The prize in the Small Medium Enterprises category was won by Laura van’t Veer from the Netherlands for the invention of a gene-based tissue test which makes possible to offer targeted treatment for breast cancer. A contact-free, secure technology for data transfer between mobile devices imagined by Austrian Franz Amtmann and Philippe Maugars from France won the award for contribution to the development to Near Field Communication (NCF). Some distinctions awarded creations of people outside Europe: a simplified blood-testing system proposed by Elizabeth Holmes (United States) , carbon nanotubes created by Sumio Iijima, Akira Koshio and Masako Yudasaka from Japan and a vaccine against human papillomavirus created by Ian Frazer (Australia), Jian Zhou† (China). Winners of the European Inventor Award are presented with a trophy in the shape of a sail. This year the trophy has been made using cutting-edge 3D printing technology Invented by 2014 Award winner Chuck Hull.
