THE UNIVERSITY of Ulster's Magee campus played host to the launch of The Irish TimesIntertradeIreland Innovation awards 2011 yesterday morning.

Addressing the event, Colm Long, head of operations at Facebook Ireland, and a judge in this year’s competition, said: “I would encourage all innovative organisations to enter. Winners will not only benefit from the endorsement and recognition of their business approach, they will play a bigger part in helping both economies on the island.”

Also speaking at the event was last year’s overall “innovation of the year” winner Ivan Coulter, chief executive of Sigmoid Pharma.

Coulter, who is also on this year’s judging panel, said that with seven categories, there is plenty of scope for entries from diverse fields of business. He pointed to last year’s winners, which ranged from biodegradable towels to remote sleep monitoring systems, through to service innovations aimed at tackling childhood malnutrition in developing countries.

Details on the awards can be found at irishtimes.com/ innovationawards with the closing date for applications on December 20th.