Wellington’s strength in biomedical innovation recognised
The Lead Innovation of the 2012 Innovating for Health Challenge is Dr. Kathryn McGrath, the Director of the MacDiarmid Institute, and her Research Assistant Natasha Munro, with her submission on hard tissue implant technologies.
The Innovating for Health Challenge was developed by Grow Wellington in recognition of, and to enhance, the commercial capability of Wellington region’s research and development community in the high-value biomedical sector.
The Innovating for Health Challenge identified commercially viable research-based clinical innovations for the healthcare market. The Challenge also connected researchers and clinicians with entrepreneurs and sources of funding to help grow new businesses in the biomedical sector.
The Innovation for Health Challenge has been a valuable experience for both those who made submissions and the broader biomedical sector in the Wellington region.
Forty submissions were received in the first stage of the Challenge covering all the relevant categories from research-based ideas with the potential for practical applications in healthcare, to prototypes, pilot stage innovations, innovations at first or second stage research & development, business plans, and innovations that may already have been generating revenue.
The second stage of the Challenge provided additional support to those who submitted proposals, enabling them to develop these submissions into a robust business plan, which lead to Grow Wellington identifying six ‘Leading Innovations’.
Leading Innovations for the future
Five other submissions that showed great potential for future development and were recognised by the panel as Leading Innovations, included:
Fibre Light – a device for the remote measuring of radiation doses
Fonim Apps - allowing users to communicate phonetically using a mobile device
Therapeutic Hard Contact Lens - customised hard contact lens solutions to correct keratanocus
Morfit - in-vehicle lumbar support device to reduce lower back pain
Shield shattering anti-microbials against recalcitrant bacterias”
Grow Wellington thanks all those that participated in the Challenge. The submissions with the greatest commercial potential - along with the underpinning science - will receive on-going support to help realise that potential.
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