Prestigious Belgian James Dyson Award for “FLINK” by Tibo Grandry in collaboration with Voxdale, Novosanis and University of Antwerp
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Tibo Grandry, former student Product Development at the University of Antwerp has received the Belgian James Dyson Award for its FLINK device (now COOL-VAX). The device allows for optimal storage of vaccines for up to 30 hours and thereby reduces spillage.
Annually about 50% of the vaccines in developing countries are spilled because of incorrect administration and loss due to improper storage. FLINK is an innovative, sustainable vaccine carrier that allows for storage of vaccines for up to 30h at 2 to 8 degrees C by use of a central ice pack with water buffer and avoiding disruptions in the cold chain.
Tibo Grandry (former student Product Development) has developed FLINK (now COOL-VAX) in collaboration with University of Antwerp (Product Development and VAXINFECTIO), Voxdale, a design and engineering agency from Antwerp, and Novosanis, medical device company and spin-off from the University of Antwerp. Grandry applied for the James Dyson award as FLINK offers a solution to a societal problem, i.e. providing vaccination to developing countries by avoiding disruptions in the cold chain through an innovative and sustainable vaccine carrier.
Koen Beyers, CEO at Voxdale and Chief Technology Officer at Novosanis, “it was a pleasure to inspire Tibo Grandry as a student and to generate a state-of-the-art device. This combined effort has resulted in a disruptive product with a unique architecture. Interest has already been expressed by the United Nations for their programmes in developing countries.’’
Voxdale, Novosanis and University of Antwerp are extremely pleased with this prestigious award. Last year, this consortium also received the Belgian James Dyson Award for the VAX-IDTM device, an innovative injection device suited for accurate injections in dermal layer of the skin. The award encourages both Novosanis and Voxdale to further develop the FLINK device which has been re-named to COOL-VAX.
Grandry previously received the Packaging Award 2014 for FLINK.
About the James Dyson Award
The James Dyson Award is an international design award that celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers. The Award is open to current and recent design engineering students. It’s run by the James Dyson Foundation, James Dyson’s charitable trust, as part of its mission to inspire young people about design engineering. www.jamesdysonaward.org
About Voxdale
Voxdale (Antwerp, 2005) is a design, engineering and research agency for mechanical and mechatronical development of products, systems and equipment. The Voxdale team consists of seasoned experts in the field of engineering, product development, technology integration and materials selection.
Voxdale provides the necessary expertise and skills to guide projects from idea phase all the way up to building prototypes needed for initial verification and feasibility studies. In order to minimize the development path and risks, several tools are used to simulate and optimize functionality, including state-of-the-art finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation tools.
About Novosanis
Novosanis aims to improve quality of life and healthcare by making health and care accessible, acceptable and affordable for everyone. Novosanis strives to enable detection, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases, including sexually transmitted infections, and early stage cancer by developing innovative, safe, and user-friendly medical devices.
Novosanis is a medical device company active in the field of infectious diseases and oncology. We currently have two device (platforms) in portfolio: VAX-IDTM, suited for accurate intradermal injections and Colli-PeeTM, suited for standardized collection of first void urine.
About University of Antwerp
At the University of Antwerp research and education go hand in hand. Frontier and innovative research is proceeded, and they pay continuously attention to education innovation.
Since the integration of several Antwerp University Association programmes into the University of Antwerp, they have nine faculties. They take special care of the supervision of their twenty thousand students.
The University of Antwerp is not an island on her own: they raise a bridge to education, industry, the entire society. With her five thousand employees, the University of Antwerp is one of the most important employers in Antwerp, the biggest city in Flanders.
More information: www.uantwerp.be
Want to know more?
http://www.jamesdysonaward.org/projects/flink/
Koen Beyers, CEO Voxdale, koen.beyers@voxdale.be; CTO Novosanis, koen.beyers@novosanis.com, +32477933070
Vanessa Vankerckhoven, CEO Novosanis, vanessa.vankerckhoven@novosanis.com, +32486761885