Innovate and Win - Bioquarter launches 2014 innovation competition
Hunt is on to find new products and services that deliver benefit to human or animal health
Staff and students from the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian are being encouraged to share their ideas for the improvement of human or animal health in an annual competition, with 5 iPad2 and cash prizes worth £30,000 up for grabs.
Edinburgh BioQuarter, supported by Scottish Enterprise, is today launching its fourth annual innovation competition, in association with the City of Edinburgh Council’s Business and Enterprise division as its principal sponsor, and our corporate sponsors MBM Commercial LLP, Marks&Clerk LLP and Springfords LLP.
Since its inception in late 2011, the BioQuarter Innovation Competition has received around 150 entries from employees at NHS Lothian and postgraduate students and researchers from the University of Edinburgh, with prizes worth about £90,000 being awarded to over thirty winners across the three years of the competition.
Last year’s first prize winners were a team of innovative anaesthetists from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh who scooped their prize for their potentially ground-breaking invention to help intubate patients during surgery.
Three companies have also been created from the winning entries over the last few years including Pharmatics Limited, a data analysis company for drug development and Cytomos Limited, creators of the world’s first desk-top cell sorting device for use in medical research and diagnostics.
Dr Mike Capaldi, Commercialisation Director at BioQuarter, said: “We’ve had a tremendous response to our innovation competition in the past, and our hope is to receive even more entries than we have in previous years. Entry is via a simple-to-use online system, and the potential rewards to winners are significant.”
The top five entries in the competition will be reviewed by a panel of experts from BioQuarter and our sponsors. Winning entries will not only receive prize money and support from the BioQuarter Commercialisation team, but also expert advice from our sponsors on intellectual property (Marks & Clerk), company growth (MBM Commercial) and taxation and finance (Springfords).
Entries must be received by 4 April 2014, with finalists announced in April 2014 and an award ceremony for prize winners in early June 2014.
To find out more about how to enter go to www.bioquarter.com/competition
About Edinburgh BioQuarter
Edinburgh BioQuarter is a unique concept, bringing together scientists from the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian with commercial research companies to collaborate and accelerate the development of new drugs, diagnostic tools and medical devices to treat diseases. This huge enterprise has made Edinburgh a leading European destination for translational medical research, fast-tracking drug development from ‘bench to bedside’.
About six years ago the University of Edinburgh joined forces with Scottish Enterprise and NHS Lothian to create the Edinburgh BioQuarter. The aims for this new organisation were: to foster deeper links with industry through collaborative research; to create new companies based on Edinburgh’s research base, and to encourage a culture of commercialisation in the NHS and among academic researchers.
An experienced Commercialisation Team was established in 2010 to deliver these aims and in just over three years has spun out seven new life sciences businesses and negotiated a number of major industrial collaborations, as well as generating 100 new product or business concepts from its Innovation Competition.
For more information visit www.bioquarter.com
For further information contact:
Shona Cameron, Head of Marketing and Communication:
T: 0131 242 9249 or 07581 196 655 or shona.cameron@bioquarter.com