The JOANNEUM RESEARCH Science Prize is awarded annually during the Future Conference. This year, the voting took place virtually for the first time due to the Covid-19 developments. The response exceeded all expectations: Nearly 5,000 votes were cast, a significant increase in the number of participants compared to last year!
The researchers at JOANNEUM RESEARCH are doing great things in a wide range of sectors: from innovative technologies for industry and medical research to socio-politically relevant solutions. The Best Performance Award honours three of many high-calibre projects in the three categories "Highest total project volume", "Highest operating performance" and "Publications".
The winners
In the category "Highest total volume" Philipp Schäffner from MATERIALS - Institute of Surface Technologies and Photonics literally won the race with his presentation of the project "PriMuS - Printed Ferroelectric and Multiferroic Nanocomposites for Selective Sensing". Its entertaining way of presenting a complex technology such as PyzoFlex®, a printable sensor technology, impressed many. In the project presented, wafer-thin foils for (running) insoles are being researched, which should provide the runner with information about his physical condition.
In the category "Highest operational performance" Anita Eberl from HEALTH - Institute for Biomedicine and Health Sciences impressed the jury with the topic "Omega-3 fatty acids as a medicine?" The research project is testing how the positive effect of omega-3 fatty acids can be used for stroke patients and turned into a drug. This requires infusions with a high dosage of omega-3 fatty acids. In order to make this "good fat" usable as a drug, thousands of samples have to be examined, which is currently being carried out at HEALTH.
Sebastian Nischwitz from COREMED - Cooperative Centre for Regenerative Medicine is the third winner of the Best Performance Award in the category "Publication". He presented research on intelligent wound dressings with the title "pH monitoring using a combined indicator dressing - a feasibility study". In this study, the researchers showed that the pH value of a wound surface can be monitored using an advanced dressing material made of biological nanocellulose and containing the pH indicator dye GJM-534. The pH value of chronic wounds influences numerous indicators of wound healing.
The winners of the Best Performance Award each receive 3,000 euros for their project team.