The Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship (YEF) scheme held a black-tie Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony on Thursday 26th November at the Met Hotel Leeds. The event celebrated the outstanding achievements of YEF fellows in commercialising their ground breaking academic research, and was hosted by Professor Anthony Robards, OBE.

Award winners, Professor Diana Anderson (University of Bradford), Dr Steeve Lamvohee (University of Hull), Dr Helen Philippou (University of Leeds) and Gareth Iball (Medipex) were all honoured for Exceptional Dedication and Enthusiasm to their enterprise projects and the YEF programme, an initiative funded by Regional Development Agency Yorkshire Forward.

Professor Diana Anderson, who works in the field of Biomedical Science, explained what winning meant to her:

“When I heard that I had won an award I was truly delighted. The whole experience as a Yorkshire Enterprise Fellow has been very stimulating. All the lecturers on the course are extremely good and everything is very well organised by Dr Suzanne Emmett and her team. The mentoring system is outstanding and has provided the impetus for me to move forward into the business world with appropriate support from my University.”

Fellow winner Dr Helen Philippou, who specialises in Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research, added:

“Would I recommend YEF to my academic colleagues? YES! The YEF scheme has changed my life and my whole approach to the research I now carry out in my lab”

Winner of the Best Personal Mentor award, Damien Bove (IDA Consultants LTD) commented on his rewarding YEF experience:

“The high quality of Fellows on the programme means that you find yourself giving your very best just to keep pace with them. Being exposed to the expertise that lies in the region’s universities gave me supreme confidence in recommending them as service providers to my international clients, one of whom has just placed a £3000 consultancy programme and negotiations are ongoing for a massive £700,000+ programme of work.”

The event’s other prestigious accolades were picked up by Dr Peter Wilson (IP21) who was awarded Best Trainer, and the Enterprise and Commercialisation team at the University of Bradford (headed by Andy Duley) who were recognised as the Best University Support Team.

The awards were presented by Simon Hill, Executive Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward. Earlier he had set the scene about the YEF programme:

“YEF is one of the flagship programmes for bioscience and healthcare technologies sectors development. We have invested a little under £3m so far, but the return has been significant, with 30 fellowships created at the pilot stage and 65 in the current programme. All expectations in terms of volume and quality of outputs have been exceeded by a substantial margin and the amount of private sector funding attracted has been more than double the original target.

Focusing resources in this proof of concept activity helps universities concentrate on increasing the throughput of their technology transfer, incentivising them to use the fastest, least resource-intensive route to market.

Fellowships also stimulate, promote and maintain a culture where enterprise and entrepreneurship are valued within a University environment.
All of this directly underpins the Yorkshire Forward objective of helping to create a strong and sustainable healthcare technologies industry within our region. It is a hugely successful programme which we are confident will continue to increase entrepreneurial and commercial activity in Yorkshire’s Universities, ultimately creating new jobs and buying more money into the region – what could be better than that?”

The evening’s excellent keynote speaker was Professor Norman Maitland of University of York and Pro-Cure Therapeutics, and award winner, Dr Helen Philippou, gave an engaging and insightful presentation on her experiences as a YEF fellow.

YEF Programme coordinator, Dr Suzanne Emmett, of enterprise support specialists – YTKO, commented:

“Congratulations to all our Fellows and Award Winners! This event rightly recognises their achievements and highlights their outstanding contribution to this very successful enterprise scheme. YEF is an invaluable programme which gives these talented individuals the platform and tools to commercialise their important research developments and inventions – many of which involve potentially life changing advances in technology and science.”

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Steeve Lamvohee (University of Hull) receives his Exceptional Dedication and Enthusiasm award from Simon Hill, Executive Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward.

Helen Philippou (University of Leeds) receives her Exceptional Dedication and Enthusiasm award from Simon Hill, Executive Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward.

Diana Anderson (University of Bradford) receives her Exceptional Dedication and Enthusiasm award from Simon Hill, Executive Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward.

Gareth Iball (Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust) receives his Exceptional Dedication and Enthusiasm award from Simon Hill, Executive Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward.

Dr Peter Wilson (IP21) receives his Best Trainer award from Simon Hill, Executive Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward.

Damien Bove (IDA Consultants LTD) receives his Best Personal Mentor award from Simon Hill, Executive Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward.

Andy Duley (Head of Enterprise and Commercialisation, University of Bradford) receives the Best University Support Team award from Simon Hill, Executive Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward.
High resolution JPG available for download here

Simon Hill, Executive Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward.

Professor Anthony Robards, OBE, event host.

Professor Norman Maitland, key note speaker.

Notes to Editors *The Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship (YEF) is designed to help university researchers create a business based on their research. Building on the highly successful Bioscience Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship scheme launched in 2004, this new initiative from Yorkshire Forward delivers practical support to commercialise ideas and research findings from the region’s Universities.

• Since its inception in 2007 BYEF/YEF has been a resounding success – resulting in 11 spin-out companies and over £5million of leveraged funding for its diverse tech projects.
• For more information, visit www.yef.org.uk/
• Please contact Dr Suzanne Emmett on suzanne@mail.ytko.com for further information about the event.

2009 YEF Award – Categories and Winners

• Dedicated and Enthusiastic fellows: Steeve Lamvohee of University of Hull, Diana Anderson of the University of Bradford, Helen Philippou of the University of Leeds and Gareth Iball of Medipex/Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
• Best trainer : Peter Wilson of IP21
• Best personal mentor: Damien Bove of IDA Consultants
• Best university support team: The University of Bradford (headed by Andy Duley)