The pan-European team that developed primary signalling technologies for the European Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) piloted by Laurent Lestarquit and José Ángel Ávila Rodríguez, was given special distinction during the 12th European Inventor Awards in Vienna on 15 June.
The European Patent Office (EPO) said that the technologies developed by this team have helped enhance Galileo’s accuracy while reducing the electricity requirements of satellites. The technologies also help to ensure compatibility and interoperability with other satellite navigation systems, such as the US GPS system.
“The signalling procedures developed by the pan-European team means that Galileo is a very different system to the other satellite navigation systems and is helping to put technical progress and growth in Europe on solid foundations", Benoît Battistelli, EPO President, stated.
Galileo is the European satellite navigation system and plays a key role in the European space strategy presented last October (see EUROPE 11655). It is expected to be operational in 2020 (see EUROPE 11689).
Other prizes awarded. Five other prizes were awarded. As part of the "Industry" section, the Dutch haematologist, Jan van den Boogaart, and the Austrian biochemist, Oliver Hayden, received the prize for developing their automated, computer-based blood test for malaria. In the "Non-EPO countries" section, the EPO awarded a prize to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for developing imaging technology optical coherence tomography (OCT). This machine helps detect serious eye diseases. As part of the “Small and Medium-sized Enterprises” section a synthetic wax developed by the German company Deurex received a prize. This invention consists of a 'super sponge' for decontaminating maritime areas that have experienced oil spills. The “Popular Prize” was awarded to the Moroccan biologist Adnane Remmal, who developed a system for strengthening antibiotic action by way of essential oils. In addition, the Italian microbiologist, Rino Rappuoli, received the “Lifetime Achievement” award for having been one of the pioneers of conjugate vaccines and having created the first human genome derived vaccine in 1999.
For 2017, at around 450 applications were submitted, from which 15 finalists were shortlisted. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)