Yorkshire and Humber’s innovative businesses recognised

04/03/2010

The region’s brightest business innovators have been recognised at the Yorkshire Forward Innovator/10 Awards Ceremony, which took place last night.

EMSc (UK) Ltd from Rotherham, Shipley-based Radio Design Ltd, and Harvard Engineering of Leeds scooped three of the four awards up for grabs, with Double Green Ltd, from North Cave, sharing a collaboration award with the University of York.
 
Yorkshire Forward’s Innovator/10 awards celebrate innovation and collaboration among businesses in Yorkshire and Humber along with associates Yorkshire Innovation and Business Link Yorkshire, both of whom were represented on the judging panel.
 
Jim Farmery, Assistant Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward, said: “Innovation is the lifeblood of industry, and through these awards we hope to encourage businesses in the region to develop new and exciting ideas to take to the market.
 
“The future of business is reliant on successful innovation, and that is what we hope to promote through Innovator/10.”
 
The winners were announced at a dazzling awards ceremony at Leeds City Museum on Wednesday March 3, led by guest speaker Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project. As well as the prestigious award, each winner picked up a £3,000 prize to spend on further innovative developments and activities.

Innovation in Action Award

Won by EMSc (UK) Ltd thanks to the development of a voltage optimisation unit that works to significantly reduce energy consumption. Powerstar reduces the voltage supplied to a building, therefore generating great savings on electricity consumption and CO2 emissions.
 
Dr Alex Mardapittas, Managing Director EMSc (UK) Ltd and creator of Powerstar, said: “We are extremely happy to have won this award, as of course we are to win any accolade in praise of our product.  But we are particularly pleased with this award as it recognises and champions innovation in our region. We are a company with a firm belief in innovation and in UK manufacturing – the Powerstar is the only voltage optimisation unit designed and manufactured in the UK and we are extremely proud of that fact.
 
“The prestige that surrounds our winning this award will help us to reach more people and generate further interest in Powerstar. This should hopefully allow for us to grow and expand further as a company – particularly in product development and the furthering of innovative ideas – which is our primary concern. This in turn will allow for future job creation within our region and beyond.”

Young Innovative Business Award

Radio Design Ltd picked up the Young Innovative Business Award after developing a way of allowing up to three cellular base stations from two UK-based mobile phone system operators to share the same antenna system, resulting in both site rental and equipment cost savings. Without this, separate antennae systems and often an additional mast would have to be installed to allow a cell site to be shared.
 
Managing Director Eric Hawthorn said: “Everyone is thrilled that we were selected as a finalist, and picking a winner must have been a real challenge for the judges given the quality and strength of all finalists.
 
“We are a close knit team and many people have been involved in the concept, design, development, manufacture and commercialisation of our product. This award is recognition of an outstanding team effort.”

Sustainable Innovation Award

Harvard Engineering scooped the Sustainable Innovation Award after developing LeafNut, a ground breaking central monitoring and wireless control system for street lights. It provides monitoring, switching and dimming control of each street light, and also significantly reduces carbon emissions by 100kg per light per annum, which can lead to savings of £46 per street light per annum.
 
Michael McDonnell, Sales and Marketing Director at Harvard Engineering, said: “We are delighted to have won this prestigious award. It’s a credit to the whole team at Harvard, everyone has worked extremely hard researching, developing and delivering a long term sustainable solution that is already benefiting communities not only in the UK, but across the world.
 
“The success we are experiencing with LeafNut has also led to the continued growth of the company. It has allowed us to enter new markets and sectors in the UK and globally, as well as recruit new members of staff.”

Lord Stafford Partners in Innovation Award

Double Green Ltd and the University of York won the Lord Stafford Partners in Innovation Award for developing the use of glycerine, a co-product from biodiesel production, in various applications, including the generation of biogas. The Research and Development work carried out at the University of York contributed to the characterisation of glycerin at different stages of production as well as the development of protocols for the synthesis of added value chemicals from glycerine.
 
Lorenzo Herrero, Research Associate at Double Green, said: "This is a great achievement for the team and rewards entrepreneurship and our ability to overcome big challenges, both by the company and the University of York. 
 
“Our demonstration of the ability to turn an expensive waste into a valuable and environmentally beneficial product should be a valuable case study for others. We will invest the award price in the further development of research into added value products from food waste.”
 
Tim Smit said: “Innovation is the lifeblood of our civilisation and it is now that society and business must celebrate the innovator, the change maker and the experimenter and the fear of failure needs to be replaced by the pirate grin of the daredevil.
 
“I am delighted to be associated with these awards and hope the bravery of the entrants is matched by the far sightedness of the judges!”
 
The four winners were whittled down from a list of 12 finalists following a series of site visits by an expert panel of judges.
 
Chris Middleton, who was part of the judging panel on behalf of Yorkshire Innovation, said: “Each of the 12 finalists have demonstrated their commitment to innovation through a series of very strong products and processes, so choosing a winner was a tough task.
 
“The overall standard of entries was very high this year which is indicative of a thriving culture of innovation amongst the region’s businesses, so my congratulations go not only to the four award-winners, but to all of those who were shortlisted for the four awards.”

More information

For further information or interviews please contact:
EMSc (UK) Ltd: Dr Alex Mardapittas, Managing Director. Phone: 07739 259625; Email: alex@ems-uk.org
Radio Design Ltd: Eric Hawthorn, Managing Director. Phone: 07785 737277; Email: eric.hawthorn@radiodesign.eu
Harvard Engineering: Michael McDonnell, Sales and Marketing Director. Phone: 0113 383 1000; Email: MichaelM@harvardeng.com
Double Green: Lorenzo Herrero, Research Associate. Phone: 01430 424 283; Email: Lorenzo@doublegreen.co.uk
 
Alternatively, please contact Dan Murphy, Yorkshire Forward Press Manager on 0113 3949904 or email Daniel.murphy@yorkshire-forward.com
 
Yorkshire Forward

• Yorkshire Forward is the Regional Development Agency behind the economic regeneration of Yorkshire and Humber. It aims to make a positive difference by investing in jobs, improving towns and cities, and in supporting businesses throughout the region.