury in march.

This is the fifth time that the highly regarded innovation prizes have been awarded by the European Patent Office in conjunction with the European Commission.

The awards, which are purely symbolic and involve no material recompense, honour inventive individuals and teams whose pioneering work provides answers to the challenges of our age and thereby contributes to progress and prosperity. Nomination proposals can be submitted by the public and by patent examiners at the European Patent Office and Europe's national patent offices, and the winners are chosen from among the nominees by a high-calibre international jury.