Stephen Young Institute for International BusinessAward for Outstanding Business Idea Research paper

2022-23 Winners

The competition saw a wide range of highly impressive entries with two winners selected by a panel of judges. Each winner received £75,000 to support the development of their idea.

The winners were announced at the biannual Inspire100 event held in the Strathclyde University TIC building (May 23).

The first of the two awards was given to Dr Momchil Vasilev, a Research Associate in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and founder of InProcess Ltd.  He won for his paper on ‘inspecting high-value components at the point of manufacture,’ 

 The second award was given to Professors Karen Faulds and Duncan Graham of the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry for their paper on ‘Rapid point of use detection of Listeria in chilled food manufacturing.’

 Fiona Ireland, Head of Entrepreneurship Strategy, commented:

“The support we are able to provide will help these exciting young companies to grow. We’d like to thank all of those who entered, and our judges who had a really tough time in selecting winners from a group of exceptionally strong contenders.”

2021-22 Winners

The first of the two awards was given to Dr Daniel Markl’s research project, Micro-Feeder for Solid Pharmaceuticals. Daniel is a Reader within the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences. His project is developing the flexible, cost-effective manufacture of life-saving medicines for small patient populations, such as highly targeted cancer treatments, whilst also vastly reducing pharmaceutical waste.

The second award was given to Dr Michele Zagnoni’s Drug Screening of Biopsy-Derived Spheroids. This platform can predict patient response to different drug therapies for ovarian & pancreatic cancers and glioma, and will reduce the time to get new treatments to market and accelerate the feasibility of individualised treatment – maximising benefit and reducing toxicity and cost.

The inaugural winners were recently announced at the first Strathclyde Inspire Supporters Dinner, a ceremony in the Technology & Innovation Centre, attended by the Principal, Professor Sir Jim McDonald. Collecting of behalf of Dr Michele Zagnoni, of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, was Karla Findlay, a doctoral researcher within Michele's research group.