A versatile and durable concept that could have applications for all types of building construction has taken top billing to win a major award.

The Northern Ireland Science Park (NISP) CONNECT's search for 'the next big thing' has concluded – and a team from the University of Ulster has walked away with a £10,000 cheque as overall winners of the entrepreneurs £25k Award.

Tactility Factory edged out nine rival competitors with their patented technology designed to combine textile design with hard building materials such as concrete.

The Tactility Factory team, Ruth Morrow and Trish Belford, are pictured here with Michael Kidd Head of Business Banking at Bank of Ireland, who was the main sponsor of the award.

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The team's innovative concept is likely to have wide-ranging implications for the building construction sector and received particular credit from the judges for combining Northern Ireland's longstanding heritage in textiles with cutting-edge building product design.

The judging panel included Sinclair Stockman, ex-Chief Scientist of BT, and Damien Callaghan of Intel Capital and they were very impressed with the standard of all finalists.

The awards, sponsored by Bank of Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland, were presented yesterday evening at a VIP gala ceremony in the newly refurbished Titanic Dock & Pump-House at the Northern Ireland Science Park.

Steve Orr, Director of NISP Connect, said that once again the awards have uncovered local talent with innovative ideas and inspiring ambitions.

He added: "The aim of the awards is to discover intellectual property concepts which can offer measureable impact on not only the local but global economy and that is exactly what we have achieved with the winners, Tactility Factory, and all the other finalists."

Ian Murphy, Managing Director of Clients and Entrepreneurship at Invest Northern Ireland, which also sponsored the event, said: "Northern Ireland has an excellent tradition of entrepreneurship.

"The high standard of all the category winners in this year's £25k Awards embodies this and the hard work that has gone into each venture is clear to see."

(BMcC/GK)