ACES winners announced

Academic entrepreneurs from Northern Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and Sweden were named last night as the winners of the inaugural ACES, the Academic Enterprise Awards 2008, at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.

The prizes awarded by the Science|Business Innovation Board, a blue-ribbon panel of leaders in industry, academia and policy at a ceremony at Sweden’s Royal Academy of Engineering, go to companies tackling major issues of health, the environment and security and leaders of technology transfer.

The winners are:

Chemistry/Materials - Andrew Lynn, Orthomimetics Ltd, a spin-out from the Cambridge-MIT Institute, UK, that has developed implants that can be accurately delivered using minimally invasive, single-step procedures.

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Life Sciences - Neville H. McClenaghan, Peter R Flatt and Finbarr P.M. O'Harte, Diabetica Ltd, a Northern Ireland spin-out from the University of Ulster's Diabetes Research Group that is developing therapeutics, diagnostics and other technologies to treat Type II diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome.

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ICT - Pasquale Pigazzini, Augusto Sarti and Stefano Tubaro, Kee Square, a spin-out from the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, that is developing security products that combine high-end image and audio analysis and processing techniques with classification techniques.

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Energy/Environment - Adel Sharif, Surrey Aquatechnology Ltd, UK. Sharif's company, a spin-out from the University of Surrey, is developing water purification and desalination technologies.

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Fast Start - Gandert Van Raemdonck, Hjalmar Van Raemdonck, Ephicas BV. The company, a spin-out from TU Delft, the Netherlands, Ephicas is developing and producing aerodynamic devices for lorry trailers that reduce fuel consumption up to 15%, saving fuel costs and reducing pollution.

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The evening culminated with the announcement of The Bridge Award, for an individual who has done the most to promote policies for entrepreneurship in university or public research institutions. Three outstanding individuals shared the prize.

Tom Hockaday from Isis Innovation, University of Oxford, UK.

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Eleanor Taylor from Scottish Enterprise, Scotland, UK.

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Hans Wigzell from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

The ACES programme began in discussions at ESADE Business School in Barcelona and University College London, UK, and was launched in June 2008 at INSEAD, the international business school in Fontainebleau, France, and is supported by a further 24 outstanding European academic institutions. The programme is sponsored by Microsoft Corp., Procter & Gamble, Vinnova, Amgen, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical R&D, CEFIC, IVA–Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering, the Wellcome Trust and WilmerHale. Media partners were MIT Technology Review, the Wall Street Journal Europe and ScanBalt.

The programme will continue in 2009.