ACES Awards
The awards gives public recognition to those researchers, engineers, professors, students and government officials in Europe who have done the most in 2009 to foster a culture of enterprise on campus. This can be through taking the risk of launching a spinout company, developing a discovery into a marketable innovation (at the risk of the tenure-track publication record), or promoting policies that create a receptive environment for entrepreneurship on campus.
ACES Conference
The ACES Conference has been structured to provide the best networking opportunities to meet peers, forge new relationships, and gain strategic orientation and insights.
Science|Business
Science|Business is the first independent news service that brings together buyers and sellers of emerging technologies - through its online news coverage, its subscriber-posting service, and its exclusive networking events. It does so with a top-quality news team, and a unique network of Europe’s leading scientific institutions. They include the University of Cambridge, ETH Zürich, Karolinska Institutet, and Imperial College London. Our editorial team is drawn from the world’s top science and business publications. It is led by Richard L. Hudson and Peter Wrobel, former managing editors at the Wall Street Journal Europe and the leading science journal Nature. A global network of leading business and science journalists joins them to provide the smartest, and most international, perspectives on the commercialisation of science. They are advised by some of Europe’s leading academic and business figures. And they are determined to break the mould in science journalism - to bring business intelligence and multi-disciplinary insight to the very earliest stages of R&D.
The Science|Business Innovation Board
To encourage public dialogue about innovation policy in Europe, the Science|Business news service began organising in 2007 a blue-ribbon panel of leaders in industry, academia and policy. The Science|Business Innovation Board meets twice a year to debate important aspects of European innovation policy, and to formulate recommendations for policy action. It also names the winners to the annual ACES awards. In 2009 the Board was incorporated as a non-profit association in Belgium. Its founding members are Science|Business, INSEAD, ESADE, Microsoft and BP. For more information, see www.sciencebusiness.net/innovationboard
Award Categories
Innovation is the lifeblood of a vibrant economy but in Europe, it’s often said, a risk-averse culture in its universities prevents innovative ideas from getting out of the labs and into the marketplace. To help change that culture, the second annual Academic Enterprise Awards (ACES) are organised.
There are three types of awards:
- 4 spin-out awards
- 1 early-stage entrepreneurship award
- 1 Bridge Award for promoting entrepreneurship
Awarded to individual(s) who have created a successful spin-out company based on ideas developed at universities and public research institutes in Europe.
Categories
The Amgen Life Sciences Award
Prize: €5000
(including diagnostics, treatment, health promotion and prevention)- Energy/Environment Award
(including transportation and infrastructure) 
The Microsoft Award for ICT spin-outs
Prize: All-expenses-paid trip to Microsoft headquarters, in Redmond, Washington
(all aspects of information and communications technologies, including entertainment)- Materials/Chemicals Award
Judging criteria
The awards will be made to the winners who, in the opinion of the judges, have created the most successful spin-out company.
The judges when reaching their decisions will take into account the novelty of the research, the risks involved, clear evidence of commercial success (including, but not limited to, revenues, asset or company sales and IP generated), and potential impact on society.
Eligibility and nomination
1. Nominated individuals must have generated the knowledge on which the spin-out is based in a university or public research institution (ie, not a company laboratory) within a country part of or associated with the European Union's Framework Programmes.
2. Each nomination may be for up to three individuals (not institutions or laboratories).
3. Individuals may nominate themselves or be nominated by anyone else.
4. The spin-out company must have commenced operations on or after 1 November 2004.
The Fast Start Award
Awarded to individuals who have created a promising but as-yet unproven spin-out based on ideas developed at universities and public research institutes in Europe.
Judging criteria
The awards will be made to the winner or winners who, in the opinion of the judges, have created the spin-out company with the greatest potential for commercial success and impact on society.
Eligibility and nomination
1. Nominations may be made for up to three individuals (not institutions or laboratories).
2. Individuals may nominate themselves or be nominated by anyone else.
3. The spin-out company must have commenced operations no earlier than 1 June 2008.
The Bridge Award
Awarded to an individual who has done the most to promote policies for entrepreneurship in university or public research institutions.
Judging criteria
The judges' decisions will take into account the creativity shown in encouraging collaboration and entrepreneurship, and the success of those policies in economic, social and scientific terms.
Eligibility and nomination
1. Nominated individuals must have encouraged entrepreneurship in one or more university or public research institution (i.e., not a company laboratory) within one or more of the countries part of or associated with the European Union's Framework Programmes.
2. Nominations may be made for only one individual - no teams.
3. Nominated individuals must be based in a country associated with the European Union's Framework Programmes, but may work in any setting, for example, but not limited to:
- University technology transfer office
- Regional development agency
- Public elected body, such as national or European parliaments
- Government agency
- Commercial company
4. Individuals may nominate themselves or be nominated by anyone else.
5. The achievement must be related, at least in part, to activity undertaken during the five years ending 31 July 2009.
