Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award victories for 'Change Makers' and Emerging Technology Competition alumni

Three chemical scientists involved with a pair of Royal Society of Chemistry-led industry initiatives have been named among the winners of a top innovation honour.

Dr Siân Fussell, Dr Layla Hosseini-Gerami and Dr Monica Saavedra were all on the 50-strong list of winners of the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Awards 2025.

The trio have all established companies that are working to develop sustainable technologies and have been recognised by us previously through our Change Makers initiative and/or as winners of our Emerging Technologies Competition (ETC):

• Dr Fussell co-founded and serves as the Chief Technology Officer of Albotherm, which is part of Change Makers. The company creates materials that turn from transparent to reflective-white as temperatures rise, allowing buildings like greenhouses to cool naturally.
• Dr Hosseini-Gerami is the Co-Founder and Chief Data Support Officer for Ignota Labs. Winners in the health category of the 2024 Emerging Technologies Competition, Ignota Labs ‘rescues promising but failing drugs’ and works with AI to solve safety issues and make medications viable for the marketplace.
• Dr Saavedra is the Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Lambda Energy, which develops advanced agritech materials to convert incident high-energy light into lower-energy light efficiently, improving the performance of solar panel technologies. Lambda was the winner in the energy category of the 2023 Emerging Technologies Competition and is part of Change Makers.

Each of the winners will receive £75,000 from Innovate UK, plus training and networking opportunities. The awards aim to support a wide variety of Women in Innovation Award winners who can serve as role models and who are tackling pressing socioeconomic and environmental challenges across the UK.

Recognition from Innovate UK, which is part of UK Research and Innovation, has been welcomed by RSC staff who have worked closely with the three women in recent years. The Change Makers programme and the Emerging Technologies Competition are open for applications as we look for the next generation of science innovators.

Emily Vipond, who manages the ETC as part of her role as Programme Manager for Entrepreneurship, said: “I would like to congratulate Layla, Monica and Sian on winning Innovate UK Women in Innovation Awards. Having seen two of them first-hand as part of our Emerging Technologies Competition, it fills me with pride to see that they are continuing to achieve such great things with chemistry.

“These awards are so important because if we are to encourage more women to follow their ambitions, we need to recognise their achievements and provide role models for them to look up to. I am very excited to see what else they do and accomplish in their careers.

“Hopefully we will see more female innovators come through the Emerging Technologies Competition and hit similar heights in the coming years!”

Andrew Waterworth, Manager for Impact Investment Initiatives, added: “It’s great to see these inspirational women receiving the credit they deserve after putting in much hard work to make their respective businesses successful.

“Deep tech chemistry start-ups face significant challenges in getting support, investment, and recognition. However, each of these businesses stands as proof that these organisations have the power to change the world, and it’s good to see the potential and ingenuity of women like Sian, Monica and Layla being recognised and a spotlight shone on these innovators.

“These are exactly the sorts of organisations that we want to encourage to join Change Makers and hopefully their successes will inspire others to follow in their footsteps.”