ACES Awards Recognises Europe’s Innovators

Academic entrepreneurs were recognised in the third annual ACES awards, held in Zurich on 3 February 2011 and awarded by the Science|Business Innovation Board. For university spin-outs, the awards are open to entrepreneurs in the European Union and countries affiliated with European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for research, including Israel and Russia.

Winners included Sabine Bahn and Chris Lowe at the University of Cambridge, UK, co-founders of Psynova Neurotech Ltd, who took the Lifescience Award for developing novel biomarkers that can help improve the diagnosis of psychiatric illnesses. With a portfolio of 20 patent families, its first product, VeriPsych, is the first and only blood test to aid psychiatrists in the diagnosis of recent-onset schizophrenia.

Carlos Ludlow and Howard Chase, (University of Cambridge, UK), won the Materials/Chemistry prize; founders of Enval Ltd, they are commercialising technologies that can recover clean aluminium from packaging waste. Yoram Valent (Bar-Ilan University, Israel) won the GE Smart Grid Award for GridON, a spin-out commercialising an innovative Fault Current Limiter for use on electricity grids. Christian Voegeli (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) and founder of Dybuster won the ICT Award for developing therapy software for learning disabilities; and the Fast Start Award for companies formed in the past year went to Mirasense AG founder Samuel Mueller (ETH Zurich), for Scandit, a barcode-based social shopping application for smart phones.

Kristo Ovaska, an MBA student (Aalto University, Finland), received the judges’ Bridge Award for individuals who have exceeded in promoting entrepreneurship, technology transfer and a culture of innovation in Europe. He founded Aalto’s Venture Garage, which has given rise to 50 campus start-ups.