Every year, the European Patent Office honours outstanding inventors. The public award ceremony of the European Inventor Award 2015 will take place on 11 June in Paris.

The finalists of this year's qualifying round have been chosen. For each of the five inventor awards in the categories of industry, SME, research, non-European entry and lifetime achievement, three finalists are portrayed. Andreas Manz, a Swiss researcher, could be the finalist honoured for the ‘lifetime achievement’ category. As an analytic chemist and nanoscientist, he is considered a pioneer in miniaturised analytical systems (lab-on-a-chip). These chips could allow for prompt and cost-effective medical diagnoses particularly in impoverished or remote parts of the world.