Fresh Ideas Fund Winners Announced

January 30, 2015

MeDe Innovation are to invest in a further two research projects to develop early stage, fresh ideas that will aid the fundamental understanding and development of innovation in medical device manufacturing.  A further two to three projects will be developed through sandpit events.
Seven early career researchers will take a share in the Fresh Ideas Fund following today’s announcement at the MeDe Innovation Annual Conference.
The research will include, for example:

• The development of biomedical Mg/HA nanocomposites with controllable degradability, led by Dr Yan Huang – Brunel University
• Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) techniques to manufacture PEEK cranial plates, led by Dr Hengan Ou – University of Nottingham
• Soft tissue fixation and repair, to include Chaozong Lui (UCL), Guiseppe Tronchi (University of Leeds), Ana Ferreira-Duarte (Newcastle) in a sandpit led by Professor Kenny Dalgarno
• Antimicrobial Approaches for Medical Device Development to include David Williams (Cardiff) and Maria Katsikogianni (Bradford) in a sandpit led by Professor Paul Hatton

Explaining the background of the Fresh Ideas Fund, Professor Dalgarno, Deputy Director of MeDe Innovation said “We ring-fenced some of our funding to invest in new ideas from early career researchers that fall into the remit of our Centre. We’re not only growing our research on a national level, but we’re giving opportunity to some of our rising stars too”.
“Our research is driven by demand so part of the requirement is committed industry interest. We received some very promising applications, and have brought these together to develop ideas through sandpits. We’re excited about where these meetings of minds will lead”.
The Fresh Ideas Fund awards were launched on 18th September – full details on the funding can be found on the funding award webpage.
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