This prestigious award is to identify UK university researchers in the field of electro-technology who demonstrate both considerable entrepreneurial promise and the potential to benefit the UK's future prosperity.

This year's winning team are Dr Matthew Alexander, Dr Mark Paine and Dr Katharine Smith who will receive the £40,000 prize fund for their patented drop-on demand dispensing technology.

The technology allows the controlled production of extremely small liquid droplets, less than 1 billionth of a litre in volume, which have particular significance to a number of biomedical applications such as the engineering of soft tissue or bone and the production of microarray chips and biosensors for drug development or disease diagnosis.

The ERA award also provides a significant boost to Queen Mary, University of London’s newest spin out company, EMdot in identifying commercial opportunities and forming strategic industrial partnerships in the life science sector.

The team along with their colleague Professor John Stark are all co-inventors of the core technology and founders of EMdot Ltd.