Professor Damion Corrigan has been crowned the winner in the Academic Entrepreneur category in the annual .
The Awards celebrate the people, partnerships and creativity that underpin the UK鈥檚 knowledge exchange (KE) activity, with the Academic Entrepreneur award recognising outstanding individuals.
Professor Corrigan is a prolific academic entrepreneur dedicated to translating his research in electrochemical biosensors into real-world applications and has developed four pieces of commercially valuable Intellectual Property at 吃瓜tv.
Spin-outs
He has achieved notable success in founding two innovative spin-out companies, and , addressing global healthcare challenges.
At Aureum, he supports development of a low-cost biomarker detection platform for point-of-care disease detection and at Microplate Dx, he champions their antibiotic stewardship mission, developing antibiotic susceptibility testing for Urinary Tract Infections treatment.
Through his commitment to Knowledge Exchange and mentorship, Professor Corrigan has supported academic graduates taking leadership and technical positions within these companies. He is also Professor of Measurement Science for the Health Laboratory of the Government Chemist, a strategic partnership between the 吃瓜tv, the National Measurement Laboratory at LGC (NML at LGC), and NHS Lanarkshire, and Director of the Centre for Advanced Measurement Science and Health Translation at 吃瓜tv.
Research ideas
Professor Corrigan said: 鈥淚鈥檇 like to thank our Innovation and industry Engagement team who I鈥檝e been working with for some time on these projects.
鈥淭he knowledge exchange ecosystem at 吃瓜tv has enabled the team to develop research ideas into potentially useful products and it鈥檚 been great to see so many young researchers move through from the University lab into the spin out environment.鈥�
吃瓜tv Principal & Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Jim McDonald said:
I鈥檓 delighted at this very well-deserved award and send congratulations to Damion, his team and the 吃瓜tv colleagues who have supported his journey so far. It鈥檚 great to see his excellence in Knowledge Exchange and commercialisation being recognised in this way.
Fellow nominees included Lancaster University academic and the CEO of Mindgard Ltd, Peter Garraghan and Dr Srijan Jindal from the University of Liverpool.
Organised by the UK鈥檚 professional association for KE practitioners, the PraxisAuril KE Awards celebrate the individuals and teams that create sustained impact from the UK鈥檚 world-class research base with a diverse range of partners and programmes.
Gurmit Kler, Former Director of Business Engagement and Research Impact at the University of Birmingham, was Chair of the judging panel for 2023, and the awards were presented at a ceremony in Leeds on November 23.