Innovation Award 2026
Category criteria
- This category is open to individuals, teams or businesses making a big impact with an innovation.
- The innovation could be a new product, service or process or it could be an innovative use of an existing product, service or process.
- The judges will be keen to find out about the intellectual processes which gave rise to the design and development of the innovation.
- The judges will also want to know how innovation is handled within the culture of the company and will welcome nominations from businesses that have innovation at the core of their ethos.
Power SOS
Innovation Award entrant
The brainchild of University of Staffordshire alumnus Steve Holmes, Power SOS is believed to be the first mobile app of its kind in the world.
Alongside long-established and thriving sister company Midlands Power Networks, Power SOS will help to restore power to critical services such as hospitals and prisons as well as the likes of retail, manufacturing, football stadiums and universities when it launches this year.
Steve, the managing director of Stoke-on-Trent based Midlands Power Networks, had the idea for a high voltage response emergency app and has worked with University of Staffordshire students to make it a reality.
Power SOS now has a team of five employees, mostly sourced from University of Staffordshire through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership and Unitemps, and is projected to go from a standing start to a significant annual turnover when it launches in the third quarter of the year.
The app holds each customer’s asset register and records and not only provides information as to possible causes but also highlights to any attending engineers any specific risks on that site ensuring they are well informed before arriving on site and HSE compliant. Not only will this minimise downtime it also reduces the risk for environmental impact and insurance claims.
Combining several cutting-edge technologies, AI to not only assist the customer in identifying their emergency but also the engineer in resolution; new location tracking, as yet not available in the world except within this app, and even predictive analysis to help prevent failures before they happen.
The app will record attendances and their outcomes and customers will be able to leave reviews.
Power SOS has entered the Start-up Business of the Year and Innovation Award categories of University of Staffordshire Business Awards.
The Student Safety App
Innovation Award entrant
The Student Safety App is a free, crowdsourced platform designed specifically for students, enabling them to report a wide range of concerns, from suspicious activity to safeguarding concerns.
The concept was born after the tragic Nottingham attacks in June 2023 when Monica Ghuman, then a student at Nottingham Trent University, witnessed first-hand the impact on the student community, the city and ultimately the nation. It highlighted how outdated, fragmented and slow current reporting systems can be, with long response times and interfaces that fail to meet the expectations of today’s digital learners.
Monica came up with the idea for the Student Safety App, helped to attract investment and now works as Project Lead as part of a team of 10 people including both part-time and full-time staff.
She said: “It’s nice to hear that people believe the Student Safety App is something that we have been missing. It means a lot to see this come to life.”
The app has already delivered significant impact across colleges, universities, charities and accommodation providers, with more than 50,000 students using the platform and numbers rising daily.
Feedback shows that SSA has helped streamline safeguarding workflows and centralise communication, allowing teams to respond more quickly to concerns. Students report feeling more confident when reporting through the app, as it feels more discreet and natural than traditional forms.
Within universities, the platform has supported earlier identification of incidents such as suspected spiking and violent behaviour. With personal follow-ups from the head office team, many students have felt comfortable engaging with investigations, supporting police enquiries and driving positive change within venues where appropriate.
SSA has also achieved strong national visibility, with the launch campaign generating more than 9.12 million impressions and coverage on major outlets, including BBC News and ITV News Central. Monica’s interviews on BBC Radio Nottingham and ITV Central have further strengthened awareness.
Partnerships, particularly with Student Roost, have increased credibility and demonstrated the value of the platform within the national accommodation sector, inspiring uptake from other big, influential corporations.
Monica has entered The Student Safety App into the Innovation Award category of the University of Staffordshire Business Awards.
Rocketeer Orbit
Innovation Award entrant
Rocketeer Orbit is a business growth consultancy that combines AI with human consultants to help Staffordshire businesses take flight.
Set up in Stafford by former teacher Richard Wood, it now has six human employees and six AI agents. Clients range from a business with a £25,000 annual turnover to a £200million company.
CEO Richard Wood’s diverse work background includes primary and special needs teaching, teaching ex-offenders and running a film studio before founding Rocketeer Enterprise, which has now become Rocketeer Orbit.
As an AI growth consultant he helps established business owners and education leaders in Staffordshire and beyond to cut through the noise around AI.
Richard and his team aim to demystify AI, creating clear, practical strategies that unlock potential, activate significant growth and drive real, quantifiable business value.
Services include AI audits to deep delve into organisations to find the highest impact opportunities for AI integration, strategic one-to-one consultation to build a robust and safe AI adoption roadmap and workshops for teams and organisations looking to understand the AI landscape.
The service is delivered by a combination of human staff and the Rockateer AI platform which has been created to help businesses gain clarity on the value of the business and to track its growth in real time.
Richard and his team often deliver their work through local authorities and business organisations so that they can support multiple businesses simultaneously, but also offer their services to individual businesses. He is also often called on to be a keynote speaker on AI.
“This is about helping businesses to stay focussed on growth but also to recognise that growth isn’t an art, it’s a science. We can help them to understand that science.
“If a business understands what it’s trying to do and where it’s trying to get to then AI can definitely help because it’s just a tool. The starting point is clarity about what they’re trying to do.
“We’re still very human focussed. What we’re developing is an eco-system of business growth including networking events and bringing in potential investors.”
The business is currently run from the Shire Hall Business Centre in Stafford. Richard has plans to start networks in Birmingham, Manchester and London and is then looking to make the business international.
Rocketeer Orbit has entered the Innovation Award category of University of Staffordshire Business Awards.
NeuroTalks
Innovation Award entrant
University of Staffordshire alumna Jodie Steele has created three brands inspired by her own experiences with neurodiversity.
The 44-year-old, from Stone, graduated in Marketing in 2003 and went on to work in high-pressure sales and marketing roles for multinational businesses including five years working overseas. She has worked for newspaper groups and in both radio and television.
During the pandemic she had a neurological crash which caused problems with her vision and a loss of motor skills on the right side of her body. She also had a late diagnosis of ADHD.
Jodie has spent several years rehabilitating during which the marketeer in her realised that her own lived experience was the basis of a brand that could help other people. That brand is also now becoming an income stream for Jodie.
She founded NeuroTalks, a lived experience led training and consultancy business that supports organisations to build neuro-inclusive, high-performing and psychologically safe environments.
A growing suite of digital products have been developed including free and paid workbooks, training resources and recorded content.
Alongside Neurotalks she has developed complementary ventures Alchemy Souls Travel, an inclusive and wellbeing-led travel storytelling brand, and Aura & Ash, a sustainability-focused lifestyle brand.
All three brands are gaining increased social media interaction. Jodie has been doing paid work through her brands since November including collaborations with the likes of the RSPCA.
Jodie said: “This could have broken a lot of people but if I can use it to help other people then I think that’s a really positive thing and it motivates me to do more.”
Jodie has entered the Alumni Business Person of the Year category of the University of Staffordshire Business Awards and has entered NeuroTalks into the Innovation, Skills For The Future and Business in the Community categories.
She added: “I’m a graduate of University of Staffordshire and this is not simply a historical detail; it is part of my identity as a business leader. The value of that learning, real-world relevance and community connection continue to influence how I operate today.
“I represent the kind of graduate who builds impact over time and offers sustained contribution; not a single business, but an ecosystem; not profit at the expense of people, but performance through inclusion.
“To be recognised as Alumni Business Person of the Year would not only reflect my own journey but would shine a light on the importance of neuro-inclusive leadership, wellbeing-led innovation and values-driven entrepreneurship - areas that increasingly define future work, travel and community life.”