Winners of the Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards 2022 revealed

A celebration of the extraordinary talent across a host of science and technology sectors was held at Hinxton Hall, on the Wellcome Genome Campus, on Wednesday evening (May 11).

The event began with a networking reception before the awards ceremony in the Francis Crick Auditorium, attended by around 250 business leaders, entrepreneurs and scientists.

Editor Paul Brackley, who hosted the event and chaired the judging panel, said: “It was a wonderful evening, full of stories of innovation and ingenuity.

“The judging panel had a very challenging task selecting the winners from the record number of entries we had for our fifth annual awards, and it was terrific to showcase all of our finalists.”

The ceremony began with the unveiling of the winner of the inaugural In Search of Wonder Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by Waterbeach creative agency JDJ Creative.

It went to Prof Sir Mike Stratton, a cancer genomics pioneer whose discoveries have aided the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, while setting the foundation for more personalised cancer treatments.

Earlier this year, Prof Stratton announced that he would be stepping down as director of the Wellcome Sanger Institute and CEO of the Wellcome Genome Campus after 12 years in the post.

After accepting the award, Prof Stratton delivered the guest speech for the event, describing highlights from his career and the power of genomics, before the highly commended and winning finalists were revealed in 15 further categories, as detailed below.

Paul added: “I would like to congratulate all of our winners and thank our sponsors for their support of this celebration of Cambridge science and technology.”

The awards ended with the announcement of the winner of a bespoke £1,500 IP prize, courtesy of Cambridge full service IP firm Appleyard Lees.

It went to Ever Resource, the Cleantech Company of the Year winner, which has next-generation recycling solutions in the fields of metals and batteries, carbon and fuels, and chemicals for industry.

The awards were also broadcast live on the Cambridge Independent’s Facebook page – you can watch the feed here.

We’ll have lots more from the awards soon – including a souvenir supplement in the Cambridge Independent, out from May 18. Follow #SciTechAwards on Twitter.

The winners of the 2022 Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards

In Search of Wonder Lifetime Achievement Award

Sponsored by JDJ Creative

Professor Sir Mike Stratton

Start-up Company of the Year

Sponsored by Kao Data

Winner: iKVA
Highly Commended: Creasallis

STEM Initiative of the Year

Sponsored by CityFibre

Winner: Form the Future from Cambridge LaunchPad
Highly Commended: My STEMM Future from Wellcome Connecting Science and Wellcome Sanger Institute

Employer of the Year

Sponsored by COEL

Winner: Domino Printing
Highly Commended: Abcam

Researcher of the Year

Sponsored by AstraZeneca

Winner: Dr Robert Finn, section head, genome assembly and annotation, and team leader, microbiome informatics, EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute
Highly Commended: Dr Gemma Mudd, Bicycle Therapeutics

AI Company of the Year

Sponsored by Appleyard Lees

Winner: C2-Ai
Highly Commended: OKRA.ai

Cleantech Company of the Year

Sponsored by Woodfines Solicitors

Winner: Ever Resource
Highly Commended: Camnexus

Enterprise Skills Award

Sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Centre at Cambridge Judge Business School

Winner: Owlstone Medical
Highly Commended: Wellcome Genome Campus

Medtech Company of the Year

Sponsored by Sagentia Innovation

Winner: Medovate
Highly Commended: Kalium Health

Biotech Company of the Year

Sponsored by Chesterford Research Park

Winner: bit.bio
Highly Commended: Arecor Therapeutics

The Award for Innovation

Sponsored by Illumina

Winner: Evonetix
Highly Commended: The Milner Institute

The Tech for Good Award

Sponsored by Allia Future Business Centre Cambridge

Winner: 52 North Health
Highly Commended: AudioTelligence

CEO of the Year

Sponsored by Bidwells

Winner: Mark Kotter, bit.bio
Highly Commended: Sarah Howell, Arecor Therapeutics

The One to Watch

Sponsored by cofinitive

Winner: electronRx
Highly Commended: Cambridge Future Tech

Technology Company of the Year

Sponsored by the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Anglia Ruskin University

Winner: Congenica
Highly Commended: Focal Point Positioning

Life Science Company of the Year

Sponsored by BioStrata

Winner: CN Bio Innovations
Highly Commended: Microbiotica

£1,500 IP Prize winner from Appleyard Lees
Ever Resource