Royal Agricultural College (RAU) PhD scholar Kate Drury has gained a Ladies in Innovation award for creating sustainable rope constituted of British wool.
The annual award, which is run by Innovate UK and UK Analysis and Innovation (UKRI), coincided with this 12 months’s Worldwide Ladies’s Day and noticed 50 winners awarded out of a pool of greater than 900 candidates.
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Ms Drury, who’s finishing her PhD in wool, will take residence a £50,000 grant and one-to-one teaching to assist get her enterprise off the bottom.
She stated: “I’m actually humbled to have been chosen as one of many winners of this award, and for my work to have been recognised on this means. It’s a big privilege to be named on this group of wonderful British ladies.
“I come from a household of fourth-generation sheep famers, so I assume it is smart that I’m now doing my PhD in wool.
“My father was concerned with British Wool after I was rising up and I used to be a regional consultant for British Wool for six years.”
Kate Drury © Royal Agricultural College
Establishing an organization – Sustainable Rope – 18 months in the past, Ms Drury’s rope makes use of traceable wool from British farms, which she buys via the British Wool Public sale.
The top product is made fully from wool, and is biodegradable and renewable, making it considerably extra environmentally pleasant in contrast with conventional plastic ropes, which contribute to microplastic air pollution.
Ms Drury stated: “Though my firm is lower than two years previous, I’m already getting enquiries from everywhere in the world, and this recognition will actually assist me to commercialise that analysis, conduct extra trials and allow my enterprise to develop.”
The rope is at the moment being trialled to develop seaweed, which may take in carbon and has a number of makes use of, from fertiliser to foodstuff.
Additionally it is being utilized in conservation works and on a permaculture farm.
