2008 North Region winners announced

2008-02-18 18:08:28

Last night two businesses from the Shell Springboard North region picked up awards of £40,000 each, in this, the third year of the competition.

John Gallagher, Vice President Technical - Europe, Shell UK, David Tonery Oxy-Gen Combustion Ltd and Clifton Bain, Senior Conservation Policy Officer, RSPB Scotland.

Held at the MacDonald Holyrood Hotel in Edinburgh the competition featured six shortlisted small businesses, from Scotland and the North East of England. Awards were presented by Shell�s Vice President Technical- Europe, John Gallagher and chair of the judges, Clifton Bain, Senior Conservation Policy Officer, RSPB Scotland.

The expert judging panel James Barlow, Chief Executive, Scottish Institute for Enterprise, Professor Janusz Bialek, Bert Whittington Chair of Electrical Engineering at University of Edinburgh, Mark Wells, Education and Campaigns Manager, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Clifton Bain - vetted applications for carbon reduction, innovation and commercial viability. From a highly competitive field, and after a full day of interviews, the judges decided on Dundee based Oxy-Gen Combustion Ltd and The Aerogenerator Project based in Blyth as the overall winners. Judges also Highly Commended Thropton Energy from the North East of England.

David Tonery, Oxy-Gen Combustion Ltd with his award

Judges Highly Commended Dr Barbara Sexon of Thropton Energy pictured here with John Gallagher, Vice President Technical - Europe, Shell UK

Oxy-Gen Combustion Ltd was chosen to meet the National Judging Panel at the UK final in London on the 4th March.

David Tonery, Managing Director of Oxy-Gen Combustion Ltd, said, "Winning this Shell Springboard award is fantastic. The money will be used to protect the intellectual property we already have on the idea, to continue to develop our work and prepare us for the next stage for a pre-production prototype.

"We are in a gap funding stage and this award helps fill that monetary gap and will help leverage a larger amount of investment. It will also allow us an opportunity to attract larger companies to create a larger collaboratory project which is a key to our success."

Theo Bird and Richard Moseley from the Aerogenerator Project.

Theo Bird from The Aerogenerator Project said, "We are honoured to win a Shell Springboard award as the competition was excellent. We will invest the money in a feasibility study by an independent engineering consultancy to add credibility [to the project] and in turn creates good investment confidence which supports our investment process at NAREC in Blyth.

"Our technology is far more environmentally friendly than current technology, particularly offshore."

To find out more about North region finalists, the winners and their projects, please see Winning Ideas.