Innovation Optimiser's monthly Ignition Awardees announced

05 Apr 2019

Dr Jean-Marc Schwartz and Petronela Buiga have been awarded £2,000 to explore the potential of their vision to be a leading bioinformatics analysis service provider

The UMIP Innovation Optimiser team are delighted to award Dr Jean-Marc Schwartz and Petronela Buiga from the School of Biological Sciences a £2,000 Ignition Award; an initiative to empower campus-based innovators in a risk-free environment.

Jean-Marc and Petronela have been working on data intensive techniques within the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health to support researchers with their data analysis. Since recognising the impact their service has on accelerating discoveries in Biology and Medicine, they are keen to branch this out nationally at first, with vision to go global.

Jean-Marc commented: “We’ve been delivering our analytical services in FMBH for a while now and recently recognised the potential it could have not just for researchers at the University, but also for external research groups. Our specialised analytical services help researchers to exploit their data to a higher level and provides new information to researchers, supporting them to accelerate their discoveries.”

Petronela added: “Between us, we have over 25 years of experience in bioinformatics, and with our professionalism and expertise we’re motivated to scale what we do to ultimately be a leading bioinformatics analysis service provider. With the support we’re receiving through the Innovation Optimiser Roadmap programme combined with this Ignition Award, we’re both really excited to drive our enterprise forward, and are grateful for the opportunity.”

Jean-Marc and Petronela will use their Ignition Award to attend conferences and events around the UK and US to speak with potential users to clarify the needs, which will help them shape their business model.

The Innovation Optimiser Ignition Award of up to £2,000 is available every month* until the end of July 2019 for staff and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) at the University with innovative ideas. 

Do you have a solution to a commercial, societal, or environmental problem? Then you could be April's Ignition Awardee. Apply now to get your idea off the ground by emailing ignitionawards@umip.com.

For more information, please visit the FAQs section of our website.

Closing date for this month’s award is Thursday, 25 April.

*Subject to availability