With ideas hailing from sustainability, med-tech, sport-tech and mental health – these newest generation of inventors are creating to solve our health issues and the ecosystem.

The founders are the recent cohorts joining the Central Research Laboratory (CRL), the UK’s first purpose-built hardware accelerator for product designers inventing ‘for societal good’.

Selected from over 85 applicants, the program will run for six months and each startup inventor will receive £5,000 grant funding for product development and prototyping – funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) – growth support plus mentoring from a panel of experts, and manufacturing support.

Now in its fifth year anniversary, the CRL accelerator has supported a number of early-stage inventors who have raised a combined £5m investment to develop their designs.

Previous winning innovations include a sustainable lithium batteries (Aceleron), a tech startup working on helping children manage the symptoms of Eczema (Cosi Care) and Chip(s) Board, a biodegradable company turning potato waste into recyclable building materials.

Check out the class of 2020 inventors:

BIOPHILICA – Mira Nameth

Biophilica is developing materials from green waste making them both biodegradable and recyclable. The production process is local, scalable to urban and rural locations, and is climate independent, allowing for global applications.

ENAYBALL – Pete Barr and Eli Heath

The Enayball is an art tool that enables anyone in a wheelchair, even the most severely paralysed, to paint. The Enayball attaches to the front of a person’s wheelchair and extends outwards. As the person moves their chair, it paints a line on the surface below.

STIX MINDFULNESS – Liam Murphy

An interactive product supporting children living with ADHD. Through mindfulness activities such as meditation and balance, Stix monitors the users’ movements, enhances calmness helping to reduce symptoms of impulsiveness and hyperactivity.

MYOMASTER – Lottie Whyte and Joe Gray

A wellness company on a mission to help every athlete in the world recover faster. Their products combine extreme leg compression with contrasting hot and cold capabilities designed to significantly decrease athlete recovery time post-injury.

CRYOSUIT – Matt Anderson

A portable body cooling device to treat heat illness. Cryosuit aims to eliminate the logistical barriers encountered with current treatment, providing a practical and unanimous cooling solution for all instances of heat illness.

M2JN Ltd – Melissa Berthelot

Melissia is developing a wearable medical device for in-hospital high-risk patients to provide health prediction, allowing preemptive care to improve patient outcome and reduce related care costs.

Image Courtesy – Central Research Laboratory (Individual images)

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