A selection committee of leading tech transfer professionals, industry officials and academics, meeting yesterday at University College London, selected the entrepreneurs from nominations across Europe. The 24 finalists will go through to the final round of judging, by the Science|Business Innovation Board, in Stockholm on 2 December.
The high quality of finalists, from such European research universities as University of Oxford and Karolinska Institutet, underscores the abilities of Europe’s research sector at finding creative ways to get their discoveries out of the lab and into the marketplace. The finalists are grouped in six categories, by industry sector and type of entrepreneur. One category, the Bridge Award, is for an individual who has done the most to promote good industry-academic relations. Finalists for that are Tom Hockaday, ISIS Innovation, Eleanor Taylor, Scottish Enterprise, and Hans Wigzell, from Karolinksa Institutet.
The finalists were chosen by a selection committee which included representatives of the 27 universities and research institutes supporting the programme, including UCL, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, ETH-Zurich, INSEAD and Imperial College London. The final judging will take place at Karolinska on 2 December, and be decided by the Science|Business Innovation Board, a blue-ribbon panel of leaders in industry, academia and policy. Members include Esko Aho, former Finnish prime minister; J. Frank Brown, Dean of INSEAD; Jean-Philippe Courtois, President of Microsoft International, and Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson, president of Karolinska, the Swedish university that names the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology each year. The finalists will be invited to Stockholm for the judging and a conference on academic enterprise at Karolinska, and a gala awards dinner at the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering.
The awards programme was begun by the London-based Science|Business Innovation Board. Sponsors include Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Vinnova, Amgen, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering, the Wellcome Trust, and CEFIC, the European Chemical Industry Council. In addition, supporters of the Investment Connection, an online interchange between nominees and potential investors, include law firm Wilmer Hale. Media sponsors are the Wall Street Journal Europe and Technology Review magazine.
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