1st Regional Butterfly Innovation Award Winners

The Butterfly Innovation Awards (BIA) Ceremony featured winners of the 1st BIA edition on 27th June. 

The Regional Cooperation Council launched the BIA for innovative, scalable, and market-based solutions from the Western Balkans. 

The Award aims to support the Western Balkans’ economic development by embracing digital transformation and fostering environmental sustainability.

The BIA aims to promote innovation culture in the Western Balkans by showcasing successful innovative achievements and empowering sensitive groups such as youth and women.

The RCC welcomes applications from innovation teams/individuals from the region for the categories presented below.

The ceremony was organised on the margins of the Ministerial Meeting of the Western Balkans Platforms on Culture, Research and Innovation, Education and Training in Tirana on 27-28 June 2022. 

The BIA in numbers

• 154 entries (95 single entries, 66 teams and 29 individuals), 
• Per category: 33 green, 45 industry, 11 STEM, 11 university, 37 women and 17 youth and 
• Per economy: Albania – 18, BiH – 35, Kosovo* – 21, Montenegro – 18, North Macedonia – 29 and Serbia – 35 entries. 

The winners 

The winners of the first Regional Butterfly Innovation Award are:

Industry Innovation Award

Orjon Rroji (Albania) - Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) and herbs treatment – the brain stimulation technique for the treatment of chronic conditions

This is a non-invasive and well-tolerated brain stimulation technique. With medicinal herbs, this technique can unlock the brain’s ability and improve a patient’s life with minimal side effects. This technique is cheap, non-invasive, painless, and safe. It is easy to administer and can be applied with portable equipment. It can be a valuable tool for the treatment of neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression, anxiety, Parkinson’s disease, and chronic pain. Wider use of this technique coupled with medicinal herbs could boost scientific research and contribute to new jobs in academia, agriculture and the processing industry.  

University Innovation Award

TiPy-AIR University of Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – degrading dangerous gases using chemical compound incorporated in building facades 

The TiPy-AIR innovation helps degrade dangerous gases in facades. It relies on using domestic pyrophyllite from the world's largest deposit in Bosnia and Herzegovina as the filler in facades. The innovation is based on suppressing the air concentrations of COx, NOx, and SOx gases using natural pyrophyllite with a de-shielded TiO2 structure. Gaseous pollutants collide with TiO2 in the facades under the influence of ultraviolet rays to degrade them into less dangerous forms. This innovation can be commercially attractive to local companies but also other pyrophyllite-rich regions. In addition, the innovation can help reduce air pollution which is one of the key environmental challenges in the Western Balkans.

Green Innovation Award

GoBeyond (Kosovo*) – using insect protein for the future of food and animal feed

GoBeyond is a startup focusing on harnessing the nutritional power of insects for the future of food and animal feed. GoBeyond’s products fall into three categories: dried & fresh larvae, sustainable protein & oils, and natural fertilisers. The global protein deficit will reach 60 million tons annually leaving around 25% of humans exposed to hunger. The use of insect protein is a proven approach to the pending food crisis and has a substantial positive impact on climate change. This new agricultural branch fits into four UN Sustainable Development Goals but is unknown in the Western Balkans although its global market is estimated at 3.4 billion USD. GoBeyond innovation aims to bridge this gap in the Western Balkans.

Youth Innovation Award

 GuesTool (Montenegro) – digital service designed to help tourists get all relevant information quickly and hospitality industry to optimise their operations while reducing costs

GuesTool is a digital service designed to help tourists and hospitality industry. With only 3 clicks tourists can find all relevant information about their stay including all types of support for available services. On the other hand, GuesTool allows hospitality staff to identify the tourists’ requests in a timely fashion, and process and respond more efficiently. It makes guests’ stay memorable, increasing their comfort and satisfaction. The tool makes hospitality workers’ lives easier by optimising their operations while reducing costs.

Women Innovation Award

WISE Group (North Macedonia) – multifunctional grape pomace additive enabling food manufacturers to create “clean label” products at a cost-effective price

WISE Group startup developed a multifunctional grape pomace additive. WISE Additive acts as an antioxidant, dietary fibre and natural food colouring ingredient. With WISE Additive food manufacturers can create “clean label” products at a cost-effective price. Apart from transforming the wineries’ conventional supply chains into a circular model, WISE Group’s innovation can contribute to creating new jobs and modernising the entire industry.

STEM Innovation Award 

BIOIRC doo Kragujevac (Serbia) –software enabling a sophisticated diagnosis of patients with heart disease thus revolutionising this field

SILICOFCM software enables a sophisticated diagnosis of patients with heart disease. It is a multi-modular, innovative in silico clinical trials solution for the design and functional optimisation of cardiac performance and monitoring the effectiveness of pharmacological treatment. SILICOFCM software is based on in silico clinical trials of familial cardiomyopathy which considers a comprehensive list of patient-specific features such as genetic, biological, pharmacologic, clinical, imaging and cellular aspects. This comprehensive approach optimises and tests medical treatment strategies to maximise positive therapeutic outcomes and helps reduce animal studies and human clinical trials. The innovation can be used by medical doctors, pharmaceutical companies and researchers.