For the second year running, Anglia Innovation Partnership (AIP) – the science park management company for Norwich Research Park, has teamed up with The Royal Society’s Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) and the Faculty of Science at the University of East Anglia (UEA) to take over Anglia Innovation Partnership’s regular Enterprise Tuesday showcase event to hold a competition for entrepreneurs across the park campus.
The Norwich Research Park Innovation Hothouse Competition calls for anyone on campus who has a business or an early-stage business idea to come forward. This year the competition launched in mid-June and was open for submissions until mid-July. In total there were 36 applications, and this group was narrowed down by an initial wave of judging by Soraya Jones, EiR at UEA and Prof Sheng Qi, UEA to 8 finalists that will get the opportunity to present a pitch of their business idea in a ‘dragon’s den’ style in front of a panel of distinguished judges.
This pitching session will happen at the next Enterprise Tuesday event being held on the 26th November. Enterprise Tuesdays are regular events held by AIP to showcase research and innovation from research organisations and businesses based on the park campus. Last November the innovation hothouse competition ran for the first time in an Enterprise Tuesday event, with pitches being a great success and companies Traitseq, Ediform and OPAU taking the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places respectively.
Dr Soraya Jones, the Royal Society EiR at UEA said, “We have an exciting group of finalists again this year covering a wide range of areas, from cancer diagnostics and treatments, sustainable agriculture using bio-based pesticides, digital twins for childbirth, 3d Knee scanning to sustainable packaging and recycling bread wastage to produce artisan vodka. We had received so many interesting applications, but we can only shortlist 8 finalists who will showcase their innovation on 26 November and are currently being mentored by me and introduced to many other specialists.”
“This Innovation Hothouse project is an example of co-creation and collaboration between all the agencies in Norwich Research Park who are passionate about working together to achieve further impact and innovation.”
Following the event there will be celebratory drinks and networking sponsored by Mills & Reeve. The event is also kindly supported by #21ToWatch, Cambridge Wireless, Innovate UK Business Growth and Richard Flavell.
This year, the eight finalists selected to present at the event on the 26th November are:
- John Farley representing iBoxit
iBoxit offers a sustainable packaging solution for the UK seafood industry. They create a packaging solution that increases the shelf life of fish during transportation and is constructed of re-eye/able materials, removing Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) from the supply chain. The product combines antimicrobial functions to preserve freshness and maximize nutritional value.
- Safir Jamal representing Vida Vodka
Vida Vodka has a revolutionary new approach to the creation of alcohol that aims to lead a market shift in spirit companies’ outlook on sustainability. Traditional vodka is made using crops grown specifically for creating alcohol. Vida Vodka’s aim is to use waste bread, that would have otherwise ended up in landfill, to create an innovative and environmentally friendly alternative.
- Rachel Hurst representing PathoProst Detect Test
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men but at the time of diagnosis it is very difficult to determine whether the disease is aggressive and needs treatment. Rachel Hunt is developing a test, PathoProst Detect, that can be carried out on patients’ urine prior to cancer diagnosis that would prevent the risk of developing aggressive disease. This information can be used together with existing clinical information to help the patient to decide if they need treatment.
- Rosaria Campilongo representing PfBIO
PfBIO have developed a bacteria-based solution to promote plant health and protect crops from major agricultural diseases. They have developed a proprietary discovery platform, BioSIFT, that allows them to quickly identify the best beneficial bacteria and their modes of action. They isolate natural bacterial strains from the environment, and by following their pipeline they are able to select the strains that are used to make their biosolutions.
- Chris Price representing Bioscopic
Bioscopic is a groundbreaking biotech startup that is tapping into an unexpected source of medical innovation: beneficial bacteria found in infants. These tiny microbes play a crucial role in developing a healthy immune system and fighting diseases from the earliest stages of life.
- Tom Turmezei representing KNEE3D
KNEE3D will be a novel, one-stop AI-assisted 3-D imaging analysis suite for knee osteoarthritis that will help implement effective preventative strategies as early as possible in the clinic and expedite new therapeutics in drug development in clinical trials. They use disruptive point-of-care imaging technology that provides reliable and accurate diagnostic information to clinicians and patients at the time of imaging rather than having to wait.
- Rudy Lapeer representing BirthView/Birth4Cast
BirthView is a Virtual Reality (VR) based simulator that is capable of simulating the “cardinal movements” of human childbirth. These movements include the fetal head rotations that allow the fetus to be expelled from the womb. Birth4Cast takes BirthView one step further by making it subject-specific. This would allow clinicians to evaluate labour before the actual event and make adequate decisions to minimise complications to the mother and baby.
- Anne Carriie representing UTI module – Healthium(TM) platform
The delivery of care for recurrent Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) has great variability and that leads to delays in finding the right treatment for the right patient. To minimise variability, increase efficiency and quality of care a digital pathway for recurrent UTIs was designed. Incorporating an AI tool can reduce the time needed for clinicians to interact with the patients outside the time needed for procedures.
