These 8 groundbreaking innovations are the winners of Blue Tulip Awards 2020

The judges have decided, the winners of the Blue Tulip Awards 2020 are announced. Over 700 innovative ideas were tried, tested and judged but now the time has finally come to present the eight innovations that are aiming to change the world as we know it: shaping the ‘new’ normal in themes of security, finance, climate, living and working, nutrition, health, education and mobility. These are the innovations that took home the Blue Tulip Awards.

Security: Anticipating criminal behaviour by discovering the narrative in data by Pandora Intelligence

If you could predict things going wrong, you could at least prepare for it. But there is no crystal ball to look into the future. Pandora Intelligence from Amsterdam offers the closest thing to a look in the future. But gathering historic and real-time data and combining it with their knowledge of data science, they can extract and create narrative scenarios. These future scenarios help (non)governmental organizations and commercial companies to mitigate threats and enhance opportunities. A look into the future that bagged them the Blue Tulip Award in the security-category.

Nutrition: PATS Drones by PATS Indoor Drone Solution

PATS drones are made to autonomously detect and eliminate insects and bugs that can harm crops. No insecticides needed! The drones are agile enough to eliminate harmful insects mid-air and operate indoors, in greenhouses. The drones are inspired by dragonflies and bats, which is already cool. What makes them even cooler, is they can save a grower from time consuming and repetitive tasks involved with crop protection, thus letting him focus on other tasks. This clever use of technology to protect food in a sustainable way got them the Blue Tulip Award in the Nutrition Category.

Health: D60 by UV Smart

Cleaning medical equipment is not something you want to take shortcuts on. Disinfecting an endoscope needs to be done thoroughly, which costs a lot of time. With D60, UV Smart’s latest product, this can be done a lot quicker, without using any water or chemicals. Because equipment can be cleaned faster, medical professionals can use them faster as well: within minutes instead of hours. This means they need less inventory, waste less water, use harmful chemicals and can increase patient turnover. Major advantages that earned them the Blue Tulip Award in the Health category.

Education: Faqta Wereld & Talent by Faqta

Faqta, coming from the Dutch city of Utrecht, is a personalised learning platform where teachers take the role of coaches. This way they aim to prepare children for future jobs and a sustainable society. Faqta enables children to work together in a buddy system and provides an environment for them to develop all their necessary skills. It’s not just math and grammar, but they can also learn everything about programming, becoming a DJ, virtual reality, the Roman Empire or solving problems for climate change. A new approach to education that got them a well deserved Blue Tulip Award.

Living and working: DeNoize by DeNoize

You are probably familiar with noise cancellation technology as used on headphones. It drowns out the noise when working in a busy office or travelling in an aeroplane. Well, what if you can have that technology for your house? That’s the idea behind DeNoize, coming from Delft. It recognises noise pollution as a serious threat to public health and aims to solve that by equipping windows with active noise cancellation. This drowns out the noise of cities underneath or planes overhead and keeps everything quiet inside, improving living and working conditions and thus winning them a Blue Tulip Award in the same category.

Climate: PolyStyreneLoop by PolyStyreneLoop

PolyStyreneLoop offers a sustainable solution for the treatment of polystyrene foam that’s left over as demolition waste. With a combination of innovative technology and powerful cooperations, they aim to build the first demonstration worldwide on a technology that closes the polystyrene and bromine loop. They do this in the Dutch city of Terneuzen, with representatives of the entire polystyrene-foam value chain. By putting the circular economy in action they not only make the world a better place but also take home the coveted Blue Tulip Award in the Climate-category.

Mobility: Wing drones for good by Avy

The medic of the future might be airborne and unmanned. Amsterdam-based Avy makes drones that are used solely for good causes. Like helping people out in need of medical assistance. Their drone can cover long distances thanks to the big wings, while still able to take off and land vertically in hard to reach places. This allows them to deliver critical medical supplies beyond a visual line of sight. An important innovation in mobility that rightly deserves a Blue Tulip Award.

Finance: Evergreen Hash by TrustStamp

A pressing question every financial institution constantly needs to ask their users and clients is: ‘who are you?’ and ‘Do I trust you?’. With TrustStamp, they have the opportunity to confidently answer those questions. Evergreen Hash byTrust Stamp allows creating an identity for every human being in order to achieve universal, financial, and societal inclusion. They cleverly combine biometric data to create a unique identity. Their technology works on- and offline and can be overlaid on any existing identity authentication methodology, leaving nobody out. This offers a powerful tool for financial institutions, humanitarian organizations or real estate companies to verify their clients and wins TrustStamp the Blue Tulip Award in the Finance theme.

Blue Tulip Awards Finals on RTL Z

The finals, with the jury deliberations, were broadcasted live on RTL Z. For more information on the Blue Tulip Awards, the entire class of 2020 or this years’ winners, check out their website.

This article is produced in collaboration with Accenture. Read more about our partnering opportunities.