From VR training tools for drivers to reduce road traffic deaths to children’s prosthetic limbs that grow with them, Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation Awards will empower three pioneering women from the East Midlands to scale their innovative businesses.
These three women entrepreneurs are amongst this year’s 50 winners of Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation Awards who are developing novel solutions to major social, environmental and economic challenges. Each winner will benefit from a £50,000 grant, one-to-one business coaching, and a suite of networking, role modelling, and training opportunities.
Coinciding with International Women’s Day (Wednesday 8 March), the Awards reflect the government’s ambition to give more support to women innovators and business leaders.
The range of innovations from across the UK are vast, from health tech to education and from protecting lives to new ways to play music. The entrepreneurs from East Midlands are recognised today on International Women’s Day which is encouraging people to “embrace equity.” They are:
- Dr Victoria Kroll from Nottingham, who is determined to decrease road traffic deaths in the UK each year, has founded Esitu Solutions, designing driver assessment and VR training tools. The idea, based on a decade of scientific research, is to identify drivers who are more at risk of collision through a driver profiling system and provide tools to improve their skills and reduce these chances.
- Kate Allan from Loughborough, founder of ExpHand Prosthetics, who was inspired after meeting a young girl who needed a prosthesis to design a lightweight, adjustable, affordable and colourful prosthetic that grows with the user, encouraging children to use prostheses and with confidence.
- Miriam Silver, from Matlock, who founded BERRI, a digital toolset for parents who are concerned about their child’s mental health and are unable to access the support they need. BERRI can identify, track, and support the psychological needs of children (aged between 4 – 21 years), and provides individualised reports to advise their carers.
The flagship Women in Innovation Awards is a key part of Innovate UK’s commitment to boosting the number of women entrepreneurs. Innovate UK will give all 50 trailblazers £50,000 and bespoke mentoring and coaching to enable them to scale-up their businesses.
Now in its sixth year, the competition drew a record number of 920 applications from women business leaders, 10% up from last year, reflecting the growing number of women-led businesses in the UK (according to the Rose Review Progress Report 2023, 20% of all UK businesses are now led by all-women teams).
Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation programme continues to support high-potential women business leaders from diverse backgrounds. With a passion to support underrepresented innovation talent, 22% of the winners are Black, Asian, or from another ethnic minority group and 12% have identified as disabled.
Commenting on her innovation and Award, Kate Allen of ExpHand Prosthetics said: “90% of people across the world don’t have access to the prosthetics they need, mostly due to lack of doctors, lack of access and expensive products. ExpHand Prosthetics looks to change this by creating affordable prosthetics that can grow with you.
“I’m really grateful to be recognised as a Women in Innovation. The award gives me a great platform to grow the business further, and will hopefully inspire more women to start their own companies and take on new leadership roles.”
Emily Nott, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Programmes at Innovate UK, said: “Each year I am blown away by the brilliant ideas and talent we uncover through our Women in Innovation programme. Despite these challenging economic times, this year’s winners have shown great leadership, passion and resilience in driving their innovations forward.
“Innovate UK will work alongside them now to ensure they have the resources and support required to grow and scale their businesses, while encouraging a new generation of women to get involved in innovation, pursue their ambitions and transform our economy and society.”
Indro Mukerjee, CEO of Innovate UK, said: “The Innovate UK Women in Innovation programme is an important part of our many activities to make a real difference to the talent and skills pipeline for UK business innovation by inspiring, involving and investing in greater diversity. I warmly congratulate all the Women in Innovation Award winners and look forward to keeping in touch as they progress.”
