AHA!-awards 2021

On Tuesday evening March 15, 2022, the AHA! awards 2021 were presented in the Antwerp Provincial House. At this ceremony, both innovative researchers and innovative companies were given a place in the spotlight.

Antwerp has many innovative companies that are at the international top in their sector. The scientific research of the Antwerp University and Colleges Association is also finding its way to the business community more frequently and more easily. That innovative character remains in the shadows too often, because many companies and scientists focus primarily on their activities and do not yet communicate their story.

Innovative power

The Antwerp Innovation Night aims to strengthen the partnerships between researchers and entrepreneurs, so that they can make a difference in Antwerp's innovative knowledge region together. The second edition was organized by Antwerp.SRL. This is a partnership between the University of Antwerp and Voka – Chamber of Commerce Antwerp Waasland, with support from the Province of Antwerp. Eye-catchers at the event? The AHA! awards. They bring the creativity and innovative power of the region to wider attention.

As with the first edition (2019), scientists engaged in innovative research were able to win prizes. Both a renowned scientist (Achieved) and a promising talent (Promising) were honoured. For the first time, Voka – Chamber of Commerce Antwerp Waasland presented two awards to Antwerp companies. The Innovation Award went to a company that has been active in the market for more than five years, and – of course – excels in the field of innovation. The "One-to-watch" award rewarded a promising start-up.

The four proud nominees who received an AHA! award are:

• Sarah Lebeer, winner in the Promising category, is a research professor and senior lecturer at the Department of Bioscience Engineering at the University of Antwerp. In 2020 she started the Isala project on women's health.

"This AHA! award is a very nice recognition. With my team of bioengineers, I conduct research in a whole new field within biotechnology: the field of the microbiome and living biotherapeutic products. For example, we were one of the founders of the Antwerp biotech company YUN NV, which markets skin products with probiotics. Valorising research within our domain is a process with a lot of trial and error. We think it is important to walk less classic paths of valorisation, such as with our open-science citizen project Isala (https://isala.be)."

• Jan Sijbers, winner in the Achieved category, is professor of Medical Imaging at UAntwerp. His expertise lies in magnetic resonance imaging, reconstruction, processing and analysis.

"For me, the University of Antwerp is the perfect ecosystem, not only for challenging research and high-quality education, but certainly also for creating social added value from these research efforts. This is very satisfying. Moreover, I have the privilege of being part of a fantastic team of enthusiastic researchers in imaging science. With them I started dynamic spin-off companies such as Icometrix, Deltaray and Shavatar. My sincere thanks go to them and the fantastic valorisation team of the University of Antwerp."

• HB Antwerp won in the category One-to-watch. This young company uses the latest technologies and thus brings a breath of fresh air to the traditionally conservative business in diamonds.

"In today's world, it is crucial to know where products come from and how they are manufactured," says Margaux Donckier, communications director at HB Antwerp. "HB Antwerp is disruptive, not only in the way we organize our business, but mainly because we want to change the view on diamonds. We do not believe that a luxury product such as diamond should be made as cheaply as possible in some low-wage country."

• Textgain received the Innovation award. Textgain, spin-off of UAntwerp, is a language technology company that develops programs that learn on their own and provide breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.

"We measure the temperature of the internet all over Europe. Unfortunately, hate speech is a growth market, so we need to keep pushing. Because of our work, we sometimes receive hate speech ourselves. That is why it is extra gratifying to receive this award", says CEO Guy De Pauw, who was completely overwhelmed by this recognition.