Eni Award 2026: 3 startups receive the Eni Joule for Entrepreneurship

The 2026 “Eni Joule for Entrepreneurship” Special Mention, now in its sixth edition, was once again given to the three best innovative and sustainable business ideas, as part of the Eni Award ceremony. An award for teams, university spin-offs and startups, designed to support the application, commercialisation and transfer of technologies for the development of a sustainable innovation ecosystem.

The Eni Award ceremony took place on 29 October at the Quirinal Palace, in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, the Chairman of Eni’s Board of Directors, Giuseppina Di Foggia, and Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi.

Now in its eighteenth edition, the Eni Award is internationally recognised in the research community for its focus on energy and environment, two areas in which greater collaboration across the scientific community is becoming increasingly important. T

he award reflects the value Eni places on research and technological innovation, as well as the company's commitment to promoting sustainability and access to energy, in line with the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since the Eni Award was established in 2008, its Scientific Committee, which evaluates the research projects submitted, has included scientists from some of the world's leading research institutions, including six Nobel Prize laureates.

• Alkelux produces an environmentally sustainable nanopolymer used as an additive in food packaging, using agricultural processing waste and making the supply chain more sustainable.

• Hypermeteo collects, processes and distributes certified, high-resolution weather and climate data and indices, combining global observational data with artificial intelligence and proprietary algorithms to turn weather information into digital value.

• Algae Scope offers sustainable alternatives to PFAS (toxic and polluting chemicals) by developing and processing marine algae into a natural, non-toxic powder that makes fabrics and materials water-repellent and flame-retardant.

• The Energy Transition Award, one of the three main prizes, recognises outstanding innovations aimed at decarbonising the current energy system. This year’s award was won by Professor Véronique Gouverneur of the University of Oxford (United Kingdom). Her pioneering work has opened up new opportunities in fluorine chemistry through the development of safer and more sustainable processes for producing compounds widely used in batteries, as well as in pharmaceuticals and agricultural products. These technologies eliminate the need to produce hydrofluoric acid, a highly hazardous substance, while reducing energy consumption and environmental impact. Gouverneur has also demonstrated the potential to recover fluorine from industrial waste, supporting a more circular approach to resource use.

• The Energy Frontiers Award, which recognises research with the potential to transform the future energy landscape, was awarded to Professor Laura Gagliardi of the University of Chicago (United States). Her research has led to the development of advanced mathematical models based on quantum mechanics that can predict the properties of materials before they are synthesized in the laboratory, helping to accelerate experimentation. Her work focuses on designing innovative materials for energy and environmental applications, including porous frameworks that act as molecular sponges, capable of capturing carbon dioxide directly from the air and harvesting water from atmospheric humidity. Her research also contributes to improving the efficiency of catalytic processes, creating new opportunities for the development of more sustainable energy technologies.

• The Advanced Environmental Solutions Award, dedicated to research aimed at protecting and sustainably using natural resources, was awarded to John F. Hartwig of the University of California, Berkeley (United States). His groundbreaking contribution to plastics recycling is based on the development of a scalable and sustainable catalytic process that breaks down polyethylene and polypropylene, two of the world's most widely used plastics, into their fundamental building blocks, which can be reused to produce new materials without any loss of quality. This innovation supports circular plastics recycling, reducing waste, consumption of fossil-based raw materials and emissions, while contributing to environmental protection.

• The Young Researcher of the Year Award is dedicated to researchers who have earned their PhDs at Italian universities. This year's two awards went to Leonardo Magherini and Filippo Trevisi. Leonardo Magherini, from the Politecnico di Torino, examined the transport mechanisms of different types of waterborne particles in his doctoral thesis. These particles can play a dual role: they may pose potential environmental risks or serve as effective tools for remediation. Filippo Trevisi, from the Politecnico di Milano, explored a new class of wind energy technology known as windplanes: fixed-wing aircraft, tethered to the ground, that fly at high speed along circular trajectories at high altitude. These systems can also be deployed in locations where conventional wind turbines cannot be installed.

• The Young Talents from Africa category, established in 2017 to mark the tenth anniversary of Eni Award and is dedicated to young researchers from the African continent. Two awards were presented this year, to Nosakhare Jeremiah Aigbedion of the Pan African University Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation (Kenya) and Gosego Keotshepile Mapula Sedikelo of the University of South Africa (South Africa). The winning PhD students receive an award to support and enhance their research activities during their doctoral studies at their respective universities. Nosakhare Jeremiah Aigbedion's research aims to develop new, stronger and more durable metal alloys to improve energy storage in concentrated solar power plants, enabling electricity generation even after sunset and supporting a more stable and sustainable energy supply in Africa. Sedikelo's research focuses on an innovative and sustainable method that uses ultrasound to recover valuable metals, including lithium, nickel and cobalt, from spent batteries. The recovered materials can be reused in the production of new batteries, reducing environmental impact.

Eni for Innovation recognises the most innovative projects developed by Eni researchers and technical experts.

• Mario Baldassarre, Mauro Burattini, Rosa Carbone, Davide Chianetta and Davide Deriu (Eni), for developing an innovative process to valorise food waste, maximising the yield in energy products (Technological Solution category).

• Fabio Assandri, Francesco Bonacini, Angelo Ferrando, Ilic Formigoni, Marzia La Barbera, Mirco Nodari and Nicola Vecchini (Versalis), for developing an advanced pyrolysis technology for recycling mixed plastic waste with highly variable compositions (Technological Solution category).

• Francesco Cannarile, Aurora Cerabolini, Roberto Grandi, Lorenzo Lancia, Debora Parisi and Gianmaria Tarantino (Eni), for developing a methodology to efficiently adapt Large Language Models (LLMs) to specific business domains (Digital Solution category).