The unveiling of Alison Ettridge’s purple plaque will be at High March School on Wednesday 17 November 2021 with special guest Alison Ettridge, CEO of Stratigens, attending.
On Wednesday 17 November, High March School will be celebrating the work of former pupil, Alison Ettridge (nee Harter), who has won the prestigious Women in Innovation Award from Innovate UK by unveiling a purple plaque in her honour on the school site.
A twist on the blue plaque we’re all familiar with, Innovate UK is introducing purple plaques to recognise the achievements of some of the female innovators it supports, who’ve won its prestigious Women in Innovation Award. The Award also sees recipients receive a cash injection of £50,000 and bespoke mentoring to scale up and bring to market their disruptive business ideas.
Currently, just 14% of blue plaques in the UK celebrate the achievements of women. This highlights a national issue of the under-representation of women in the media, the workplace and in the education system, resulting in a lack of role models for children and young people. Innovate UK hopes the plaque will inspire pupils at the school to follow in Alison’s footsteps.
Alison won the Women in Innovation Award this year with her idea to help businesses better attract, recruit and retain female engineering talent with Talent Intuition. Her data modelling tool analyses the flow of female engineers including their journey from education to a professional role. Alison hopes her work will better inform the Government about the size of the gender skills gap and ultimately bring change to the sector.
Alison is one of a network of 64 Women in Innovation Award winners who are developing pioneering innovations to tackle pressing societal, environmental, and economic challenges; from delivering precision medicine to underrepresented populations, to offering eco-friendly materials for the aerospace industry and creating cutting-edge digital educational tools.
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Notes to editors
If you would like to attend our event please confirm to Imogen.dunn@fourcommunications.com
The full address is 23 Ledborough Lane, Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 2PZ.
About Women in Innovation
Innovate UK launched Women in Innovation in 2016, after research revealed that just 1 in 7 applications for Innovate UK support came from women. Boosting the number of female entrepreneurs could deliver £180 billion to the economy.
The aim was to get more women with excellent ideas innovating within UK businesses. Women in Innovation is part of Innovate UK’s commitment to promote greater diversity and inclusion in business innovation.
The programme seeks to find women with exciting, innovative ideas and ambitious plans that will inspire others. The awards are for female founders, co-founders or senior decision makers working in businesses that have been operating for at least one year. The programme support includes a £50,000 grant for each individual, as well as a bespoke package of mentoring, coaching and business support.
The campaign and awards programme in 2016 and 2018 have had a huge impact so far. The number of women applying to Innovate UK’s funding and support has increased by 70%. The Women in Innovation Awards 2020/21 will build on this success.
For more details see: https://ktn-uk.org/programme/women-in-innovation/
About Innovate UK
As the UK’s national innovation agency, Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas, including those from the UK’s world-class research base. They connect businesses to the partners, customers and investors that can help them turn these ideas into commercially successful products and services, and business growth. To date, Innovate UK has supported 14,000 projects at 10,800 organisations, helping innovative businesses create 100,000 new jobs whilst adding £21 billion to the UK economy.
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