The best Slovenian innovations were selected and received awards at the National Innovation Day in early fall. The golden awards went to new drugs, smart machines and processes, sophisticated materials and a new type of fast boat.
A total of 245 projects were evaluated, with 10 projects earning gold awards, 27 silver, and 15 bronze. Pharmaceutical group Krka (TOP300: rank 5) was awarded gold for its “technological platform with dual-release kinetics for treating hypertension”. The solution is an important strategic step for the company which increasingly focuses on complex and combined drugs. The group is also the national leader in the number of European patent applications. One of the golden awards also went to Krka’s peer, Swiss pharma giant Novartis. Its Slovenian R&D facilities play an increasingly important role. Its award winning solution called “The Stability Time Machine for Biologics” relates to “stability modelling of biological drugs and predicts a long-term stability over several years” - a key element in biological drug development, simplifying the production, inventory and supply processes.
Aluminum company Impol (TOP300: rank 8) received gold for its new aluminum-magnesium alloy with mechanical properties comparable to steel. The production of the new alloy is both economically efficient and sustainable, with a low carbon footprint. Slovenian steel company SIJ Acroni developed a unique steel for use in tokamak-type fusion reactors. Another gold for a sophisticated new material.
Companies like Krka, Novartis, Impol, and SIJ Acroni are among serial recipients of the national innovation awards. The same goes for Steklarna Hrastnik glassworks. This year Steklarna Hrastnik won gold with its hybrid regenerative furnace allowing for more sustainable production.
Iskra Pio, an SME focused on clean and cleaning technologies, won the golden award for its unique isolator system for adding powdered materials into pharmaceutical processes with no risk of contamination. Keko Equipment is another gold winning SME: the company developed machinery for the automated production of solid oxide fuel/electrolytic cells with automatic quality control throughout the process. The MPN Analyser PRO is “an innovative IoT device for quantifying faecal bacteria in drinking and bathing water”. The solution developed by small tech company Microbium utilizes machine vision and cloud-based software. Tab System’s SMART iCon is an industrial machine vision solution for fast and accurate defect and feature detection in wooden boards. The award winning solution provides for “up to 5 percent higher yield” in the production process of wooden boards. Roto is one of Slovenia’s best fast-growing companies. It earned the golden award with its Hydra 530, “the first monolithic polyethylene boat with air step technology”. Air step technology “creates an air cushion under the boat’s hull, making the ride more comfortable, while improving fuel efficiency and extending drive range”.
The annual national innovations award selection organized by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce with partners (including SPIRIT Slovenia) is an excellent overview of the nation’s creativity and its vivid innovation ecosystem. This year Slovenia improved its position in the European innovation scoreboard and is ranked 13th ahead of the nations like Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic.
