2025 BWP Awards

2025 Better World Project Awards

AUTM's Better World Project highlights the global impact of research commercialization and the vital role that technology transfer plays in that process. The annual Better World Project Award honors the exemplary work of one technology transfer office from the stories submitted the previous year. More than 30 stories were submitted to the Better World Project last year. The Better World Project Committee narrowed them down to three very worthy finalists.

The winner is up to you! Read through each story and then cast your ballot for your favorite. You're only allowed one vote, so choose wisely! Voting will close at 3 p.m. ET on March 4, 2025. The winner will be announced during the 2025 Annual Meeting.

Meet our finalists:

Northeastern University Sets a New Path for Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment 

PrismRARheumatoid arthritis (RA) affects up to 1% of the global population, leaving many patients caught in a cycle of trial-and-error treatments, enduring ineffective therapies and needless suffering. Enter Scipher Medicine, a Northeastern University spin out founded by Drs. Joseph Loscalzo and Albert-Laszlo  Barabasi. Scipher’s revolutionary blood-based test, PrismRA, predicts if one of the most-commonly prescribed medications is unlikely to work for a specific patient, allowing them to explore better options from the start. Northeastern negotiated a pivotal startup-friendly express license for Scipher, and now PrismRA has received Medicare coverage and is available in Quest labs across the U.S.  Learn more.
 

New Treatment from UMass Amherst Destroys “Forever Chemicals”, Creates Clean Water 

In a world where clean water is becoming increasingly scarce, PFAS or “forever chemicals” - substances that don’t break down in the environment – threaten the world’s water supplies. Thanks to Octa™ System, an electrochemical treatment developed by UMass Amherst past PhD Candidate Julie Bliss Mullen and Emeritus Professor David Reckhow, PFAS can now be forever destroyed. The UMass TTO helped Mullen found Aclarity, a startup which is destroying PFAS on an industrial scale and in 2024 was recognized by TIME Magazine’s top 100 GreenTech companies globally. Learn more.
 

University College London’s “Metal Detector for Breast Cancer” Makes Detection Procedure More Accessible 

SentimagAround 1.25 million breast cancer cases are diagnosed annually, often requiring surgery and sentinel lymph node biopsy to check for cancer spread, a costly procedure generally only available at larger medical facilities. Endomag Ltd., a spinout from University College London (UCL), is challenging these hurdles with an innovative alternative,  Magtrace® magnetic particles and a Sentimag® probe, which are based on research from UCL Professor Quentin Parkhurst and collaborators at the University of Houston. UCL Business supported the spin out all along the way, and Endomag’s technologies are now used in 1,350 hospitals across 45 countries. Learn more.


If you want to be in the running for the Better World Project Award next year, please visit www.autm.net/BWP to submit your technology transfer office's success story! We'd love to see your story here in 2026.
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