Celebrating bio-based successes across Teesside, Hull and York: the THYME project

On Thursday 9th June academics, industry partners, investors, funders and business-support programmes came together in York to celebrate four successful years of the THYME project; a collaboration between the Universities of Teesside, Hull and York.

The three universities have worked together with a range of external stakeholders to drive productivity in the bioeconomy across the Tees Valley, the Humber and Yorkshire. The innovations kick-started by THYME have boosted economic growth and paved the way to a more sustainable future where industry uses renewable resources.

Professor Matthias Ruth, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, University of York said; ”It is fantastic to see over 100 delegates come together and celebrate this project. The engagement and enthusiasm of all the staff across the three Universities has been exceptional, they have found new and innovative ways to work together and this event really showcased this success.”

Susan Brench, CEO of Starbons explained; “Via the proof of concept funding we were able to access new equipment and expertise at the BDC and Teesside University, to successfully develop our methodology of using damaged starch for the potential use in preserving vitamins in long life products and also in the fabrication of novel Starbon® products. We are now working on the next steps to scale up our research and are looking forward to continuing this exciting collaboration.”

The event also included a pitch competition as part of the Bioeconomy Ventures Project. Eleven entrepreneurs including THYME funded proof-of-concept researchers, THYME entrepreneurship training attendees and bio-based companies pitched to a panel of investors.

Chaired by Alice North, Manager at the BioVale Innovation Cluster the two winners were Maria Garcia from BindEthics and Dylan Banks from Future by Insects. They will now pitch at the MPowerBio pitch event in Dusseldorf in October 2022. In addition, the prize for the ‘most exciting idea’ was awarded to Gareth Little from the University of Nottingham who is working on enzyme evolution technology. Gareth is also one of the High Value Biorenewables Enterprise Fellows. The event included an exhibition showcasing business support that is available including the Local Enterprise Partnerships from across York, Teesside and the Humber region.  The event featured a poster session to illustrate the exciting range of proof-of-concept projects THYME has supported.

Find out more about the successes from the THYME project

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THYME is part of a multi-million investment package to drive university commercialisation across the country through Research England’s Connecting Capability Fund (CCF).