Winners of the 2018 Enterprise Awards are…

A highlight of our year, The Oxford Trust 2018 Enterprise Awards went off with lots of entrepreneurial fizz and excitement at the new venue in The Terrace at Oxford Brookes on Wednesday, 12th September. Run in partnership with Venturefest Oxford, this year’s award ceremony was sponsored by Marks & Clerk and the individual awards by big names such as Barclays, Advanced Oxford and product design company Triteq.

The winners of the four awards were announced to a packed room of local entrepreneurs, innovators, big business and key movers and shakers involved in science and tech in our region.

First up was the Triteq Young Entrepreneur Award. CEO of Triteq, Angela Hobbs presented the award to 31 year-old Alexander Reip. Co-founder and CEO of Oxford nanoSystems, the company develops innovative coatings to improve two-phase heat transfer surfaces. These coatings can improve transfers up to an incredible 524 per cent and enable the production of cheaper, lighter and more efficient products that consume less fuel, limit environmental impact and reduce manufacturing costs. How cool is that!

Alex said on winning his award: “I am very honoured to have received this award as there is such a high level of innovation happening in this area – so thank you to The Oxford Trust, Triteq, and all the judges. Growing OnS over the past few years has been a fantastic challenge and I certainly wouldn’t have got this far without the drive of my whole team”.

Next on the stage was Eliot Forster, founding Chair of Advanced Oxford, to present Finance Director, Tim Cowper of Oxford Nanopore Technologies with the Breakthrough Technology Award. A deserved winner, Oxford Nanopore has developed the world’s first real-time portable DNA/RNA sequencing device.  Manufactured in Oxfordshire, the MinION is a long-read, low-cost device designed to bring easy biological analyses to anyone, whether in scientific research, education or real-world applications such as disease/pathogens surveillance, environmental monitoring, food chain surveillance, self-quantification or microgravity biology.

On receiving his award, Tim said: “Thank you from all at Oxford Nanopore for the award. This evening reminds us of how much amazing innovation is coming out of Oxford. And, of course, the more innovation there is in the city, the more we can attract talent to Oxford, to support future growth”.

The Barclays Award for Innovation went to ex-OCFI residents Consultant Connect for their innovative telecommunications system that enables GPs to obtain immediate, telephone-based advice from local NHS hospital consultants – allowing them to get expert advice in real time. Sixty-five per cent of GP calls made to consultants using the service avoid visits to hospitals which saves GPs, patients and hospitals time and money. Consultant Connect’s service has been adopted by over 50 CCGs in England and is helping over 2500 GP practices, covering a patient population of over 16 million. In March of this year, the company estimated that the service had saved the NHS over £10 million.

Jonathan Patrick said: “We were delighted to be shortlisted for this Oxford Trust Award. The company’s first home was in the Trust-owned Oxford Centre for Innovation and we benefited from both the working space and the presence of other innovative start-ups in the neighbouring offices. The awards themselves are well known locally and, given all the talent there is in Oxford, being shortlisted felt like a real achievement. It’s been a great few years and, now winning this award feels like the icing on the cake”.

And, finally, our very own Vice Chair Georgina Ferry presented The Oxford Trust Outstanding Achievement Award to Professor Sir John Bell for his outstanding contribution to Oxfordshire and the local science and tech ecosystem.

John Bell said: “The Oxford Trust has been a fundamental piece of the puzzle to drive our high-tech economy. It has been a privilege to work in Oxford and be part of this exciting growth. On this basis, I would like to share this award with all of you.”

We look forward to seeing these companies develop and grow as our previous winners – like Oxbotica, Immunocore and Adaptix. We’ll keep you posted…