Young female researchers at University for Continuing Education honored

The tecnet/accent Innovation Award was presented for the fourth time at the University for Continuing Education Krems. The focus of the four award-winning projects was on medical technology.

The prizes were awarded by Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner. For the Governor, technology and innovation are important pillars for the positive economic development of Lower Austria. “The Innovation Award is an important step towards implementing the “Science to Business” spin-off strategy of the state of Lower Austria,” emphasized Johanna Mikl-Leitner. “This was launched to turn ideas into market-ready products and services, which ultimately leads to business start-ups and thus creates a basis for Lower Austria as a sustainable business location.” In close cooperation with the University for Continuing Education Krems, the technology financing company tecnet equity and the high-tech incubator accent help to ensure that ideas from research lead to business start-ups and are successfully implemented. Mikl-Leitner concludes: “We want to show our young researchers what opportunities there are to implement outstanding research projects commercially.”

The general objective of the Innovation Award is to raise awareness among students, doctoral candidates and graduates at Campus Krems regarding the possibility of commercial implementation of their research results. The jury therefore assessed not only the actual research work, but primarily the economic implementation strategy of the researchers. An important component is the further development of a research project into a product as well as the associated aspects such as customer benefits, market potential, target groups, marketing strategy or patent protection.

“With our research, we make innovative contributions to solving current and future social challenges. The Innovation Award makes these results visible and helps to put our research into practice,” says Viktoria Weber, Vice-Rector for Research and Sustainable Development at the University for Continuing Education.

The jury awarded two second places in this year's competition and thus a total of four prizes, all of which went to young female researchers.

Bio-inspired hydrogel for cartilage repair

The Innovation Award winner was Forough Rasoulian. Together with her team from the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Continuing Education, she is developing a bio-inspired hydrogel for cartilage repair. Articular cartilage damage in the knee is a global health problem that affects several hundred million people every year. This leads to limited mobility and reduced quality of life. Osteoarthritis is a common degenerative joint disease associated with the gradual degeneration of the cartilage.

Two second places for joint diseases and endotoxins

Anna-Christina Moser and Jennifer Fritz were awarded second prize for their MeniSilk project. Together with the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology at Krems University Hospital, the researchers from the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Continuing Education Krems have developed a procedure for the treatment of osteoarthritis, i.e. joint diseases. MeniSilk could represent a novel alternative to the treatment of traumatic meniscus ruptures (meniscus tears). MeniSilk is intended to enable the patient-specific adaptation of meniscus implants, which can be produced using a special 3D printing process.

Doris Agneter, Managing Director of tecnet equity, explains: “The aim of our award is to encourage highly qualified researchers to consider the commercial potential of their developments. We also want to make a contribution to closer cooperation between scientific projects at universities and business partners in Lower Austria.” Michael Moll from the accent Incubator adds: “We are delighted that we can once again present the award this year to project teams that have achieved remarkable things with their innovative ideas and have also dealt with their practical implementation. A strong generation of young scientists is growing up, who have also shown great potential in terms of founding a company.”

Denisa Cont from the Center for Biomedical Technology at the University for Continuing Education Krems also received a second prize. She and her team developed a new method for detecting endotoxins in human blood samples. The use of the new endotoxin detection kit could bring numerous advantages for healthcare facilities, laboratories and industries, such as significantly increased sensitivity, early detection of infections, improved quality control of drugs and thus a reduction in healthcare costs.

The third prize was awarded to Anja Knecht for her project “Cost-effective, compact real-time online monitoring as an early warning system for oil spills in water”. Anja Knecht and the team from the Center for Water and Environmental Sensor Technology at the University for Continuing Education have developed a low-cost sensor that could be used for real-time online monitoring of oil spills in bodies of water. The sensor could thus be used as an early warning system and enable rapid damage management. The sensor could therefore make an important contribution to the containment and cleaning of oil-polluted waters and thus prevent or at least reduce both ecological and economic damage.