Members #Springboarding To Finalist Spots At Kira Awards 2017
Springboard was cheering in our offices with the release of the #2017KIRAFinalists. It’s great to see so many of our partners, spin outs, and researchers getting recognized for their hard work #Springboarding the region forward. We wanted to take a couple of minutes to tell you a little bit more about the great work this group of deserving finalists is doing and how Springboard has been able to help.
The KIRA Awards (Knowledge & Innovation Recognition Awards) celebrate excellence in technological, social and economic innovation across all sectors and industries in New Brunswick. The awards recognise companies, organizations, and individuals in New Brunswick for their role in the development and / or application of innovative products, processes, services, technologies, or business models. KIRA seeks to encourage and foster a culture of knowledge and innovation in New Brunswick. Created in 1998 as a means to recognize the knowledge industry in Fredericton, the event has broadened its scope to showcase and honour innovation in all sectors and industries across New Brunswick.
First and foremost, it’s awesome to see Springboard Member UNB’s faculties recognized twice in both the Innovation Champion and Premier’s Award for Innovation categories. The Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) is a world renowned multi-disciplinary research unit employing 30+ people in the pursuit of innovation that not only gives back to the local community but is also a world leader in upper limb prosthetics. The UNB Civil Engineering team through their partnership with the NBDTI Design Branch is moving public collaborations forward in a way that is exciting to witness. This partnership has really enabled NBDTI to offer their services in exciting new ways.
We are also excited to see some of our institutional spinouts getting recognized this year. Soricimed Biopharma who were born out of Mount Alison University has an exciting year ahead as they continue to build on their top-line results of Phase 1 clinical trials for peptide-based cancer treatments, and their FDA Orphan Drug designation for pancreatic cancer. LuminUltra, a UNB spinout, and brain child of Graham Gagnon and his team has grown to 33 employees and international distribution, they continue to be a leader in microorganism detection and elimination in water systems. SimpTek is also a UNB spinout and have recently raised $700,000 to continue to develop their product which enables utilities to better engage with their customers on energy usage.
While we are excited to see who walks away with the fancy hardware on May 4th it’s great to see so many of our friends and partners celebrated as finalists. Congrats to all!
For tickets to attend this gala event click here: https://www.kiraawards.com/