First SCI Sustainability and Innovation Awards celebrate industry excellence

From novel packaging solutions to Covid-19 breakthroughs – SCI's first Sustainability and Innovation Awards Dinner celebrates industry excellence.

SCI has announced the winners of its first ever SCI Awards for Sustainability and Innovation by Partnership. The Awards were presented at a celebratory dinner at the Palace of Westminster, recognising cutting edge developments in scientific industries.

Announcing the finalists, Sharon Todd, SCI CEO said:

‘SCI is a global network of innovators, set up in 1881 by the prominent scientists and innovators of the day. Today our community is probably the largest scientific innovation community, investing over £30Bn each year in research. Every day scientists, engineers and business people are working to address some of the biggest challenges facing society and we wanted to recognise these often unsung heroes and heroines. The two new awards recognise industrial excellence in innovation through partnership and sustainability – both key drivers in global economic growth.’

The Awards and the winners

The SCI Innovation Award – Enabled by Partnership recognises and celebrates scientific innovation in industry that has been enabled as a direct result of collaborative partnerships.

First Place

BASF – in collaboration with Pulpex – for a renewable, recyclable and biodegradable paper packaging solution that gives significant carbon footprint savings compared with glass and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles.

Second Place

UCB – in collaboration with Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, (DNDi), PostEra Inc, University of Oxford, Diamond Light Source Ltd, Medchemica Ltd, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Enamine Ltd – for a multi-disciplinary, multi-centre open data project to find a candidate drug molecule for medicines to treat Covid-19.

Third Place

Johnson Matthey – in collaboration with CNRS Montpellier, BMW, 3M/Dyneon, Freudenberg, Elmarco, Technical University Berlin (TUB), Technical University Munich (TUM), ZSW, PRETEXO – for the development of automotive membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) that improve the performance of hydrogen fuel cells.

The SCI Sustainability Award

This award recognises an organisation that has made significant and measurable improvements in the sustainability of a product or process.

First Place

Dow – for developing and making the first fully recyclable materials for tyres which also offers lower carbon footprint in tyre production and superior riding experience.

Second Place

Croda – for significantly reducing the energy requirements of a process, saving 700 tons of carbon each year.

Third Place

Johnson Matthey and Virent – for developing a natural feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel and for the manufacture of bioplastics.

In addition to these new awards, SCI showcased early career scientists and groundbreaking research, recognising recent winners of the Young Chemist in Industry Award, Bright SCIdea Challenge, Process Chemistry Award and The Westminster Medal.