A Dundee-based business leader and a Perthshire firm have been recognised for their work in promoting links between industry and academia.
Amulree-based Loadfast Systems picked up the innovation title at the Interface Excellence Awards in Edinburgh after impressing with its new cascade chute system, which was developed in collaboration with Glasgow Caledonian University.
The partnership created a spoon-based system that allows materials to be loaded for transportation in a more controlled manner than is currently possible.
The system reduces levels of dust thrown up as materials are transferred and, crucially, also reduces the level of damage associated with traditional loading systems.
The judges said the partnership had demonstrated real innovation in reconfiguring and re-engineering an existing product into a system it believed would “do the job more effectively than anything else on the market”.
Among the other winners was Dr Nigel Kerby, managing director of Mylnefield Research Services Ltd of Invergowrie, who received the Outstanding Contribution to Knowledge Exchange Award.
The judges said that it was “easy to measure the significant tangible outcomes” of Dr Kerby’s commitment to knowledge exchange in the fields of crop science, analytical chemistry and environmental and soil science.
They also praised his role in the founding of BioDundee, a public private partnership dedicated to promoting Dundee as a global hub for life sciences activity and research.
The awards scheme is promoted by Interface, the Edinburgh-based hub which is dedicated to connecting businesses both domestically and internationally with Scotland’s higher education and research institutes.
Academic partnerships facilitated by the group which is backed by the Scottish Funding Council and Scottish Enterprise are worth more than £17 million to the Scottish economy each year, and the vision is to increase that figure to in excess of £80m by 2018.