Dr Becky Jones-Phillips has won Liverpool Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Innovation Award.
Dr Jones-Phillips, Director of Enterprise and Innovation at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, took home the prize at last night’s Innovation in Business Awards 2024.
The awards celebrate the city region’s best business practices, products and services, as well as the people who drive innovation across Liverpool.
The winners of 13 separate categories were announced at a ceremony at St George’s Hall.
Dr Jones-Phillips said: “I’m very grateful to the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce for this incredible recognition and tremendous honour. Innovation is never a solo endeavour, and I am grateful to my incredible colleagues at LSTM that I have the privilege to work with, particularly the Enterprise & Innovation team that has gone from a standing start last year to achieving significant success in driving the global health innovation agenda.
“I want to thank them for their passion and determination , and the LCC again for this recognition of our work.”
Dr Jones-Phillips heads up LSTM’s Enterprise and Innovation team, which collaborates with academics and external partners in translational research projects, ultimately driving access and implementation for new healthcare technologies to meet global health challenges. The team has grown substantially since its formation 18 months ago, leveraging substantial investment and helping to support innovation activities in LSTM’s Global Hubs.
During the last year, the team have secured a combined £1.7m from Research England to develop FLIGHT, a framework for translational health research and commercial development, and more recently for SIGHT, enabling the creation of a technology transfer office and venture building model to develop health-focused spin-outs. This year, LSTM has also collaborated in its first industry partnership as part of Innovate UK’s Accelerated Knowledge Transfer with ProMake to develop a disease diagnostics product.
Paul Cherpeau, chief executive of Liverpool Chamber, said: “The wide variety of business types and sectors in this year’s shortlist, and among the eventual winners, is a clear reflection of the breadth of talent and expertise in the Liverpool City Region economy.
“We have ambitious young businesses, established SMEs, world-class pioneers and community innovators, all within one bustling ecosystem, and these awards are an important recognition of their individual and collective contributions to the city region landscape.”
The latest accolade follows success at last year’s Innovation in Business Awards, when LSTM won Business of the Year (over 30 employees), and were shortlisted for the Community Impact Award for vaccine equity work during the COVID pandemic.