Vice-Chancellor’s Innovation Awards champion high-impact research

The awards, which will be held on an annual basis, seek to recognise and celebrate exceptional research-led innovations and products at all University levels that are having societal impact. The initiative attracted a total of 78 entries, from which four winners were chosen and a further 13 projects highly commended across four categories: team work, building capacity, inspiring leadership and early career success, before an overall winner was selected from the shortlist. The ceremony was opened by Professor Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, who also presented the prize for overall winner. Professor Ian Walmsley, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation at Oxford, who hosted the awards, said: 'One of the joys of my role has been meeting University staff at all career stages doing exciting, pioneering work with genuine impact, locally, nationally, and internationally, with a wide range of partners, from industry, NGOs and cultural organisations.' 'The Vice-Chancellor's Innovation Awards is an opportunity to recognise some of this work publicly and the efforts of the individuals and teams involved. It demonstrates the breadth of enterprising activity and collaboration across interdisciplinary teams, from the Humanities through to Medical Sciences.' The innovations recognised take many forms, including: the creation of new products or models; entrepreneurial activity; social enterprise; influencing policy; or cultural engagement. The overall winner was the Smart Handpumps initiative - an innovative technological response to water shortages and handpump service maintenance issues in Africa.