2010-06-17

Inova companies hit jackpot at Almi’s SKAPA Innovation awards

All of the three top entries at Almi Företagspartner’s SKAPA finals of 2010 came from Inova!
The Innovation award ceremony took place at Scandic Hotel Klarälven in Karlstad. The winner of the first prize, SEK 30,000 (just over EUR 3,000), was Willy Ociansson of Borrhålsbooster. That is a company residing in the Inova Incubator, where business development is supported by way of counselling, matchmaking, seminars, workshops, etc.
“We expect the solution to be on the market later this year,” the happy winner revealed during the prize ceremony on 16 June.

15 entries from Värmland applied for this year’s SKAPA (‘CREATE’) scholarship. The prize was awarded for the 25th time, and the entries represented a variety of innovations. Out of these, three stood out thanks to their extraordinary quality, creativity, market potential and impressive technical ingenuity. These winners shared the total prize sum of SEK 50,000 (EUR 5,000+).

The winning candidate, Borrhålsbooster, is a concept for utilising the bedrock’s energy-storage capacity.  Also, according to scientific tests, it can advance geothermal heating technology to a completely new level. Borrhålsbooster now advances to the national finals, where the winner receives SEK 500,000. With a background in several well-known projects, Willy Ociansson has become well-known as an environmental expert full of ideas, who rather tries new solutions than follows the trodden paths. Read more about the company at www.wctab.se (in Swedish).

There were two runners-up: Simon Röjder’s Virtual Worlds and Cecilia Nahnfeldt’s Balansamärkning, which were awarded SEK 10,000 each.

Virtual Worlds, created by Studio01, builds on design and technology from the gaming industry to develop unique solutions, primarily to visualise and present various types of products or services in a digital way. The system has been successfully applied to the construction industry. You can find out more about the company at www.studio01.se (in Swedish).

Balansamärkning (a combination of the company name, Balansa, and märkning, which means ‘label’ or ‘marking’) is a quality label for workplaces that actively and systematically encourage their employees to balance professional life and leisure. Based on research at Karlstad University, the concept is unique on the market. The product launch is planned for 2011. A company presentation in Swedish can be found at www.balansa.nu.

Photo: The three finalists from Inova: Cecilia Nahnfeldt, Simon Röjder, and winner Willy Ociansson.