The Innovation Awards finalists 2 12 programmes Awards ...sciencebusiness.net/eventsarchive/Innovation... · Among many others, The Medtech Innovation Center (mtic.dk) in Aarhus,

The Innovation Awards finalists

The Academic Enterprise Awards (ACES) & The Global Innovation Award

2Awards

programmes12Finalists

4Winners

The Innovation Awards finalists2

The 2014 Innovation Awards

ACES Awards The ACES, launched in 2008, are the only pan-European awards that recognise spin-outs from universities and public research institutes. They draw nominations from all sectors, disciplines and countries in Europe. The ACES Awards programme is presented by the Science|Business Innovation Board. Over the past five years the ACES have thrown a spotlight on 70 of Europe’s hottest technology spin-outs.

The Global Innovation AwardThe Global Innovation Award, supported by ESASTAP Plus, aims to recognise the most innovative start-ups formed outside the EU, the G8 countries and the FP7 associated countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey).

The juryThe Science|Business Innovation Board is a not-for-profit association founded in 2009 by INSEAD, ESADE and Science|Business with support from Microsoft and BP, and later joined by Imperial College London, SKF, Aalto University and Sanofi. It commissions original innovation policy research from its university members, organises high-level roundtables and conferences on innovation topics, and formulates recommendations for policy action. It also names the winners of the ACES awards and of the Global Innovation Award.

The Science|Business annual Summit is sponsored by

Hosted by

Members of the jury:Frank BrownManaging Director and Chief Operating Officer, General Atlantic

Javier GimenoProfessor of Strategy, INSEAD

Raymond HegartyManaging Director, Intellectual Ventures International Licensing

Simon Hepworth Director of Enterprise, Imperial College London

Ansgar KirchheimInvestment Manager, HIGH-TECH GRÜNDERFONDS

Laura MontagnaDirector, SKF Engineering & Research Centre, SKF

Mmboneni MuofheDeputy Director General: Technology Innovation, Department of Science and Technology, Republic of South Africa

Maya SaidVice President - Head of Strategy, Science Policy & External Innovation, SANOFI Global R&D

Tuula TeeriPresident, Aalto University

Christian ThomsenPresident, TU Berlin

Jonathan WarehamDean of Faculty & Research, ESADE Business & Law Schools

Media partners

The Innovation Awards finalists 3

1. In what way is your company innovative?By replacing 30-year-old processes of artificial, two-dimensional cell culture with its innovative tissue-like 3D models, InSphero has improved the predictability of laboratory tests of new pharmaceutical substances. While 3D cell-culture concepts have been around for a while, InSphero finally managed to turn the technology into a robust, reliable, industry standard. Today, all of the top 15 pharmaceutical companies work with InSphero technology. But we do not stop innovating. For instance, InSphero coordinates a large European grant project “Body-on-a-Chip” that has successfully combined different 3D organs, like liver, brain, and heart, to predict drug effects on the organism level. The international pharma heavyweight Astra-Zeneca, a partner in the project, is testing the technology in their labs this autumn.

2. What triggered the launch of your company?We realised in 2008 that the time was right to commercialise our 3D Microtissues for drug testing: the pharma industry saw one blockbuster patent expire after the other, but the pipelines of new products were too slow. The companies needed to find ways to develop more efficiently, faster and safer – exactly what our technology offers. When we had the first discussions with a large Swiss pharma company, they said, “We are ready to work with you, but you have to go all-in and found the company.” We founded in March 2009, and never regretted it.

3. What has been your best mistake?Once the company was founded and we were enthusiastically working with four employees on our new products, we went out to present them to key customers very early. We considered the products solid, but in fact they were not. A mistake, but a good one, because it showed us how collaborative and supportive even large pharmaceutical companies can be. They saw the huge potential in our products despite their imperfection and invested financially and intellectually to help us get them right. After that experience, we were even faster on the market, because we understood customers as partners.

4. Who has been your best ally in the development of your company?We had help from many sides, but probably most helpful were customers like Roche, Pfizer and Novartis, who not only placed purchase orders with us, but worked with us on making ground-breaking steps towards more predictive models. The results of these projects were published at high-ranking conferences, such as the AACR cancer congress with 18,000 attendees – a perfect stage to introduce InSphero’s products.

5. What is your biggest fear?To lose key employees in our team. With just above 30 employees, InSphero is still small and many employees have key skills and know-how which would be difficult to replace. We currently have the best team ever and I’d rather see new talent coming on board than people leaving for larger pharma companies which might be able to offer higher salaries than we can do at the moment.

6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?We expect that 30-40 per cent of all cell-based assays will be in 3D in 10 years, and InSphero will prevail as #1 in the growing market. With manufacturing in Switzerland, USA and Asia, we can cover the global market and our products have turned into gold standards for key applications in efficacy and toxicology testing. Given the market size and long-term contracts that we have already signed with pharmaceutical companies, a revenue of US$150 million+ is a realistic target for us in 2021. But InSphero will go beyond in-vitro drug testing. The company has already formed a business unit to expand into personalised medicine: here, InSphero’s core technology is used to form 100s of uniform microtumours from a patient biopsy to test dozens of different chemotherapeutics combinations to identify the most promising, personalised cure for the patient. First studies with clinical partners have been successful and we are fired up about this complementary market and business model.

7. Who is your favourite entrepreneur?I admire Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, for picking up new technologies early on and for understanding how to turn them into attractive products for the customer. While everybody tried to make “reasonable” but not very exciting cars using electric/hybrid drives, he saw the beauty in the technology and developed fun electric sports cars that were cool instead of reasonable – and still move the industry towards more ecological cars.

8. What book would you recommend to your team?Getting Things Done by David Allen, a great time and self-management tool.

9. In one sentence, what advice would you give to a researcher looking to set up a company?Talk to 10 potential customers for your new product or solution, analyse five potential competitors – and if your stomach still tells you that you are onto something: go for it!

The Life Sciences Award

Company: InSphero AGNominees: Jan Lichtenberg and Melanie Aregger

Founded: 2009

Institution: ETH Zurich, Switzerland

InSphero is the leading supplier of robotically produced organotypic, biological in vitro 3D microtissues. Our 3D Insight™ Microtissues mimic the 3D structure of native tissue to enable highly predictive drug testing in efficacy and toxicology. To give an example, 3D Liver Microtissues allow for the first time long-term, repeat dose toxicity testing in the lab – making drugs safer and reducing time to market.

supported by Intellectual Ventures


1. In what way is your company innovative?We make simple useful products to help people with their seasonal allergies and respiratory health. Our first product, the Rhinix Nasal Filter, is a tiny filter that prevents inhalation of pollens, thus reducing typical allergy symptoms while at the same time being close to invisible, highly breathable and comfortable to wear.

2. What triggered the launch of your company?I recognised a need for a wearable preventive alternative to treating symptoms with medication for people with allergic rhinitis.

3. What has been your best mistake?Starting my university education. I saw it as a mistake at the time because I – ignorant as I was – thought that I could only truly become an entrepreneur if I hadn’t been shaped and moulded by higher education. I considered my hopes of becoming an entrepreneur to be inversely related to the amount of time I spent at the university and I thought that it would restrict my ability to think outside the box. Luckily, my initial thoughts turned out to be wrong in this regard. Today, I consider it the best mistake I have ever made. Without doubt, Rhinix would not have existed had I not started and stayed at university. I have been able to develop my ideas to a greater degree and the broader knowledge-base has given me a potential platform for discovering and developing new ideas related to healthcare. I now see these things as happening because of, rather than despite of, my university education.

4. Who has been your best ally in the development of your company?Among many others, The Medtech Innovation Center (mtic.dk) in Aarhus, Denmark, has helped with a variety of things including financing, access to its network and advice at various steps in the development process.

5. What is your biggest fear?Not succeeding with my endeavours and realising that my own inadequacy is to blame.

6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?I’m developing and bringing great products to markets with unmet healthcare needs.

7. Who is your favourite entrepreneur?Today, Elon Musk.

8. What book would you recommend to your team?That depends entirely on what they are working on. Currently, I am reading The Lean Startup (by Eric Ries) which I consider to be very much in line with how I’m trying to build Rhinix.

9. In one sentence, what advice would you give to a researcher looking to set up a company?Get a version of your product/service in the hands of your end user as early as possible – and learn from the experience.


Company: RHINIX ApSNominees: Peter S. Kenney

Founded: 2011

Institution: Aarhus University, Denmark

RHINIX is a medical device company focused on the development and commercialisation of nasal filters for the relief/prevention of allergic rhinitis. The RHINIX nasal filter removes allergens from the inhaled air without impeding normal breathing. It adapts to the nostrils and is non-visible. It is CE-marked on the indication that it prevents/relieves hay fever symptoms and it is currently pending a decision from the FDA to be cleared for the same indication in the US.




1. In what way is your company innovative?Developing Human-on-a-Chip solutions which in the future could replace most of the animal experiments being conducted for safety and efficacy testing of new drug compounds and chemicals.

2. What triggered the launch of your company?The rapid development of microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip solutions made it possible to build up on an idea which Uwe already had in the 1990s. The founding of TissUse was also greatly supported by the German Ministry for Education and Research. With its unique GO-Bio grant, it offers substantial support to high-risk projects. Founding a start-up/spin-off company is envisioned as early as the start of the project. 3. What has been your best mistake?An initial chip design with passive perfusion by hydrostatic pressure. 4. Who has been your best ally in the development of your company?Professor Roland Lauster, Department of Medical Biotechnology, TU Berlin. He and his team proved invaluable for the R&D efforts of TissUse.

5. What is your biggest fear?Conservatism of European investors. 6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?This is an extract from the TissUse founders roadmap which was compiled in 2008, two years before TissUse was founded, 2020+: “TissUse sets the “gold-standard” for in vitro testing; there is demand from the regulatory agencies for human-on-a-chip solutions to be a mandatory standard in clinical trials testing; “conquering” the world (new subsidiaries in e.g. China, Brazil, India); a build up TissUse to a multinational enterprise; chips for personalised medicine.” This hasn’t changed. 7. Who is your favourite entrepreneur?Thomas Alva Edison,1847-1931. 8. What book would you recommend to your team?Grimm’s Fairy Tales because it stimulates your imagination/creativity/inventiveness in a million different ways. 9. In one sentence, what advice would you give to a researcher looking to set up a company?“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” Theodore Roosevelt.


Company: TissUse GmbHNominees: Uwe Marx and Reyk Horland

Founded: 2010

Institution: TU Berlin, Germany

TissUse is a Berlin-based, vibrant growth company providing high-value services in the area of tissue culture analysis of drug candidates, cosmetics, chemicals and consumer products. TissUse’s proprietary technology platform comprises a number of miniature organ-like structures faithful to their full-size counterparts and con-nected to one another either by microchannels or by vasculature. By using non-cancerous human cells and real vasculature and by providing appropriate micro-environments to the various organ-like structures, TissUse is in a position to achieve uniquely lifelike and predictive results from its culture system.


1. In what way is your company innovative?ANavS has developed an ultra-precise GPS-based Position and Attitude Determination (PAD) system with a positioning accuracy of one centimetre. ANavS positioning systems have several advantages over existing geodetic receivers: Our systems have the size of a matchbox and a weight of only 10 grammes. Hardware costs are one to two orders of magnitude lower than for geodetic receivers. The tight coupling with inertial measurements enables a precise positioning also in areas without satellite reception. 2. What triggered the launch of your company?Driving on straight highways or standing in traffic jams can be boring and a waste of time for the driver. If cars could drive autonomously, the driver could sleep, eat, work, read news or watch movies during the drive.Today’s GPS navigation systems in cars are not suitable for autonomous driving as the positioning accuracy is not sufficient. We wanted to develop a precise and reliable positioning solution, that allows the autonomous driving of vehicles and robots. 3. What has been your best mistake?We once had a sign error in our algorithm for determining the relative position between two receivers. However, the customer also flipped the connection of the two receivers. Thus, both errors cancelled each other out. We realised the error once we connected the receivers in the appropriate manner. 4. Who has been your best ally in the development of your company?Philipp Berthold has been my best ally. He has an extensive expertise in the design of printed circuit boards, in the design of system architectures, and in C programming. He has significantly contributed to the development of our first product.

5. What is your biggest fear?That anyone of my family, my company or my friends has a terminal illness. 6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?In 10 years, the headquarters of ANavS will have moved to a large industrial building owned by us. I will lead a team of 100 employees responsible for the navigation system for a series of autonomously driving vehicles. 7. Who is your favourite entrepreneur?Thomas Alva Edison was a US American inventor of the light bulb, of a phonograph, and of a motion picture camera for recording of videos. He had 1,093 US patents in his name. Thomas Alva Edison was one of the first inventors that applied the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention. 8. What book would you recommend to your team?I would make a quite technical recommendation: Introduction to Random Signals and Applied Kalman Filtering, Robert Brown and Patrick Hwang.

9. In one sentence, what advice would you give to a researcher looking to set up a company?I would like to advise a researcher to search for a partner who you can fully trust, who has sufficient endurance and who complements your skills.

The ICT Award

Company: ANavS - Advanced Navigation SolutionsNominees: Patrick Henkel

Founded: 2011

Institution: Technische Universität München, Germany

ANavS is a leading company in the research and development of low-cost positioning systems with centimetre accuracy. We achieve this high accuracy by our patented tightly coupled sensor fusion algorithms and low-cost GNSS chips, accelerometers and gyroscopes. We are a fast-growing company with 15 employees, a turnover of €1 million and worldwide customers.


The ICT Award

Company: ANavS - Advanced Navigation SolutionsNominees: Patrick Henkel

Founded: 2011

Institution: Technische Universität München, Germany

1. In what way is your company innovative?At Brainomix we are developing state-of-the-art medical imaging software tools that automate clinically validated methodologies. These medical imaging software will equip physicians worldwide with local expertise, therefore, improving the diagnosis and treatment of patients with neurological and cerebrovascular diseases.

2. What triggered the launch of your company?Worldwide, for acute stroke there is a lack of readily available expertise to interpret brain computed tomography (CT) scans of patients. Currently, this results in many patients who are eligible to receive life-saving treatment missing out. I have been working on the field of stroke for more than nine years and my aim has been to improve the treatment of patients suffering from this devastating disease. One of our co-founders, Alastair Buchan, who is a Professor of Stroke Medicine at the University of Oxford, had devised a methodology (called ASPECTS) to interpret CT scans of stroke patients, which has been widely validated in the literature but not used in routine clinical practice. The unique expertise and access we have to the stroke community and the unmet need of providing a readily available standardised tool to interpret brain CT scans of stroke patients triggered the launch of our company. As a result, we are currently developing the medical imaging software e-ASPECTS.

3. What has been your best mistake?Not listening to people who were reluctant to believe the value of our vision.

4. Who has been your best ally in the development of your company?The strong support we have received from Isis Innovation, which is the technology transfer office of the University of Oxford, and the significant funding from Innovation UK, which is the UK innovation agency, has enabled us to realise the development of our innovative technology.

5. What is your biggest fear?Failing to miss an opportunity that passes by.

6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?I want to establish Brainomix as a pioneer in medical imaging biomarkers, so that in 10 years I can be leading a profitable company that provides valuable and innovative technologies improving the outcome of patients with neurological and cerebrovascular diseases.

7. Who is your favourite entrepreneur?Richard Branson because his achievements have defined what entrepreneurship is about.

8. What book would you recommend to your team?The Start up Owner’s Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company, by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf. It provides invaluable advice for building a successful start up.

9. In one sentence, what advice would you give to a researcher looking to set up a company?Never give up and don’t forget that it is all about the long but very exciting journey from research ideas to the commercialisation of innovative products that can improve people’s lives.

The ICT Award

Company: BrainomixNominees: Michalis Papadakis

Founded: 2010

Institution: University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Brainomix produces e-ASPECTS, the first medical imaging software evaluating stroke damage on CT scans, assessing the eligibility of stroke patients for life saving treatments. Importantly, these treatments have a short time-window, inappropriate treatment can be life threatening and worldwide there is lack of readily available expertise for CT scan evaluation.


1. In what way is your company innovative? pureLiFi technology is novel: it turns off-the-shelf LED lights into wireless data access points. Li-Fi is the term I gave to the bi-directional, high-speed and networked communication of data using visible light. pureLiFi is a world leader in Li-Fi productisation and commercialisation. pureLiFi is delivering the technology for secure, reliable, high speed communication networks that seamlessly integrate data and lighting utility infrastructures and significantly reduce energy consumption. With the current radio frequency spectrum almost at its full capacity, “the spectrum crunch”, Li-Fi technology is a complementary, non-competitive solution to existing infrastructures, and it can meet the exponentially increasing demand for data communication. The five inherent benefits of visible light communication systems, which are central to the wireless applications for Li-Fi technology in healthcare, security, industrial processes and sensor networks are: security, data density, energy efficiency, safety and localisation.

2. What triggered the launch of your company? During 2006, I first proposed “spatial modulation”, which combines multiple antenna transmission and digital modulation and coding in a radically different way, and gives significant advantages for future energy-efficient and spectrum-efficient wireless transmission systems. In 2008, the concept was successfully applied to incoherent optical wireless transmission and the proof-of-concept project, D-Light, funded by Scottish Enterprise; this led on to the possibility of a spin-out company. In my 2011 TEDTalk, at that time the culmination of over eight years research in visible light communications, I demonstrated to the world that it is possible to turn LED light bulbs into broadband wireless transmission systems. This has now been viewed over 1.5 million times and was the initial spark for the increasing global interest in Li-Fi. Following this event, pureLiFi was founded in order to take my research into commercialisation. With the spectrum crunch looming and 4G devices enhancing demand for data communication, pureLiFi was established to address this challenge. Therefore the company expects to have a mass-market product ready exactly at the time when it is needed.

3. What has been your best mistake?The best mistake we made was the initial set-up of the technology and product development team, where initially the work was outsourced and managed internally by a single engineering manager. Due to the novelty of the technology, it soon became clear that we needed expertise in-house to develop the technology and products further, and thus we began to organically bring together the pureLiFi team. From this turning point over a year ago, we now have a substantially sized engineering team with a strong blend of engineering ingenuity, innovation, creativity and experience at the core of our company, which has allowed us to bring to market our first and second products in quick succession. With this strong core, which we intend to continue growing, we see the company firmly established to take on future challenges.

4. Who has been your best ally in the development of your company? The University of Edinburgh has always been very supportive of pureLiFi, and my role as Chair of Mobile Communications has also allowed me to drive forward my Li-Fi research, which will serve as a basis for the on-going technological development of the company in the future.

5. What is your biggest fear? My biggest fear is that the mass-market product development of pureLiFi could be out-paced by a sub-optimal, inferior, but lower-priced product that then attains a larger market share, which pureLiFi has worked incredibly hard to build over the recent years. However, we believe that the company has set out an aggressive roadmap that will produce the best product on the market in the fastest time possible, and we are constantly reviewing this strategy to take account of any changes in the market(s) or new developments. Therefore, I believe we are well equipped to avoid my fears.

6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? In ten years’ time, the currently emerging Li-Fi technology will be established as a major industry, and I see myself as continuing to lead a whole set of activities targeted at providing innovations to new generations of related technology platforms.

7. Who is your favourite entrepreneur? A number of entrepreneurs have offered encouragement and advice and in particular I admire those who can combine a visionary technical outlook and an ability to take risks with sound business decision making, including our recent CEO and now advisor, David Kirk. In addition, the prime local example, and my ultimate favourite as a role model, is probably David Milne, the founder of Edinburgh-based company Wolfson Microelectronics, a leader in high-quality audio products.

8. What book would you recommend to your team? I’d suggest The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M Christensen, an expert on innovation and professor at the Harvard Business School. The book nicely covers the issues arising for a business based on the type of truly disruptive technology that Li-Fi represents.

9. In one sentence, what advice would you give to a researcher looking to set up a company? Don’t underestimate the degree of commitment involved; retain and communicate your long-term vision; take advice from those who have made a commercial success of taking a technology to market; quickly define products and services that are very soundly based on providing real value to customers; and trust the team you put in place to deliver.

The ICT Award

Company: pureLiFiNominees: Harald Haas and Harald Burchardt

Founded: 2012

Institution: University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

pureVLC – now renamed as pureLiFi – was spun out as a company based on technology developed at the University of Edinburgh. Visible Light Communication (VLC) technology uses the visible light frequencies to send data wirelessly in addition to the light being used for illumination. The growth in the LED lamp market, along with spectrum and capacity problems faced by current wireless radio systems, presents a unique opportunity for VLC products. VLC can be implemented at low-cost and is efficient, free, safe and secure.


The ICT Award

Company: pureLiFiNominees: Harald Haas and Harald Burchardt

Founded: 2012

Institution: University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

1. In what way is your company innovative?We have developed a novel water treatment process that requires 90 per cent less energy and 20 per cent less footprint than equivalent technologies in the marketplace. The simplicity of our technology makes it very robust and easy to operate and maintain.

2. What triggered the launch of your company?The technology was designed by Matan Beery (CEO) during his PhD (2008-2011) at the Technical University of Berlin. The promising results of the technology pushed Matan Beery and Johanna Ludwig to found a company around it.

3. What has been your best mistake?We were turned down by an institutional investor because of a misunderstanding. In the end, we acquired High-Tech Gründerfonds as an investor, which has turned out to be a great relationship.

4. Who has been your best ally in the development of your company?Lute Broens, our coach, is an expert in the field of water treatment and the founder of X-Flow, a membrane company that was sold not long ago for over €700 million.

5. What is your biggest fear?The conservatism of the industry toward new technologies.

6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?In 10 years akvolution will be making over €500 million in revenue and have over 1,000 employees.

7. Who is your favourite entrepreneur?Lute Broens.

8. What book would you recommend to your team?The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni.

9. In one sentence, what advice would you give to a researcher looking to set up a company?Get yourself business expertise. Researchers tend to see no value in people with business skills with little technical understanding of the technology. It is totally the wrong approach.

The Green Award

Company: akvolution GmbHNominees: Matan Beery and Lucas León

Founded: 2013


akvolution offers reliable water treatment process design based on ceramic materials to build compact pack-age plants for challenging waters. The akvoFloat™ technology is the perfect solution in seawater desalination pretreatment for waters prone to algae blooms (e.g. in the Arabian Gulf). With akvoFloat, SWRO (seawater reverse osmosis) plants will stay up during those events.


1. In what way is your company innovative?The technical innovation is that we found a way to keep homogeneous chiral catalysts active for the first time. This permitting a repeated use of the unmodified chiral catalyst – a breakthrough that has never been accomplished before. Also, our interdisciplinary approach and project management is innovative: combining chiral catalysis, process engineering as well as theoretical physics in one development team, which is managed by an adapted SCRUM-model.

2. What triggered the launch of your company?It clearly was the desire to put research results into the market, which make a significant contribution to Green Chemistry. The most appealing way I could think of doing this was to run my own business based on my research findings.

3. What has been your best mistake?During one of my first pitches presenting the business idea of DexLeChem, I didn’t know what venture capital was. When I was asked who would buy my company, I said: “Hopefully nobody!” While not being offered funds by a VC that evening, this was the foundation of a healthy relationship with our bank.

4. Who has been your best ally in the development of your company? We were supported by a lot of people. You can’t do everything on your own – you need advice from mentors, scientists and people with experience in business. I am especially thinking of Dr. Willi Rahmel, Head of Production at Schering, who has always supported us with advice, experience and warm words of belief.

5. What is your biggest fear?To lose our independence.

6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?Having 50 to 100 employees, being well established on the international market.

7. Who is your favourite entrepreneur?Albert Boehringer, the founder of Boehringer Ingelheim, an important German pharmaceutical company and family enterprise since 1885.

8. What book would you recommend to your team?War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy

9. In one sentence, what advice would you give to a researcher looking to set up a company?Just do it!

The Green Award

Company: DexLeChem GmbHNominees: Sonja Jost

Founded: 2013


DexLeChem GmbH provides development services for the chemical-pharmaceutical industry to convert production processes of spatially complex structured substances, i.e. chiral substances, into water-based processes with an integrated re-using catalyst. The production of active chiral substances for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals requires chiral catalysts that can cost up to €200,000 per kilogramme. Up to now, it has only been possible to use them once because they disintegrated during the production process. For the first time, this resource-conserving controlled reaction in water enables the repeated unmodified re-use of industrially implemented catalysts. Thanks to the innovative controlled reaction and the possibility of re-use, a low-cost and sustainable production of pharmaceuticals can be realised.


The Green Award

Company: DexLeChem GmbHNominees: Sonja Jost

Founded: 2013


1. In what way is your company innovative?OxyMem has brought to market the Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor, a technology which reduces the energy requirement for wastewater treatment aeration by up to 75 per cent of current aerobic treatment systems. OxyMem has managed to overcome the two major hurdles to the successful scale up of this technology: the control and management of the biofilm thickness and the ability to produce membranes at a cost base to make the technology competitive.

2. What triggered the launch of your company?The launch of the company was triggered following a successful Technology Development project carried out in University College Dublin, which was funded by Enterprise Ireland. This project allowed OxyMem to overcome the valley of death between having a good idea in a lab, and being able to demonstrate that it works at a larger scale.

3. What has been your best mistake?We initially tried to maintain all solids in the reactor in suspension and prevent them from settling – this proved very difficult. When we stopped trying to do this we ended up with water with so little suspended solids that it was below discharge limits.

4. Who has been your best ally in the development of your company?Enterprise Ireland have been very helpful in supporting the technology development through the university and it has continued to support the company since its incorporation through their network of international offices, mentoring and financial assistance.

5. What is your biggest fear?Fear.

6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?In 10 years’ time we see ourselves as having established a number of different manufacturing locations to support the worldwide wastewater treatment market. In that time we see OxyMem as being a credible mainstream alternative to conventional bubble-aerated systems.

7. Who is your favourite entrepreneur?Elon Musk

8. What book would you recommend to your team?Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach.

9. In one sentence, what advice would you give to a researcher looking to set up a company?Starting a business is a team sport, you need the right mix of skills and talents to be successful.

The Green Award

Company: OxyMem LimitedNominees: Eoin Casey and Eoin Syron

Founded: 2013

Institution: University College Dublin, Ireland

OxyMem is a breakthrough technology for wastewater aeration. Up to now the aeration process has relied on “forced”, or “bubble aeration” to deliver oxygen to the bacteria that break down the wastewater. OxyMem doesn’t rely on a bubble to deliver oxygen; instead we use a gas-permeable membrane to deliver oxygen directly to the micro-organisms.


1. In what way is your company innovative?We are innovation. Everything about Mellowcabs is innovative, from our business model, to the technology we use. As a product it’s a very innovative vehicle, incorporating cutting edge design and safety, an advanced electric drivetrain, recycled plastic shell, and cutting edge technology. It is also a very innovative advertising medium, providing a very unique way of advertising on the exterior and interior of the cabs, and via the tablet computer. As a process it’s a new way of providing efficient urban transportation. Some tech highlights include:Regenerative braking: The kinetic energy that is usually lost in the braking process is recovered and converted into electricity, and then stored.Illuminated body panels: Our shells have been designed with a LED light system, making it possible to illuminate the body panels, thereby enhancing the vehicle and the advertising on its visibility and aesthetics.Hydrogen fuel cells: We are working with UWC/Hydrogen South Africa in the development of hydrogen-fuelled Mellowcabs.Adaptable Body shell: The Mellowcab shells have been designed to be adaptable to other applications, for example delivery vehicles or police cruisers.Recycled plastic shells: We use recycled PET composites to create a light, strong and renewable shell.We have developed a mobile app through which we can provide an on-demand service and monitor the position of a Melowcab; passengers can pay for their ride with credit card or cash, and rate the service. Mobile phone charging stations: There are charging facilities for mobile phones in the vehicles as a bonus to passengers. There is also wifi in vehicles.

2. What triggered the launch of your company?I’ve always been really interested in public transport systems, and what it can mean for an individual and the economy. Growing up in South Africa we didn’t have access to public transport. Then, after living abroad for a few years I started seeing transit systems in a new light. Mobility is a precondition for economic growth: mobility for access to jobs, education, health, and other services. Mobility of goods is also critical to supply world markets in our globalised economy. We could say that transport drives development. But transport also contributes about 20 per cent of global energy-related CO2 emissions. These emissions have increased by 1.7 per cent annually since 2000. And 60 per cent of that increase is in non-OECD countries, where economic growth has been accompanied by a surge in demand for motor vehicles. The more the world urbanises – and we’re forecast to be 70 per cent urban-dwellers by 2050 – the more critical clean, efficient, safe transportation becomes. This is a major challenge that

countries face, but the good news is that the transition towards low-carbon transportation is affordable if innovative ideas like Mellowcabs step to the foreground (i.e. less congestion, less local pollution, better road safety, etc.)

3. What has been your best mistake?Wow, that’s a good question. Looking back, I really believe the tickets to success are often disguised as setbacks or failures. I think our inability to raise funds early on was a very good thing, as we would not have been ready from a tech or a focus point of view. Constantly refining our product has really given us an edge.

4. Who has been your best ally in the development of your company?First of all my wife, with the rock-solid advice she’s given over the year; our design partners Ideso, which have done sterling work; and our investor, who came on board during a tough time and re-shaped our outcomes.

5. What is your biggest fear?Not being the person I feel I can be, and not being able to provide for my family.

6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?I’d love to be in a space where I can assist innovators and entrepreneurs, focused on hardware incubation in South Africa. I’d like to create an accelerator where innovators can develop their products, have access to specialists in various fields, be guided in the entire product development life cycle, commercialise and scale products, and take them to the international market.

7. Who is your favourite entrepreneur?Elon Musk. He started his foray into business by teaching himself how to program computers and selling computer games. When he started living in America, Musk created PayPal. Now, Musk has moved onto space travel with SpaceX, solar electric company SolarCity and electric car company Tesla.

8. What book would you recommend to your team?Google. I would recommend that they use Google to research everything.

9. In one sentence, what advice would you give to someone looking to set up a company?Focus on your strengths; get someone to assist with your weaknesses. You will achieve so much more.

The Global Innovation Award

Company: MellowcabsNominees: Neil du Preez

Founded: 2012

Institution: South Africa

Mellowcabs manufactures and operates new electric mini-cabs that provide an on-demand and affordable taxi service in cities. These services can be provided through our mobile app, call-centre or website. We have dual income sources: passenger fares (we provide a more affordable option than traditional cabs) and selling advertising space on, and in the vehicles. Advertising on our vehicles have proven to be very powerful and lucrative. Operating the vehicles is also significantly more efficient and therefore more affordable than traditional gas-burning taxis.


1. In what way is your company innovative?Market history: Solar water heating technologies are now established and considered mainstream, proven solutions. Adoption in developing countries like South Africa is still slow. This is due to a combination of factors including the capital cost of installation and the lack of urgency. South Africa is now an energy-stressed nation, with our power producer openly admitting that it cannot supply the needs of our market. This has led to an increased awareness of solar energy as an alternative and a resurgence of interest in switching.Our two-step innovation process: SolarPlus set out to solve the growing energy crisis in the South African market. To do so required disrupting the status quo. We formed a solar energy utility, which funds and installs the systems and bills our customers using a recurring billing model. We launched an investment fund through which retail and institutional investors can invest and fund the installation of units. In return they earn an above-average monthly return on the funds deployed. The investment is secured through the underlying assets, significantly reducing risk to investors and ensuring a guaranteed return on their investment.To secure our investment we needed to be able to manage and control our units.We developed a unique controller and telemetry unit that enables us to manage, control and optimise the performance of each deployed unit. Through our units we gather verifiable consumption data on energy savings, enabling us to provide consumers with savings feedback and demonstrate savings to the energy market. When the 2016 Carbon Tax legislation is enacted, this will further enhance our business as we’ll trade carbon credits to industrial consumers. 2. What triggered the launch of your company?We set out to find solutions to our energy crisis and provide investors with a secured investment vehicle.Meeting like-minded partners each with unique and complementary skills was the catalyst for the formation of the business. The eureka moment was when we discovered we could control the deployed units remotely by developing a controller that allowed bi-directional communication. 3. What has been your best mistake?We were overly conservative in our launch planning and underestimated consumer interest. We spent an extra six months on planning the business and redesigning our technology to future-proof it. We also over-

invested in the design of our controller and baked in features that’ll enable us to scale and stay ahead of competitors, should any appear. 4. Who has been your best ally in the development of your company?Established solar water heating technology suppliers are a critical part of our success. We’ve negotiated extended warranties, protecting the long-term income of the business by eliminating risk of product failure. 5. What is your biggest fear?As we scale we’ll need to ensure our installer network, technology partners and suppliers are effectively managed and enabled to deliver. Our most significant fear is that we’ll not be able to scale to meet our target of 800,000 deployed units. 6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?We’ll have a global footprint, providing our technology and utility business model in developing and developed markets. We’ll build a sustainable and profitable business by saving consumers on their energy costs, providing investors a secured investment in clean energy and supporting our environment. We intend to disrupt the energy production market in every country where we have a presence. 7. Who is your favourite entrepreneur?I follow a host of entrepreneurs, both established and up-and-coming, whom I value for their individual brilliance or stories. Forced to select just one I’d choose South African born Elon Musk – for his entrepreneurial mindset, combined with his ability to leverage people, technologies and investment to solve “big problems”. 8. What book would you recommend to your team?Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell. 9. In one sentence, what advice would you give to a researcher looking to set up a company?Invest in your passion and find a solution that not only disrupts the status quo, but has the ability to scale.


Company: Solar Plus Energy Investments (Pty) LtdNominees: Jonathan Miller

Founded: 2014

Institution: South Africa

SolarPlus is a solar energy utility. We install solar seating systems and bill consumers monthly, reducing consumption and saving consumers money. Our innovative integrated controller and management solu-tion enables real-time remote energy demand management, troubleshooting and consumption reporting.


1. In what way is your company innovative?The SpellAfrica organisation is designed to assist Africans, specifically those people at the base of the pyramid, to learn better english skills. We are developing unique products and services to reach out to over 20 million Nigerian youths who have mobile phones and are interested in learning english. The mVocabulary (mobile vocabulary) is a text messaging service that provides English lessons daily to over 50,000 subscribers in rural Benin city, Nigeria. We are helping them learn english by sending a word, its meaning and usage. Unlike our competitors, the SpellAfrica mVocabulary is a request service: we do not send unsolicited messages to subscribers. For the purpose of measuring impact, we conduct a monthly examination also via test messages, and urge our subscribers to send a new sentence with selected words drawn from the previous month.

2. What triggered the launch of your company?Many years ago, I was a victim of poor basic education. I came out of elementary school not being able to spell my name. I understand what it feels like to be limited by education. Today, my knowledge of the english language has enabled me to network with friends across the world. In a bid to improve my vocabulary, I bought a pocket-size dictionary and started learning a word each day from it. In a short while I discovered I was truly learning something great. I wanted others to benefit. I started thinking of a solution to how to spread my idea across Africa, and then the idea of using text messaging came in. I noticed that almost every person I know owns a mobile phone, and a typical mobile phone has the ability to send and receive messages. In my free time, I researched the dictionary of unfamiliar words and their meaning, and then I checked for some practical usages to such words. I got bulk SMS online credits that would allow me to auto-send text messages using the internet to my mobile phone. Studying thesewords really helped me: in a short while I discovered my english vocabulary was increasing. So the thought came to me, “Why don’t you help other people benefit from it?” I knew a whole lot of people like myself who needed to improve on their vocabulary. I opened my phone contacts and added random phone numbers of my friends and relatives, and now they also started getting the messages. Interestingly, I did not even tell them the messages were coming from me. In the space of about two weeks the bulk credit got exhausted. But just before I would recharge it, I need to get feedback from friends and relatives. Everyone liked the idea. Today, the idea has transformed into an organisation with four dedicated staff members and over 120 student volunteers. Together as a team, we have helped over 50,000 people in Benin city, Nigeria, to improve their English skills.

3. What has been your best mistake?As a start-up founder, my best mistake was that I started a company using friends and family, who were helpful at the very beginning, but as the organisation grew, it turned out that they did not possess the skills and technical-know required to upscale the organisation.

4. Who has been your best ally in the development of your company? I have really been blessed to have gotten support, advice, mentorship and pro bono goods and services from individuals and organisations from across the world, but my best ally would be “Action10 international”, a Swedish-based non-profit organisation. Action10 believes in what we are doing at SpellAfrica and was the first international organisation that provided us funding.

5. What is your biggest fear?My biggest fear is that I am building an organisation that is bigger than I can manage, and that is why I am constantly learning from mentors and attending fellowships and accelerators so that I can upgrade my business IQ in the shortest possible time.

6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?10 years from now, I see myself as the founder of one of Africa’s biggest educational organisations, making an impact on the lives of millions of youths.

7. Who is your favourite entrepreneur?Steve Jobs! He is a great man I admire so much for his creativity and tenacity.

8. What book would you recommend to your team?The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama. That is one great book every young leader should read.

9. In one sentence, what advice would you give to a researcher looking to set up a company?The road is not going to be easy; you will need passion, dedication and a resilient spirit.


Company: SpellAfrica InitiativeNominees: Elvis Austins

Founded: 2011

Institution: Nigeria

The SpellAfrica is a ESD (Education Sustainable Development) initiative. We are focused on designing new and innovative mobile phones solutions that are efficient and affordable for the purpose of helping Africa’s youths to improve english skills and spelling accuracies.



Company: SpellAfrica InitiativeNominees: Elvis Austins

Founded: 2011

Institution: Nigeria

Judging process: Award winners are selected through a two-step judging process. In a first instance, a high-level selection committee consisting of representatives from

academia, industry and venture capital reviewed the applications and selected three finalists per award category.

The ACES Awards selection committee Copenhagen, 24 June 2014

Agnes von MatuschkaHead of Centre for Entrepreneurship, TU Berlin

Alessandro GrandiChairman of the Board, AlmaCube, University of Bologna

Birgitte SkadhaugeVice President for Research, Group R&D, Carlsberg Group

Carl Johan SundbergProfessor, Coordinator Science & Society at the President’s office, Karo-

linska Institutet

Christian NagelCo-Founder and Partner, Earlybird

Fabien PetitcolasDirector for innovation, Microsoft Europe

Frank SalzgeberHead of Technology Transfer Programme Office, European Space Agency

Graham HowesVentures Technology Manager, BP

Joachim von HeimburgInnovation Architect and Executive Advisor, Innovate how to Innovate!

Laura MontagnaGeneral Manager of SKF Engineering & Research Centre, SKF

Lisa EricssonHead of KTH Innovation, KTH

Michael BrowneLEAR & Head of European Research and Innovation, UCL

Quentin Compton-BishopCEO, Warwick Ventures Ltd

Rudi CuyversHead of Spin-off & Innovation, KU Leuven

Sigmar LampeTechnology Transfer Officer, University of Luxembourg

Stefano RonchiProfessor of Management, Rector’s Delegate for relations in Western Europe, Politecnico di Milano

Tony HicksonManaging Director of the Technology Transfer team, Imperial Innovations

Uffe Bundgaard-JoergensenFounder & CEO, InvestorNet-Gate2Growth

Axel PolackGeneral Partner, TVM Capital Life Science

The Global Innovation Award selection committee25 July 2014

Thomas AnderssonChairman of the board, International Entrepreneurship Academy

Sigmar LampeEuropean Patent and Trademark Attorney, Technology Transfer Office, University of Luxembourg

Mamohloding TlhagaleDirector: Strategic Partnerships, Department of Science and Technology, Republic of South Africa

Constantine VaitsasDeputy Head, International Cooperation Unit, PRAXI / HELP-FORWARD Network

Jesper VasellHead of Department, Innovation Office West Chalmers, Chalmers University of Technology


Documents

The Innovation Awards finalists 2 12 programmes Awards ...sciencebusiness.net/eventsarchive/Innovation... · Among many others, The Medtech Innovation Center (mtic.dk) in Aarhus,