This British research duo invented “biological scaffolds” which are used for wound care, heart valve replacement and orthopaedic and surgical applications.

The married couple's invention consists of two components: an external processor that converts sound into electrical signals, and an internal implant that sends that information to the brain. The implant itself comprises a computer that receives information from the processor, and uniquely shaped electrodes that pass this information along.

Swiss physicist Ursula Keller is nominated for European Patent Office (EPO) prize for life's work in developing ultra-fast lasers

What started as a simple sketch led Austrian inventors and business men Klaus Feichtinger and Manfred Hackl to reshape plastic recycling. Their patented Counter Current technology means that a wider variety of plastic waste can now be turned into pellets, ready for industrial reuse and indistinguishable from new plastics.

Dutch inventors win the Popular Prize at the European Inventor Award 2018 with most votes in online poll

Thanks to a chance discovery, the world has a new superweapon in the fight against oil and chemical spills. It is a synthetic wax engineered by Günter Hufschmid and his team at German company Deurex. It can adsorb close to seven times its own weight in hydrophobic liquids without taking on any water itself, making it an ideal tool for cleaning up spills and leaks wherever they occur – whether it's on the floor of a mechanic's garage or around an oil-drilling platform at sea.

The invention of paper-based transistors by Portuguese scientist Elvira Fortunato and Rodrigo Martins at the New University of Lisbon offers a cost-saving and energy-efficient alternative to silicon chips. Applications in daily life include biosensors, "smart" product packaging, networked shipping labels and animated billboards.

This Irish product designer and her team have developed the world's first mouldable glue, which makes it easy to fix everyday items and cut down waste.

The next generation of microprocessors is being produced with European hi-tech thanks to key inventions in extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) manufacturing by Dutch engineer Erik Loopstra and Dutch-Russian physicist Vadim Banine.