Finalists announced for Venture Further’s research catergory

The finalists for the four prize categories in this year’s Venture Further competition have been announced.

This article looks into the people and ideas behind the four finalists in the research category. The other shortlists, for the business, digital and social categories, have also been announced.

This year’s finals take place on Wednesday the 3rd of May, at Whitworth Hall, University of Manchester.

Venture Further invites students and recent alumni to submit a business proposal to an expert judging panel of enterprise and business professionals.

There are four prize categories to choose from – business, social, digital and research – with the winners receiving a £10,000 cash injection to get their businesses off the ground.

The research category recognises businesses that focus on the application of university-based research to real-world problems and needs. This year’s ideas span everything from particle manufacture to graphene, and boosting grid capacity to wearable e-textiles.

The entries that made it through to this year’s final four in the research category are below:

MicroSpray Technologies Ltd 
Drs. Salman Malik and Muftau Akanbi

MicroSpray Technologies’ mission is to revolutionise particle manufacturing using an innovative, simple and cost-effective spray technology. This platform technology is considered the ‘holy grail’ of particle manufacture in aerosol generation methods and the team can now provide the sufficient production of particles for high-value added applications, such as pharmaceutical drug delivery.

GrapheX 
Denis Bandurin and Alexander Obraztsov

GrapheX develops x-ray sources with graphene-based cold cathodes. Due to their low power consumption, the team’s x-ray sources find their application where portable technology is required, e.g. in urgent medical imaging, oil and gas pipe testing, food inspection and so on.

Cable Coatings 
Niall Coogan and Barry Johnston

Cable Coatings is a novel, low-cost solution to the increasingly prevalent issue of how to boost electricity grid capacity.

2Dtronics 
Mohammad Nazmul Karim and Shaila Afroj

2Dtronics is a R&D company offering simple, scalable, cost-effective and environmental friendly 2D materials–based technology for wearable e- textiles applications. This patent pending technology would be used in developing 2D material-based e-textiles that would monitor body temperature, heart rate and muscle activity, all in real time.