Queen’s Award for NanoSight

Nanoparticle characterisation technology manufacturer NanoSight has been selected to receive the Queen's Award for Enterprise - Innovation in 2013.

The company was founded in 2004 by Dr Bob Carr and John Knowles, after Carr discovered a technology which allows particles, small enough to be below the resolution limit of normal optical microscopes, to be visualised, sized and counted without the need for an electron microscope. 

Since 2005, NanoSight has grown sales by more than 60% annually, year on year, and now employs 47 people worldwide. The most significant growth has been in pharmaceuticals and life sciences, where budgets have remained largely unaffected by the global financial condition, the company said. There are now more than 600 NanoSight instruments in use worldwide, with the firm’s products having been cited in academic papers said to total over 700.

Speaking about the importance of this award, Dr Carr said "Winning this award is further recognition of our Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) technique as an outstanding technology to meet the needs of the burgeoning nanomaterials sector. It is reward to our team at Salisbury who continue to innovate both hardware and software improvements to meet the challenging demands of our users."

The company also received a 2012 Queen's Award for Enterprise - International Trade.