Purple plaques are being displayed at schools across the country to recognise the achievements of the winners of the prestigious Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award. The Award also sees recipients receive up to £75,000 grant funding and a 12 month support package to scale up their businesses and bring their pioneering innovations to market.
Dr Monika Tomecka is part of a network of over 200 Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award winners who are developing inspiring solutions to pressing societal, environmental, and economic challenges; from multi-grip bionic arms for amputees, an AI that curbs your unhealthy cravings, and satellite data to detect long-lost archaeological sites.
To celebrate this award and mark the installation of the plaque, Monika returned to Sheffield to talk about her career and her experience of starting a successful spinout company. uFraction8 develops microfluidics-based filter systems as a solution to help bio-manufacturers to harvest their products with energy-efficient and scalable bioprocessing systems.
She began her journey in Poland before studying Genetics and Biochemistry in Wales, and then completing a PhD in Biomedical Science across England and Singapore, to then founding and leading a multinational deep-tech startup group operating between Scotland and Poland.
With travel as an integral part of her life and career, she reflected on the realities of building a company from academic research, the challenges of the founder path, and the opportunities for scientists to create global impact beyond the lab.
Beyond her role as CEO, Dr Tomecka is actively involved in supporting the next generation of innovators through pro bono mentoring and advisory work. She has contributed to international and national programmes for early-stage founders and researchers, including MassChallenge, ICURe, EIT Women, and Startup Łódź, and has shared her industry and investment experience at events such as the atTRACTION DemoDay in Poland, Hello Tomorrow in France, and the Biotech Innovators -Train to Scale in Scotland. Through these activities, she helps young entrepreneurs develop their ideas, build companies, and navigate the path from research to real-world impact.
Science gave me the tools to understand the world, but entrepreneurship gave me the chance to change it. I hope my story shows that a career in research can lead far beyond the lab.
Dr Monika Tomecka
About Innovate UK
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is the UK’s innovation agency. It works to create a better future by inspiring, involving and investing in businesses developing life-changing innovations. Its mission is to help companies to grow through their development and commercialisation of new products, processes and services, supported by an outstanding innovation ecosystem that is agile, inclusive and easy to navigate.
About Innovate UK Women in Innovation
Innovate UK launched Innovate UK 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 women 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 women founders, co-founders or senior decision makers. The programme support includes grant funding, as well as a bespoke package of mentoring, networking, training and role modelling opportunities. The campaign and awards programme have had a significant impact, leading to an increase of over 70% in the number of women applying to Innovate UK’s funding and support.