Bulgarian woman Christina Tsvetanova won the European Union Award for a rising entrepreneur for creating the world’s first blind tablet.

At a ceremony in Brussels on International Women’s Day, the Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas and Vice-President of the European Parliament, Marray McGuinness, announced the four winners of the EU-funded Women’s Innovation Award for Horizon 2020 2017, the press center of the European Commission announced. In addition to the three first prizes (see below), another one was set up this year – for a rising entrepreneur awarded for the excellence of female entrepreneurs aged 30 or less. The first winner of this prize of € 20,000 is Christina Tsvetanova from Bulgaria – CEO and co-founder of the Austrian BLITAB Technology Company, the first BLITAB tablet for blind people. Tsvetanova, who lives and works in Vienna, has created the software and hardware with the help of another Bulgarian – Slavi Slavev. Their company was named the most innovative company in Austria in 2014, as BNT informed. „If a USB with files stored on it is attached to itq the software automatically reads these files and converts them into braille, and braille symbols come out of the surface and can be read so that a whole page can be read by a blind person“ , said Tsvetanova, who explained that the blind will not only be able to read but also write on the tablet. The winners of this year’s three awards for women in innovation are: • First prize (€ 100,000): Micla Magas, a Croatian and UK national, founded the Stromatolite UK innovations and design studio, which, together with a studio in Sweden, is setting up a new generation of incubators and tools in creative innovation technology. • Second prize (50,000 euros): Petra Wadström from Sweden, founded the Solvatten company, which produces a portable solar powered water purifier and heater. • Third prize (€ 30,000): Claudia Gertner of Germany, founded the microfluidic ChipShop, which produces lab-on-a-chip miniatures for better diagnostics.