£50,000 prize for innovation – call for entries - 2009
Scotland’s top award for innovation carries a cash award of £50,000. The Gannochy Trust Innovation Award of The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is presented annually to a young innovator whose work benefits Scotland’s wellbeing. The closing date for entries is 8th May 2009.
Targeted at a new generation of Scottish innovator, any individual aged 45 and under, working in Scotland is eligible to compete for the award. The award carries a valuable cash prize of £50,000 to an individual, and a prestigious specially commissioned gold medal.
The 2008 award was presented to Dr Colin Urquhart, chief executive officer of Glasgow based Dimensional Imaging Ltd, for a breakthrough which could transform practices in fields as diverse as burns treatment and facial surgery, orthodontics, dermatology, psychology and entertainment. The company’s DI3D™ technology is the first commercial application in the world that uses passive stereo photogrammetry to instantaneously capture accurate, high resolution 3D surface images. DI3D™ systems are now being used with success around the world in the field of facial surgery to capture photo-realistic 3D models of patients before and after facial surgery. DI3D™ system are also being used by some of the world’s largest and most prestigious video game developers to create highly realistic video game character models in a highly efficient manner.
Colin said: ”Last year’s award was fantastic recognition for the enormous challenges faced by my team in bringing a highly innovative Scottish technology to a worldwide market Scotland is an excellent place for Dimensional Imaging to be based as it gives us access to the critical mass of world leading expertise in image processing and computer vision in Scotland’s universities, but it does also present some particular challenges in addressing a worldwide market.
The award has helped to raise the profile of the company both in Scotland and oversees, and the extremely generous £50,000 prize is also hugely valuable to the company, particularly since it can be multiplied up with matching private and public sector funding. This funding will be an enormous help in allowing us to continue to develop our innovative products and bring them to market. In particular the prize will help us to develop our ground breaking 4D surface image capture technology, which is capable of capturing 3D video sequences of dynamically changing surfaces. 4D facial capture is already promising to be a highly attractive solution for high resolution facial performance capture for healthcare, entertainment and research applications.”
The RSE was founded in 1783 by Royal Charter for the “Advancement of Learning and Useful Knowledge”. It is today regarded as Scotland’s National Academy of Science and Letters. It has 1500 Fellows whose expertise encompasses the full spectrum of sciences, medicine, engineering and technology, education, law, the arts, humanities, social sciences, business industry, the professions and public service. This mulit-disciplinary perspective makes the RSE unique amongst the UK’s learned societies.
The Gannochy Trust is a grant-making trust founded in 1937 by Arthur Kinmond Bell, whisky distiller and philanthropist.
“Some amazing inventions to come out of Scotland’s talent include the television, tubular steel, and pneumatic tyres. The list is long and varied, but the contribution to Scotland’s economy and well being is enormous. The Gannochy Trust Innovation Award of The Royal Society of Edinburgh seeks to encourage younger people to pursue careers in the fields of science, technology and research which promote Scotland’s inventiveness internationally. It also recognises outstanding individual achievement which contributes to the common good of Scotland,” says RSE President Lord Wilson of Tillyorn, KT, GCMG, PRSE.
Scotland’s top award for individual achievement in innovation was established 7 years ago, in partnership between The Gannochy Trust and The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Past winners are Dr Barbara Spruce from Ninewells Hospital and Medical School in Dundee, Dr Ian Underwood of MicroEmissive Displays Ltd, Edinburgh, John Harrison of Surfactant Technologies Grangemouth, Dr Marie Claire Parker of XstalBio Ltd in Glasgow, Dr Andrew Mearns Spragg, (35) CEO of Aquapharm Bio Discovery Ltd, based at the European Centre for Marine Biotechnology in Oban.
Following an open competition for the innovation award, run by The Royal Society of Edinburgh, a distinguished judging panel chaired by Lord Cullen of Whitekirk, will select and assess the entries. Application forms are available from The Royal Society of Edinburgh
Email: gannochyaward@royalsoced.org.uk tel 0131 240 5013 www.royalsoced.org.uk
The closing date for entries is 8th May 2009.