News Article

One North East honoured the region’s brightest innovators last night (Thursday, February 5) at the 2009 Grant for Research and Development Awards in Newcastle - and unveiled a new £2.4m pilot grant scheme to help more companies in the future.

Compered by ITV News’ Kim Inglis, and with a speech from TV’s Adam Hart-Davis showing “What the North Easteners Did for Us”, the awards held at the Discovery Museum celebrated the technological, environmental, innovational and commercial contributions regional technology firms make to the North East economy.

The top award of the evening, the Business Investment and Growth Award, went to Kromek Ltd of Sedgefield, County Durham. Originally set up in 2003 as Durham Scientific Crystals, the company develops semi-conductor materials that can be used in medical imaging, security, defence and industrial screening. It is pioneering the next generation of X-ray technology to service high value growth global markets.

Other winners from the night included life science firm BioToolomics Ltd of Consett, County Durham. The company took away the coveted Innovation Award for its development of pioneering disposable chromatography technologies, which speed up the separation and purification of proteins and biomolecules to improve new drug discovery and manufacture.

Kevin Mann of Take Publishing Ltd in Middlesbrough walked away with the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, showing that youth is no barrier to business success and that there is a wealth of young talent in the North East.

Ocean Flow Energy from North Shields received the Environment Award, Gary Thompson of Gateshead-based C2M UK Ltd won the Innovation Champion Award and nano-porous solutions ltd, also of Gateshead, took away the Technology Transfer Award.

Will Adams, Head of One North East’s Research and Development Grant Team, said: “Once again, we’ve been impressed with the high calibre of entrants, all of whom have shown outstanding commitment to new technology development and should congratulate themselves for their achievements.”

Margaret Fay, Chairman of One North East, took the opportunity to announce a new £2.4m pilot grant scheme for larger businesses.

One North East is trialing the Large Company Research and Development Grant to encourage and assist large companies in the North East to carry out commercially-driven research and development into new products and processes with significant business potential.

This scheme will complement the support already available to SMEs under the Grant for Research and Development, and will mean that the North East has measures to support companies of any size to carry out research and development activity.

Mrs Fay said: “More than ever, firms off all sizes need easier access to finance and the North East is only the second region in England to have this support measure available for larger companies.”

Administered by One North East, the Government’s Grant for Research and Development is a grant support scheme designed to help small to medium sized enterprises carry out commercially driven research and development into new products and processes.

Since taking control of the scheme in 2005, the Agency has supported 128 projects with grants totaling over £10m, securing over £14m worth of private sector finance for research and development activity.

A full list of the winners on the evening include:

Innovation Award

Winner: BioToolomics Ltd, Consett County Durham

Runners up: Applied Superconductor Ltd, Blyth, Northumberland
                     Femeda Ltd, Middlesbrough, Tees Valley

Environment Award

Winner: Ocean Flow Energy, North Shields, Tyne and Wear

Runners up: Granulated Glass Research, Middlesbrough, Tees Valley
                      Innova Ltd, Wooler, Northumberland

Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Winner: Kevin Mann, Take Publishing Ltd, Middlesbrough, Tees Valley

Innovation Champion Award

Winner: Gary Thompson, C2M UK Ltd, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear

Technology Transfer Award

Winner: nano-porous solutions ltd, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear

Runners Up:  Clarizon Ltd, Newcastle, Tyne and Wear
                        Durham Photonics Ltd, Durham, County Durham

Business Investment and Growth Award

Winner: Kromek Ltd, Sedgefield, County Durham

Runners Up: Applied Superconductor Ltd (ASL), Blyth, Northumberland
                       Femeda Ltd, Middlesbrough, Tees Valley

For more information about the Grant for Research and Development, please contact Business Link on Tel: 0845 600 9006 or visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/northeast.

Ends.

For more information, contact Andy Aston (press office) on 0191 229 6894 or 07766 114798, or by emailing andy.aston@onenortheast.co.uk