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About the Awards
We have hosted three successful editions of our Awards, honouring winners across multiple categories spanning the entire entrepreneurial journey, from early-career innovators to established entrepreneurs and frontier technologies.
Our third Innovation and Entrepreneurship awards took place on 10 July 2025 at Merchant Taylors’ Hall, in London.
Categories
The award categories are:
- Early Career Entrepreneur of the Year
- Entrepreneurial Group Leader of the Year
- Woman Entrepreneur of the Year*
- New Start-Up of the Year
- Further, Faster, Together (Industry-Academia Collaboration)
Awards ceremony
All our shortlisted nominees are invited to attend the awards ceremony, where the winners will be announced. The ceremony provides a unique opportunity to network with a range of rising stars, seasoned entrepreneurs, industry experts, and inspiring keynotes.
Meet this year's winners
This award recognises a PhD or Postdoctoral early-career cancer researcher who has demonstrated outstanding entrepreneurial initiative, attitude and skills. It celebrates their excellence in developing entrepreneurial competencies through participation in bespoke training, such as, but not limited to, the initiatives within our entrepreneurial programmes.
Winner:
Jessica Corry
Shortlisted nominees
Our top 20 to watch
Having received a record number of nominations, our judges have selected 20 standout individuals who are advancing cancer innovation through entrepreneurial endeavour — our top 20 to watch.
- Alexander Azizi
- Anaid Benitez
- Laura Burgess Tornaletti
- Alberto Conti
- Jessica Corry
- Alexander Evans
- Sanziana Foia
- Dimitrios Garyfallos
- Radek Lach
- Daniel Lucy
- Kamila Malysz
- Greta Markert
- Tej Pandya
- Austin Reed
- Simon Richardson
- Jacob Thompson
- Gregory Verghese
- Christopher Walsh
- Navodini Wijethilake
- Ping Lin Yeap
This award celebrates an independent group leader (Principal Investigator) who exemplifies exceptional leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit. It recognises their ability to foster entrepreneurial initiative and attitude, as well as to develop both their own entrepreneurial competencies and those of their research group. This is demonstrated through participation in training programmes, including, but not limited to, those offered by our entrepreneurial programmes.
Winner:
Tim Witney
Shortlisted nominees
- James Arnold
- Mads S Bergholt
- Tom Bird
- Lionel Broche
- Isidro Cortes Ciriano
- Payam Gammage
- Ruchi Gupta
- Salim Khakoo
- Georges Lacaud
- Paul Maciocia
- Steve Pollard
- Dominic Rothwell
- Maya Thanou
- Tim Witney
This award celebrates the outstanding achievements of women entrepreneurs at any stage of their career who have established, or are actively working towards establishing, a business or a transformative partnership to accelerate scientific discoveries into novel treatments, diagnostics and/or medical devices for the benefit of people affected by cancer. This award recognises not only their professional achievements and milestone but also celebrates the woman behind the initiative, her personal journey, successes and her ability to inspire others.
This Award was sponsored by Mewburn Ellis.
Winner:
Natalie Mount
Shortlisted nominees
- Mireia Crispin-Ortuzar
- Anita Grigoriadis
- Shakardokht Jafari
- Elise Jenkins
- Lian Ni Lee
- Maria Giovanna Lizio
- Natalie Mount
- Jennifer Munkley
- Pahini Pandya
- Annelise Soulier
This award celebrates new UK-based start-ups that have laid the foundations of their business, having over the last two years raised their first funding round, and are fast-tracking scientific breakthroughs to develop new treatments, diagnostics and/or medical devices for the benefit of cancer patients. This award recognises the potential of emerging companies to develop and deliver ground-breaking technology with the promise of growth and impact in the cancer sector.
Winner:
Trogenix
Shortlisted nominees
- Cytospire
- Oligotune
- Pathway Bio
- PharosAI
- Revolver Tx
- Siftr Bio
- Trogenix
- Verinnogen
- Xterna
This award celebrates the advancement of innovation in oncology through successful collaboration between industry and academia. It highlights exemplary partnerships, licenses and knowledge exchange initiatives that drive progress in the field. The award recognises outstanding examples of teamwork, showcasing clear evidence of knowledge transfer between the different sectors and organisations, and demonstrating how value and impact are maximised through effective partnership and collaboration.
The winning entry will receive £5,000 to be spent on team activities, learning and development, mentorship, coaching, or professional courses.
Winner:
Cambridge Children's Hospital Innovation Hub
Shortlisted nominees
- Cambridge-Apollo CK2 Inhibition
- Cambridge Children's Hospital Innovation Hub
- DETERMINE Precision Medicine
- The NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad
- OPTIMAM - The Royal Surrey Partnership
- University of Southampton-Bioinvent Partnership
Special recognition categories
Not open to nominations
Our four recognition Awards honour outstanding contributions to the academic cancer entrepreneurial field. The judging panel has selected winners from nominees identified by us. This year’s winners are:
- Entrepreneurship Recognition Award: Peter Parker
- Horizon Explorer Recognition Award: eDyNAmic
- Start-Up Achievement Recognition Award: Myricx Bio
- Translational Project of the Year Recognition Award: The Microsatellite Instability Plus (MSI-Plus) assay
and MGUS - A Rapid Platform for Integrated Monoclonal Protein Detection and Quantitation
Judging panel
We have put together a brilliant group of entrepreneurship experts to review the many nominations we received, including:
- Panel chair: Simon Boulton, Principal Group Leader, The Francis Crick Institute; Co-founder & VP Science Strategy, Artios Pharma Ltd; Chief Translation Advisor, Cancer Research UK
- Yupar Myint, Head of Entrepreneurship at the Maxwell Centre, University of Cambridge
- Camille Terfve, Patent Attorney; Partner, Mewburn Ellis
- Michael Salako, Principal, Eckuity Capital
- Genghis Lloyd-Harris, Senior Advisor, Abingworth; Investor-in-Residence, Cancer Research Horizons
Meet our previous winners and nominees
Our Awards celebrate researchers who are transforming ground-breaking discoveries into patient benefit.
By spotlighting exceptional talent and ambition, we aim to inspire a new generation of innovators to tackle cancer with entrepreneurial spirit.
Want to find out more about our entrepreneurial community?
Find out more about the Awards and how to get involved.