CIRQUEL at EIC Summit 2026: Scaling Innovation, Supporting Women Leaders, and Building Europe's Future
For CIRQUEL, this year’s summit carried an additional meaning. Alongside attending the summit itself, Anna officially joined the new mentor pool of the EIC Women Leadership Programme 2026, supporting a new generation of women innovators and entrepreneurs across Europe. The programme, organised by the European Innovation Council, combines mentoring, leadership development, business coaching, peer learning, and access to investors and senior ecosystem leaders to help women researchers and founders strengthen their leadership journey and scale their ventures.
Anna Warchalowska - our CEO and Co-Founder now also in a role of mentor for the EIC Women Leadership Programme of 2026.
Across the summit, one theme appeared repeatedly across panels, side discussions, and networking sessions: Europe knows how to create innovation - but now needs to become better at scaling it.
Many of the conversations focused on how Europe can remain competitive globally while keeping talent, intellectual property, and venture creation within the continent. Topics around startup financing, venture capital maturity, reducing the gap between research and commercialisation, strengthening founder support, and creating conditions for startups not only to launch in Europe - but to remain and grow here - resonated particularly strongly. For a founder building in AI, supply chains, and circular infrastructure, these discussions felt especially relevant.
Finalist of Women Innovators Prize
One of the highlights of the summit was the European Prize for Women Innovators, jointly organised by the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) to recognise women building transformative innovation across Europe. The award celebrates founders and entrepreneurs whose work contributes to Europe’s competitiveness and future economy through commercially viable innovation.
This year’s ceremony was especially meaningful for CIRQUEL because of the connection to the wider EIC Women Leadership community. Congratulations to the recognised innovators and finalists, including Katerina Spranger (Oxford Heartbeat), Marta Passarinho Oliveira (ATMOS Space Cargo) and Ella Cullen (Minespider), among others who are shaping Europe’s innovation future through science, technology, and entrepreneurship.
Beyond the stages and sessions, however, what remained most valuable were the conversations in between.
Agenda of 2026 EIC Summit, Day 2.
Throughout the summit Anna had the opportunity to exchange perspectives with founders, investors, mentors, policymakers, and ecosystem leaders including Agnieszka Stasiakowska, Ewa Kocinska-Lange, Laurence Petit, Ronald Wuijster, Matthew J. Smith-Marino, Ekaterina Zaharieva, Jillian Manus, Pierre Limouzin, Francesco Matteucci, Mihaela Rucinschi, Angele Giuliano, Maria Cristina Russo, Eliza Kruczkowska, Sven De Cleyn, Maria Abad Molina, James Mawson, Alicia Martínez Piñeiro, Shaunik Sachdev, Olga Senko, Matheus Provinciali, Silke Wettach, Howard Wright, Bart Becks, Javier Lahuerta i De Manuel, Suvy Otgonbayar, Kaja Vidic, Aygen Kurt Dickson, Eva Maydell, and many others across the European innovation ecosystem.
Anna Warchalowska at EIC Summit 2026
Those moments reinforced something we strongly believe at CIRQUEL.
The future of European innovation will not be built only through capital, technology, or regulation.
It will be built through people - founders, researchers, operators, mentors, investors, and institutions willing to stay in the room long enough to build something ambitious together.
And we are grateful to continue contributing to that future. 🚀
Anna Warchalowska is CEO and co-founder of Cirquel. If you are a brand, investor or partner interested in circular fashion, sustainable returns, or commercial partnerships, we would love to connect at cirquel.co.