The winners of the Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards 2026 have been revealed.
In a glittering ceremony at Hinxton Hall, on the world-famous Wellcome Genome Campus, the outstanding talents and achievements of individuals, organisations and companies were celebrated in front of 300 leading lights from the Cambridge region.
Following a networking reception, the audience gathered in the Francis Crick Auditorium to learn who had won awards across 16 categories, covering all sectors of science and technology.
Now in their ninth year, the awards recognise individuals and businesses at all stages, from start-ups to multinational giants – and you can see all the winners below.
Hosted by Cambridge Independent editor Paul Brackley, who chaired the judging panel, the awards began with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by Weatherbys Business Bank and recognising an individual’s lasting and significant impact.
It went to Sir Gregory Winter, the Nobel Prize-winning Cambridge scientist who pioneered the technique to ‘humanise’ mouse monoclonal antibodies and later to fully humanise antibodies using phage display for therapeutic uses.
In 1989 he was one of the founders of Cambridge Antibody Technology, which discovered what would ultimately become known as HUMIRA – the world’s first fully human antibody, designed to treat a range of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease. Sold by AbbVie, it was the world’s best-selling drug for more than a decade and global sales totalled more $230bn between 2003 and 2024.
Cambridge Antibody Technology, meanwhile, was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2006 for £702m. And today humanised monoclonal antibodies form the majority of antibody-based drugs on the market today, including several blockbusters.
Sir Gregory has also founded companies including Domantis, Bicycle Therapeutics and recently Immutrin. He was master of Trinity College for seven years and held several senior posts at the LMB. He was knighted in 2004 and in 2018, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with George Smith and Frances Arnold.
Sir Gregory spoke to the audience, before the winners of the other awards were revealed, beginning with Start-up of the Year, which went to TRIMTECH Therapeutics – a company that raised £25m in the largest biotech seed round in the UK last year – and ending with Life Science Company of the Year, which was won by CN Bio, reflecting a pivotal year, during which it led the shift away from animal testing in drug discovery with its PhysioMimix Core organ‑on‑a‑chip platform.
There were two more awards for individuals. Researcher of the Year was won by Dr Tom Fitzgerald, of EMBL-EBI, who helped achieve a major advance in the application of AI to preventive medicine last year.
Simon Thomas, of Paragraf, won CEO of the Year, and the company also celebrated being Highly Commended in The Award for Innovation, in recognition of its Graphene Field Effect Transistor – the first of its kind to be mass-produced for real-world applications.
The winner of the Award for Innovation was AstraZeneca’s Centre for Genomics Research for a multi-disciplinary approach, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, that demonstrated how a widely-used diabetes drug, metformin, could tackle a mutation in blood stem cells that develops towards acute myeloid leukaemia.
There was innovation on show, however, throughout the categories – from Plextek’s method of integrating radar and communication systems, which earned it Technology Company of the Year, to Jumptech’s work to accelerate the installation of clean‑energy technologies, including EV chargers, which earned it Software Company of the Year.
You can see the full list of winners below – and read more about all of them, and see more pictures from the night, in our souvenir supplement in the Cambridge Independent, out from 13 May.
Editor Paul Brackley said: “Congratulations to all our winners. It was a privilege to tell the stories of all our incredible finalists and their amazing achievements in the last year.
“I would like to thank all of our sponsors, who make it possible for us to showcase this plethora of talent.”
Winners of the Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards 2026
Lifetime Achievement Award
Sponsored by Weatherbys Business Bank
Sir Gregory Winter
Start-up of the Year
Sponsored by St John’s Innovation Centre
Winner – TRIMTECH Therapeutics
Highly Commended – Cambridge Nucleomics
STEM Initiative of the Year
Sponsored by Cambridge Science Park
Winner – St Mary’s School, Cambridge
Highly Commended – Broadening Horizons, The Royal Society of Chemistry
The Tech for Good Award
Sponsored by the Wellcome Genome Campus
Winner – Cambridge NeuroWorks
Highly Commended – Studio 24
Cleantech Company of the Year
Sponsored by Woodfines Solicitors
Winner – Pulpex
Highly Commended – Finkele
Employer of the Year
Sponsored by Zero Workspace
Winner – Redgate Software
Highly Commended – Nu Quantum
AI Company of the Year
Sponsored by Appleyard Lees
Winner – Luminance
Highly Commended – Ignota Labs
Fintech Company of the Year
Supported by iQ business magazine
Winner – SyndicateRoom
Highly Commended – AlgoDynamix
Researcher of the Year
Sponsored by AstraZeneca
Winner – Dr Tom Fitzgerald, EMBL-EBI
Highly Commended – Prof Kiran Patil, University of Cambridge and Cambiotics
The Award for Innovation
Sponsored by Railpen
Winner – AstraZeneca’s Centre for Genomics Research
Highly Commended – Paragraf
Biotech Company of the Year
Sponsored by BDO
Winner – Healx
Highly Commended – LinkGevity
Medtech Company of the Year
Supported by the Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire
Winner – Panakeia Technologies
Highly Commended – Mursla Bio
CEO of the Year
Sponsored by Brookgate
Winner – Simon Thomas, Paragraf
Highly Commended – Dr Carina Kern, LinkGevity
Software Company of the Year
Sponsored by Mantle Space
Winner – Jumptech
Highly Commended – Intellegens
Technology Company of the Year
Sponsored by the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Anglia Ruskin University
Winner – Plextek
Highly Commended – 4colors Research
Life Science Company of the Year
Sponsored by Zyme Communications
Winner – CN Bio
Highly Commended – Metrion Biosciences
You can see the 2025 winners here.
The 2027 awards will be launched in the autumn. Sign up for our newsletter to stay posted.
