UCLB News

UCL Business Award Winners 2012

17 May 2012

UCLB has announced the winners of two awards it has sponsored as part of the UCL Awards for Enterprise.

Both the UCL Business Award 2012 and the UCL Business Award 2012 ‘One to Watch’ Award went to UCL researchers who had made an outstanding contribution to the commercialisation of research.

UCL Business Award – Professor David Selwood

Provost, Professor Malcom Grant and Professor Dave Selwood

Professor David Selwood, Head of Biological and Medicinal Chemistry at the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical research at UCL was awarded the UCL Business Award 2012 for his long working relationship with UCLB.

The judges also recognised and the number of projects he has worked on during his tenure, including three start-up companies – ProAxon, NCE Discovery and Canbex. The latter has received £2 million in funding from The Fast Forward, the US technology transfer arm of the MS Association, and the Wellcome Trust, so advance a compound which could treat some of the symptoms of condition.

UCL Business ‘One to Watch’ Award – Professor Neal Skipper and Dr Chris Howard.

Provost, Professor Malcom Grant with Dr Chris Howard and Professor Neal Skipper

The UCL Business ‘One to Watch’ Award was presented to Professor Neal Skipper and Dr Chris Howard, from the London Centre for Nanotechnology for the development of a novel process to purify and separate carbon nanotubes. The process was successfully licensed to Linde Group for commercialisation.

The importance of corporate partners in supporting the work of UCL and in commercialising research produced by the university was also recognized, with Corporate Partner of the Year Award going to mining conglomerate BHP Billiton and Small to Medium Enterprise Partner of the Year Award going to TAP Biosystems for their work in commecialising research from the Institute of Orthapedics.

Speaking about the Award, Rosemary Drake, Chief Scientific Officer at TAP Biosystems, said: “TAP Biosystems is very honoured to have won this award. Since beginning our partnership with UCL four years ago, our collaboration has gone from strength to strength, resulting in three further projects, all of which have strong commercial potential.

“Working with UCL has been a win-win for both the fortunes of TAP Biosystems and for people who will eventually benefit from the treatments we are developing through our partnership.”

About UCLB
UCLB is a leading technology transfer company that supports and commercialises research and innovations arising from UCL, one of the UK’s top research-led universities. UCLB has a successful track record and a strong reputation for identifying and protecting promising new technologies and innovations from UCL academics. It invests directly in development projects to maximise the potential of the research and manages the commercialisation process of technologies from the laboratory to market. UCLB supports UCL’s Grand Challenges of increasing UCL’s positive impact on and contribution to Global Health, Sustainable Cities, Intercultural Interaction and Human Wellbeing.

For further information, please visit: www.uclb.com