Recognition of high-impact industry partnerships

Recognition of high-impact industry partnerships

Research linking The University of Queensland (UQ) and industry partners was recognised at an awards ceremony yesterday.

UQ Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Peter Høj presented Partners in Research Excellence Awards to five UQ researchers and their industry partners.

“These awards celebrate excellent researchers and a group of corporate and not-for-profit leaders who see that excellent research can mean great outcomes for their organisations and, through them, for the communities they serve,” Professor Høj said.

The awards event – part of UQ’s Research Week celebrations – showcased research collaboration excellence in Engineering, Materials and information and communications technology; Health; Science; and Social Enterprise.

Awards were presented to:

Engineering, Materials and ICT - Associate Professor Jason Stokes, from the School of Chemical Engineering; and Dr Greg Yep, PepsiCo Senior Vice-President of Long Term Research for a collaboration to provide enabling technologies with the aim of giving consumers healthy variations of the world’s most popular snack foods and drinks, without sacrificing taste and mouth-feel.

Health - Professor Ranjeny Thomas, from the UQ Diamantina Institute and Director of Johnson & Johnson (New Ventures ANZ); and Ms Kathy Connell from the Asia Pacific Innovation Centre for their work involving the Dendright immunotherapy technology (developed by Professor Thomas) as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.

Science - Professor Paulo Vasconcelo, Head of the School of Earth Sciences; and Dr Isabela Carmo, geologist at Petrobras, for their project investigating the origin and evolution of the pre-salt reservoirs along the east coast of South America, the largest oil discovery of the past 30 years.

Social Enterprise - Associate Professor Karen Moni and Dr Anne Jobling from the UQ School of Education, and Mr David Barbagallo, Endeavour Foundation CEO, to disseminate Latch-On® – a post-school literacy program for adults with intellectual disabilities in Australia.

The Partners in Research Excellence Awards were co-hosted by UQ’s main commercialisation company, UniQuest, which arranged commercial contracts and licensing with the industry partners.

UniQuest CEO Dr Dean Moss said UniQuest was delighted to recognise outstanding UQ researchers who fostered enduring partnerships with industry.  

“Their research credentials have also helped to pave the way for future cross-disciplinary collaborations with other UQ researchers as well as for commercialisation opportunities for UQ technologies,” he said.

Media: UniQuest, Craig Belcher, 0407 637 853.