Two University partnerships and two student startups are finalists in this year’s Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards, which celebrate academic and industry collaborations.
In the Inward Investment Impact category is the partnership between Canon Medical Research Europe and Professor Sotos Tsaftaris, of the University’s School of Engineering. Canon Medical span out of the University of Edinburgh in 1994, and exports Scottish innovation to its parent company, Canon Medical Japan.
The relationship with Professor Tsaftaris has contributed to increased inward investment and headcount in Canon Edinburgh, which now employs 135 people. It has helped Canon Medical Japan develop expertise and manage risk in AI and healthcare, leading to R&D investment in this area. Canon Medical has also joined the new Causal AI in Healthcare (CHAI) Hub.
Up for the Multiparty Collaboration award is INTErPRET-NAFLD – an international partnership between Bering Ltd, HistoIndex Ltd, Biodev Ltd, the Precision Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre and the University of Edinburgh’s Professor Jonathan Fallowfield and Professor Tim Kendall, both of the Centre for Inflammation Research within the Institute for Regeneration and Repair.
The partnership utilises the SteatoSITE data commons, co-created by Professors Fallowfield and Kendall, which combines liver pathology, gene expression and electronic health record data from NHS Scotland.
INTErPRET-NAFLD has produced two AI-based tools using SteatoSITE data to lay the foundations for more personalised care for MASLD (Metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease) - the leading cause of liver disease that affects 38% of the world’s adult population.
And two University of Edinburgh startups – SymphoME and SolarSub – are nominated for Innovation of the Year.
SymphoMe, founded by Edinburgh College of Art alumni Ifeanyichukwu Ezinmadu, worked with the University of Stirling to develop its AI-driven music teaching platform that measures and addresses users’ knowledge gaps.
And SolarSub, co-founded by School of Engineering alumni Sebastiaan Schalkwijk, collaborated with the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) at the University of Strathclyde to refine the design of its solar panel cooling system, and with Heriot-Watt University to field-test the technology.
Dr Andrea Taylor, CEO of Edinburgh Innovations, said: “It’s fantastic to follow the evolution of student startups like SymphoMe and SolarSub , which EI helped to get off the ground, and see how their ground-breaking technologies are developing.
“And in facilitating partnerships like Canon Medical and Professor Tsaftaris, or INTErPRET-NAFLD, we are building relationships that turn our world-class research into innovations that can ultimately improve lives.
“We wish all our finalists good luck on March 19th!”
The winners of the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards will be announced on March 19th at a ceremony Edinburgh Futures Institute.
