Stage set for Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards 2024
The stage is set for the Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards 2024, which take place this week at Hinxton Hall Conference Centre on the Wellcome Genome Campus.
The awards, being held for the seventh time, will celebrate the achievements of companies, organisations and individuals in a host of sectors, from cleantech to biotech, and AI to medtech.
Three hundred guests will gather at Hinxton Hall on Thursday evening (16 May), where a networking reception will be followed by the awards ceremony in the Francis Crick Auditorium.
Winners will be revealed across 16 categories, following an extensive judging process from an experienced panel.
The event will also be livestreamed on the Cambridge Independent’s website from 7pm.
First to be revealed will be the winner of the In Search of Wonder Lifetime Achievement Awards, sponsored by the Waterbeach-based brand strategy and creative design agency JDJ Creative, which is awarded to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution during their career. It was the only category not open to nomination - instead, a panel selected the recepient.
The two previous winners of the award were Prof Sir Mike Stratton, a cancer genomics pioneer and former director of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and angel investor and serial entrepreneur Peter Cowley.
A new category will feature at the awards this year: Software Company of the Year, sponsored by serviced officer provider Mantle Space.
And there are again two categories for individuals: Researcher of the Year, which was open to researchers in both academic and commercial roles and was judged with the help of sponsor AstraZeneca, and CEO of the Year, sponsored by Bidwells, which features a shortlist of talented and inspiring leaders.
For the coveted title of Employer of the Year, we welcome a new sponsor - relocations provider Restore Harrow Green, which has a specialist laboratory services division based in Cambridge.
The award will go to a company that has demonstrated outstanding commitment to its employees, the wider community and to sustainability.
Paul Norman, head of relocations at Restore Harrow Green Laboratory Services in Cambridge, said: “Congratulations to everyone who has been nominated in this year’s Science and Technology Awards.
“With a record number and an exceptionally high standard of entries, it’s a huge achievement to make the shortlist.
“As a business that supports the life science industry in and around Cambridge and across the UK, it’s exciting to see how much amazing work is happening across this region. Good luck to everyone on the night.”
The awards recognise talent at all stages of development.
The One to Watch award, sponsored by full service, integrated communications company cofinitive, recognises highly promising early-stage companies, and has previously been won by the likes of Kalium Health, Mogrify, VividQ, electronRX and CardiaTec Biosciences. The latter two return this year in other categories - electronRX, which uses digital biomarkers to help with chronic care, is shortlisted in both the Medtech Company of the Year category, sponsored by St John’s Innovation Centre, and in the Tech for Good Award, supported by Allia Future Business Centre Cambridge.
CardiaTec Biosciences, meanwhile, which applies AI on large-scale multi-omic data to develop the next generation of cardiovascular disease drug targets, is on the shortlist for AI Company of the Year, sponsored by intellectual property law firm Appleyard Lees, which will also provide a £1,500 IP Prize to one lucky winner, which could be chosen from any category.
Appleyard Lees is among a number of sponsors that have supported the awards for many years, along with Woodfines Solicitors, which is sponsoring Cleantech Company of the Year, and Chesterford Research Park, which is backing the hotly-contested Biotech Company of the Year category.
Data centre specialist Kao Data returns to support Start-up of the Year, while the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Anglia Ruskin University, where last year’s awards were held, is again supporting the Technology Company of the Year category - one that features an extraordinary shortlist of high achievers.
Cambridge Science Park is back for the second year to support the STEM Initiative of the Year, a category that highlights the importance of providing inspiring opportunities for the next generation.
The Award for Innovation, meanwhile, shines a spotlight on amazing ingenuity in a number of spheres - from Cellular Origins’ scalable cell therapy automation manufacturing solution to Plextek’s radar to enable the study of micro space debris in Low Earth Orbit. We welcome Railpen, which is investing heavily in Cambridge, as sponsor of this category.
The final award of the evening, sponsored by Zyme Communications, which provides PR and marketing services to the life science sector, will be in the highly competitive Life Science Company of the Year category, won last year by Astex Pharmaceuticals.
Editor Paul Brackley, who chaired the judging panel and will host the awards, said: “The Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards are always a terrific occasion, bringing together a huge array of talent.
“This year’s exceptional set of entries ensured we have an outstanding shortlist and we look forward to revealing the winners at Hinxton Hall, on the world famous Wellcome Genome Campus.”
Follow the awards via X using #SciTechAwards.
Look out for a special souvenir supplement on all the winners, with pictures from the evening, in next week’s Cambridge Independent.
The 2024 Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards finalists
Start-up of the Year
Sponsored by Kao Data
Broken String Biosciences
Constructive Bio
Cambridge Future Tech
THIS Labs
Aseptuva
STEM Initiative of the Year
Sponsored by Cambridge Science Park
Science in Pictures: A Mosaic of STEM Inspiration – AstraZeneca
Youth engagement programme – Gen Two Real Estate
Cambridge Science Centre
Schools Day – Babraham Institute
Genomic Futures – Wellcome Connecting Science and Wellcome Sanger Institute
Black Talent & Leadership in STEM
Employer of the Year
Sponsored by Restore Harrow Green
Insmed Innovation UK
Domino Printing
Owlstone Medical
Riverlane
Sphere Fluidics
Maxion Therapeutics
Medtech Company of the Year
Sponsored by St John’s Innovation Centre
BIOS Health
CMR Surgical
PlaqueTec
C2-Ai
Lucida Medical
electronRx
Cleantech Company of the Year
Sponsored by Woodfines Solicitors
Alchemie Technology
Polysolar
Advanced Infrastructure Technology
Hereworks
Vuala
Researcher of the Year
Sponsored by AstraZeneca
Dr David Willer, Henslow Research Fellow, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge
Dr Isidro Cortés-Ciriano, EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton
Dr Emmanouil (Manos) Metzakopian, bit.bio
Dr Jane Aspell, Anglia Ruskin University
Prof Justin Stebbing, Anglia Ruskin University
Dr Rachael Walker, head of flow cytometry, Babraham Institute
Dr Benjamin T Porebski, investigator scientist, MRC LMB
CEO of the Year
Sponsored by Bidwells
Dr Mark Kotter, bit.bio
Dr Patrick Short, Sano Genetics
Owen Thompson, Cambridge Future Tech
Theodora Harold, Crescendo Biologics
Dr Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, Nu Quantum
Dr Felix Dobbs, Broken String Biosciences
The One to Watch
Sponsored by cofinitive
BugBiome
Forefront RF
Vector Bioscience Cambridge
Clock Bio
Supersense Technologies
Cambridge Nucleomics
Biotech Company of the Year
Sponsored by Chesterford Research Park
Exonate
Maxion Therapeutics
Arecor
Crescendo Biologics
Mosaic Therapeutics
bit.bio
The Award for Innovation
Sponsored by Railpen
Amphista Therapeutics
Paragraf
FlexEnable
Plextek
Cellular Origins
bit.bio
The Tech for Good Award
Sponsored by Allia Future Business Centre Cambridge
Supersense Technologies
Ethicronics
Vuala
Orca Scan
COG-Train from Wellcome Connecting Science and Wellcome Sanger Institute
electronRX
Software Company of the Year
Sponsored by Mantle Space
Gearset
Advanced Infrastructure Technology
Hereworks
Optibrium
Orca Scan
IQGeo
Sano Genetics
AI Company of the Year
Sponsored by Appleyard Lees
Secondmind
Enhanc3D Genomics
CardiaTec Biosciences
Lucida Medical Ltd
C2-Ai
Technology Company of the Year
Sponsored by the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Anglia Ruskin University
Pragmatic Semiconductor
Cambridge Mechatronics
Nu Quantum
Cellular Origins
Plextek
Secondmind
Life Science Company of the Year
Sponsored by Zyme Communications
Enhanc3D Genomics
Sphere Fluidics
PhoreMost
CN Bio
Cerevance
Biofidelity
In Search of Wonder Lifetime Achievement Award
Sponsored by JDJ Creative
