Steve Mould, science and TV presenter, announced the winners of PraxisUnico’s Impact Awards at a glittering ceremony in Cardiff last night.
A solution to the problem of vision-limiting smoke generated in operating theatres during laparoscopic surgery - based on proven electrostatic precipitation technology, was the winner of the Business Impact - Aspiring category. Commenting on the award Dominic Griffiths, Managing Director of Asalus Medical Instruments said, “Our story has been an excellent example of best practice collaborative IP commercialisation. The University instantly recognised the potential value of Ultravision, filed IP and provided translational funding to create prototypes. The commercialisation team then secured funding from Fusion IP to create a spinout Company. Four years later we have a launched product and are attracting distribution partners worldwide.”
An international collaboration between the University of Wolverhampton and the University of Maiduguri in Northern Nigeria was the winner of the Collaborative Impact award; the Universities are working together to increase the numbers of high growth SMEs in a country with challenging, unstable conditions generated by six years of violent terrorist insurgency. A digital analytics technology company built on ten years of research received the Business Impact - Achieved award. The technology - developed by Queen Mary University of London, helps businesses benchmark how good their digital service should be and identifies underperformance, thereby improving the experience of employees, customers, and partners with regard to important digital products and services.
Dr Sue O’Hare, Chair, PraxisUnico said, “We have had a diverse range of strong entries to the PraxisUnico Impact awards in 2014. Since establishing the awards in 2009 we have received over 500 entries – these are excellent examples of how Universities are demonstrating the impact of their research for the wider benefit of UK PLC.
Building on the success of The Impact Awards to date, The Research Councils and PraxisUnico are pleased to announce that in 2015 we will be working in partnership to deliver Awards that will recognise outstanding impact achieved through successful knowledge exchange and technology transfer, and the benefits these bring to society and the economy.
The winners and finalists
Business Impact Aspiring Award
Ultravision™from Cardiff University (winner)
Ketsofrom UMI3/UMIP, University of Manchester (finalist)
STAR, remediation of tar and oil land contaminationfrom The University of Edinburgh (finalist)
Seralite® The power to know, the power to act from University of Birmingham (finalist)
Collaborative Impact Award
Knowledge transfer partnership working in Nigeriafrom University of Wolverhampton (winner)
Marc Fleetham, Director of business solutions at the University of Wolverhampton said “We are delighted to have won this major award, which is a direct result of the hard work and dedication of all at the University. Our International partnership working has clearly demonstrated the impact you can have when dedicated, passionate people collaborate successfully together in a way which benefits both our academics, students and the wider community.”
Unique collaborative research training partnership with GSK from University of Strathclyde (finalist)
Local business support delivering regional business impactfrom University of Wolverhampton (finalist)
Business Impact Achieved Award
Actual Experience PLCfrom Queen Mary University London (winner)
Adam Daykin, Head of Technology Transfer (Tech&Eng) at Queen Mary Innovation said “Actual Experience is a major success story for QMUL. Since 2009, it has managed a period of sustained growth, picking up a number of large global clients. Having recently listed, we see an excellent future and QMI is very proud to have helped the company to where it is today.”
Oxford Photovoltaicsfrom Isis Innovation Ltd, the University of Oxford (finalist)
Smarter Grid Solutionsfrom University of Strathclyde (finalist)
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For further information:
Nicky Warnock, Project Manager
Tel: +44 (0)1223 659958, nicky.warnock@praxisunico.org.uk
Additional information
Further information on The Impact Awards visit www.impactawards.org.uk