Local tech firms win Nobel prizes


James Riley
Editorial Director

Local tech firms win Nobel prizes Biomedical company Trimph, health insight firm Prospection, and agrifood tech business Moisture Planting Technologies were each awarded Nobel prizes during a special Nobel Gala on Thursday evening in Sydney.

The event, which was hosted by Cicada Innovations with permission by the official Nobel gala held annually in Sweden, handed out three category awards:

  • Vision award for Trimph: For developing an injectable class of scaffolds that can regenerate bone, cartilage and connective tissues.
  • Tenacity award for Prospection: For providing solutions to government agencies, hospitals, researchers and clinicians, patient and disease support organisations.
  • Up and coming award for Moisture Planting Technologies: For its technology that senses soil moisture levels and plants seeds for optimal crop growing.

Cicada Innovations Chief Executive Petra Andren said the awards should serve as a reminder of the quality of the local tech sector.

“The translation of ideas into businesses of the future is exactly what we are addressing here in our super hub, and what we are celebrating with our Nobel Gala awards,” she said.

“These awards are about showcasing our great innovators right here in Australia, and in our only super hub, which could be a model for others across the country … We are literally creating history and making what I believe is a major contribution to the jobs and prosperity that will underpin Australia’s economy of tomorrow.”

Ms Andren also used the opportunity to speak to the success of Cicada Innovations’ commercialisation model – based around three support stages: create, accelerate, and incubate.

“We are the only incubator in Australia to be classified by the global peak body for entrepreneurialism, the International Business Innovation Association, as a ‘super hub’,” says Ms Andren.

“That means we are a unique operation which blends together several models of entrepreneurial growth in a single location, where we support technology-driven people and businesses with a wide range of critical services from ideation stage to all the way through to incubation and global expansion.”

Cicada Innovations was also recognised by InBIA with a ‘Top Incubator in the World’ award in April this year, chosen against over 2,200 other incubators and accelerators around the globe.

“Winning this award required submitting a vast range of data on hard metrics such as capital raised, patents filed, jobs created, and other such figures. We know we wouldn’t have been able to beat such heavy competition without our unique model,” said Mr Andren.

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