Professor John Flint, Deputy Vice-President for Research at the University of Sheffield, opened this year’s Insigneo Showcase, highlighting the institute's continued growth and strengths in building partnerships in the UK and abroad. He also spoke about the institute’s focus on large collaborative grants and local strategic priorities which contribute to developing the regional ecosystem for healthtech research, innovation, translation and manufacturing.
Professor Jim Wild and Professor Damien Lacroix, Insigneo Co-Directors, gave an overview of the institute's successes and objectives for the next year. Dr Alberto Marzo highlighted successes from the Insigneo Academy, which is addressing the need to increase Early Career Researcher (ECR) involvement in research and develop our next generation.
This year’s Insigneo Showcase event began with some excellent scientific talks from Insigneo members on the themes of:
- Discovery/Methodology - the fundamentals of science and methods of research
- Clinical Translation - translating research into clinical practice
- Industry and Innovation - working with industry, developing partnerships, innovative technology and devices
- Child Health Technology
These fascinating talks generated some interesting discussions across disciplines during the breaks.
We were honoured to have two incredibly inspiring plenary speakers. The Master Cutler, Professor Keith Jackson, shared valuable insights on the commercialisation challenges for emerging health technologies in the NHS landscape and how to navigate them. Our second plenary speaker, Dr Jonathan Morris from the Mayo Clinic, gave a talk on ‘Point of care manufacturing: the crossroads of radiology, surgery, and engineering that was packed with examples of the incredible work they do with 3D printed patient-specific anatomical models for pre-operative planning.
Our Commercialisation Manager, Alex Wilkinson, led an exciting session on industry and innovation, during which we heard from our fantastic Insigneo entrepreneurs, who inspired us with their experiences of the Commercialisation Journey. Thank you to our entrepreneurs who took part:
- Professor Connie Rodenburg and Dr Nicholas Farr - Mobiblood
- Dr Vanessa Hearnden and Dr Rachel Furmidge - LipoHIPE™
- Dr Caroline Harrison and Professor Cheryl Miller - OsteoVate
Professor Paul Dimitri closed the day with a keynote talk on Child Health and how Sheffield is becoming a central hub for child health innovation and research.
Congratulations to our poster prize winners:
- Jacob Wilkinson, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering - ‘A voxel-based linear finite element model to predict proximal femur fracture in side-falls’
- Harith Syahmie Zulfikree, School of Clinical Dentistry - ‘Developing 3D tissue-engineered models of oral cancer progression for investigating anti-cancer drug distribution and xenobiotic metabolism’
- Nikolaos Stefanidis, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences - ‘Dissecting the role of Notch signaling in human enteric nervous system development’
- Mary Paterson, School of Electric and Electronic Engineering - ‘Transfer Learning-Based Classification of Oral Cancer and Pre-Malignant Disorders Using Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy’
- Johnny Mitchell, School of Computer Science - ‘Prediction of Multiple Sclerosis Disability Progression Using Machine Learning on Real-World Digital Mobility Outcomes’
We’d like thank everyone who attended and helped make the day so lively and engaging, including our ECRs for their flashtalks:
- Johnny Mitchel
- Hector Hernandez De la Cerda
- Robert Byers
- Caroline S. Taylor
- Grace Faulkner
- Zoona Javed
- Dr Jemima Pilgrim-Morris
- Prarthana Mistry
- George Allison
- Veronica Rowe Rowe
- Mahta Darvish
And our exhibitors:
- Interlink Electronics
- Translational Research and Partnerships and Knowledge Exchange Teams, Research, Partnerships and Innovation
- Centre for Heterogeneous Integrated MicroElectronic and Semiconductor Systems (CHIMES)
- South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub
- Data Connect
- NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Paediatrics and Child Health
- Sheffield Children’s National Centre for Child Health Technology
- Women’s Healthtech Innovation Network
- NIHR Healthtech Research Centre Long Term Conditions (Devices for Dignity)
Insigneo Showcase 2026
Photographs from the Insigneo Showcase 2026, an annual event showcasing the breadth of the institute's healthcare technology research
