PHTA and Clinical Immunology Services take top prizes at Innovation Awards 2025
Senior leaders from Precision Health Technology Accelerator (PHTA) and Clinical Immunology Services took home the top prizes in two prestigious categories at the West Midlands Innovation Awards, held last week in Birmingham.
Professor Gino Martini, Chief Executive Officer of PHTA, was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of his distinguished 30+ year career in pharmacy, life sciences and commercialisation of healthcare advances.
Earlier in the evening, Professor Alex Richter, Director of the University of Birmingham’s Clinical Immunology Services (CIS) which is based within PHTA, was named Female Innovator of the Year. A consultant clinical immunologist and diagnostics lead for the West Midlands Health Tech Innovation Accelerator, her pioneering work continues to shape the future of immunology and inspire the next generation of female scientists.
These coveted accolades were announced after a year-long process of voting and judging at a finale awards dinner attended by 500 people.
Alex said:
I’m absolutely delighted. It shines a spotlight on diagnostics as a necessary area for progress and innovation in the UK. I’m delighted, as a woman, to be seen to be advancing translational science and I hope that will encourage more women into the field. And for my organisation, the Clinical Immunology Services, that’s recently moved into the new Birmingham Health Innovation Campus, I hope this shines a spotlight on the Birmingham ecosystem with how we support life sciences. We’re making tests that enable diagnoses to be closer to people and closer to communities. This doesn’t just improve patient care and improve clinical outcomes, but it’s cheaper for patients and environmentally, this is much better for patients too.
Gino added:
It’s a great honour. I’m privileged. It’s actually the team I work with who did all the hard work, and I feel it’s a great acknowledgement of their efforts, but also really excited for the region because this is really important stuff and it creates jobs, but also it makes people live longer and healthier. What we’re trying to do is to grow businesses and life sciences in the West Midlands. It’s all about mindset; innovation is about mindset. We want people in the West Midlands to believe they can be innovators; they can grow companies in healthcare. That’s what we’re trying to achieve.
Dr Richard Fallon, CEO of the Technology Supply Chain (TSC) membership organisation, which runs the annual Innovation Awards, said:
Congratulations to Professor Gino Martini and Professor Alex Richter. You have made, and continue to make, a huge impact. We had more entries than ever before this year, and the competition for each category was stronger than it’s ever been. Each winner can be justifiably proud and can look forward to ongoing support from the 5,000-member TSC network as they chart their course to future success.
