Women in Innovation Programme winners announced!

The Innovate UK Women in Innovation Programme announced a cohort of 50 trailblazing women entrepreneurs who are tackling some of our most pressing environmental, economic, and societal challenges. The winners of the annual competition will embark on a 12-month journey and benefit from a bespoke business-boosting support package. This includes a cash injection of £50,000 each, tailored business coaching offered by Innovate UK EDGE, mentoring and a wide range of networking, role-modelling and training opportunities.

The 2023 Women in Innovation Programme cohort includes: 

• Kirsty Smitten, co-founder of MetalloBio, who has developed a groundbreaking new class of antibiotics, that can address the rapid rise of antimicrobial resistance, which is already responsible for 1.2 million deaths per year
• Joanne Redmile, founder of TurboGaming, a pedal-powered games controller to get you off the couch onto a bike to play some of your favourite PlayStation and Xbox racing games
• Sarah Nicolls, founder of Future Piano which revolutionises the design of Grand Pianos that fits in modern homes without compromising on sound while reducing the weight and carbon footprint by 60% for each piano manufactured
• Dian-Jen Lin who has co-founded Post Carbon Lab to cultivate microorganisms to bio-manufacture pigments, colours, finishes and agents used in the fashion and textile industry from her own vertical farm – to make fashion more sustainable
• Iris Kramer, founder of ArchAI, who is using artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to detect long-lost archaeological sites,. Iris is already working with the Forestry Commission and the National Trust to locate new sites of interest and is helping the construction industry to de-risk new build sites.

Indro Mukerjee, CEO of Innovate UK, said: “The Innovate UK Women in Innovation programme is an important part of our many activities to make a real difference to the talent and skills pipeline for UK business innovation by inspiring, involving and investing in greater diversity. I warmly congratulate all the Women in Innovation Award winners and look forward to keeping in touch as they progress.”

Emily Nott, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Programmes at Innovate UK said: “Each year I am blown away by the brilliant ideas and talent we uncover through our Women in Innovation programme. Despite these challenging economic times, this year’s winners have shown great leadership, passion and resilience in driving their innovations forward. Innovate UK will work alongside them now to ensure they have the resources and support required to grow and scale their businesses, while encouraging a new generation of women to get involved in innovation, pursue their ambitions and transform our economy and society.”

Launched in 2016, the Women in Innovation Programme aims to support and celebrate remarkable women entrepreneurs and senior business leaders from any background and any UK nation or region, with the aim to help grow their innovation further.