Encouraging Innovation

Richard Hobbs, Chairman of CPL is closely involved with many aspects of education at the University of Cambridge.  He is currently working with the team at Hughes Hall, regarding their Innovation competition, for students and college alumni.

Richard helped with the judging of the 2019 competition and is keen to support the initiative in future years.  Hughes Hall is world-famous for its support of post graduate study and has a unique role in encouraging global innovation. Richard’s support of this initiative demonstrates his personal commitment to education and the ever-increasing synergy between CPL and those at the forefront of design and invention.

“Judging the competition this year was a privilege.  The three teams of finalists all presented well and put up a good argument in support of their entry, hoping to win the £1,250 prize to help them embark on their entrepreneurship journey. The competing teams were QBIO, FOODPLUS and TX.

For 2020 we are looking for business ideas from all sectors and we will be starting the process again in September. We look forward to the next round of applications for the 2020 HHES Annual Competition”.

The three finalists

QBIO – The QBIO team was promoting novel infection testing and treatment through an innovative platform approach. Initially targeting the sepsis market, their diagnostic technique allows for an integrated big data approach to infection, delivering immediate clinical benefits of improved patient survival and reduced Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), informing future diagnostic design, and the discovery of much needed novel antimicrobial therapies.

FoodPlus – an ethically driven food technology social enterprise with a vision of improving nutrient intake for the general public, as well as the undernourished population. Their product- a ‘fruit and vegetable powdered drink mix’- which conveniently supplements a person’s 5-A-Day, not only improves public health, but also aims to reduce food wastage by sourcing surplus raw ingredients from food providers.

TX – promoting a digital health platform which helps individuals with thyroid conditions better manage their health and wellbeing. TX’s team business plan was highly impactful given that 1 in 8 women suffer from a thyroid-related disease and TX specifically focuses on how such conditions can impact women’s health issues. The platform allows patients to track symptoms and blood test results over a longitudinal basis as well as will allow patients to communicate directly with clinicians via a telemedicine platform. Using aggregated data, TX aims to use machine learning analysis to help better predict fluctuations in thyroid function blood tests and help individuals and clinicians more proactively manage thyroid-related conditions. TX’s goal is to prioritise women’s health issues, empower patients to take back control of their health, and ultimately to improve clinical outcomes for thyroid disease.

The 2019 competition was won by TX.