MEDIA RELEASE: Sleeptite Collaboration wins two prestigious Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia Awards
Sleeptite, RMIT University and Sleepeezee Bedding Australia (Sleeptite Collaboration) have won two prestigious awards at the annual Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KCA) Awards.
The Sleeptite Collaboration (via RMIT as a KCA Member) took home the awards for Best Industry Collaboration and People’s Choice for the creation of REMi® our world-first, non-invasive monitoring and alert system that is set to revolutionise the aged care industry.
The Sleeptite Collaboration credits the creation of the REMi system to the close and respectful relationship between the three partner organisations.
“While our team consists of people from incredibly diverse backgrounds, skillsets, and outlooks, every single person approached the project from a position of mutual understanding and respect regarding each partners’ focus and work,” Sleeptite CEO Cameron van den Dungen said.
“The REMi monitoring system is a top tier example of how collaboration between Research Institutions (RMIT University) and Industry Partners (Sleeptite and Sleepeezee Bedding Australia) can result in a life-changing product with the potential to provide significant economic benefit and incredible social outcomes,” he continued.
“In just over three years, our three collaborative organisations, from three very different sectors have managed to take RMIT University’s fundamental sensor research out of the lab and - when combined with industry insights from Sleeptite and Sleepeezee Bedding Australia - transformed this IP into tech that can extract data from the surface of a bed – REMi” van den Dungen continued.
The REMi system consists of flexible sensors embedded into a medical grade mattress cover and will be deployed to residential aged care facilities and home care environments to assist with overnight monitoring, fall prevention and pressure sore management.
The non-invasive ‘nearable’ technology tracks a person’s presence, position, and posture in bed overnight and relays this to a dashboard so a user who is providing care can prioritise quality care to residents where needed, while allowing other residents to receive an uninterrupted sleep.
Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KCA) is the peak body for organisations and individuals associated with knowledge commercialisation and exchange between public sector research organisations and business and government entities.
“These awards celebrate the dedicated, collaborative efforts of leading technology transfer professionals across the country who are changing lives through their commercialisation successes,” KCA Chair, Dr Erin Rayment, says.
“This year the KCA Awards finalists demonstrated the highest quality nominations we have seen in many years. The RMIT REMi collaboration with Sleeptite was a deserving winner of the Best Industry Collaboration Award and is an exemplar of “top tier work” in Australasian research commercialisation,” one of the judges, Dr. Tim Boyle said.
"The commercialisation of REMi exhibits how industry and research entities can work superbly together to create innovations that deliver real and enduring value to society, the economy and beyond,” Dr. Boyle continued.
“These are the only Australian Awards that recognises the role of technology transfer professionals in bridging the gap between publicly funded research institutions, and commercial partners such as entrepreneurs, industry and government stakeholders,” Dr. Boyle said.
In 2018 the Sleeptite Collaboration received a Cooperative Research Centres - Project grant which allowed the idea to become a reality, funding the investigation and research through to a product prototype.
“Our entire team, ranging from researchers to marketers, manufacturers, designers and engineers, are honoured to have been acknowledged by the KCA Award judging panel as “top tier work” in Australasian research commercialisation,” van den Dungen said.
“I would like to personally congratulate the other finalists in both our award categories for the incredible research they are undertaking and look forward to seeing how both innovations are commercialised” he continued.
KCA Award for Best Industry Collaboration and People’s Choice Finalists
REMi non-invasive aged-care resident monitoring and alert system (RMIT, Sleeptite Pty Ltd, Sleepeezee Bedding Australia)
COVID-19 Recovery Programs for impacted small to medium enterprise (La Trobe University, Agriculture Victoria, Investible, Business Victoria, La Trobe Business School, Outcome.Life)
v2food | CSIRO – industry collaboration (CSIRO, v2food)
ADDITIONAL QUOTES
Quotes attributable to Professor Madhu Bhaskaran, co-leader of the Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group, RMIT University
“REMi exists because of clear collaboration across three sectors: research, industry and manufacturing. We had very clear definition of goals right from the beginning, we had mutual respect for each other’s challenges and expertise and a clear communication strategy.”
“At RMIT we had award-winning fundamental research in the form of innovative, unbreakable and un-feelable sensors that could be worn on your skin as wearables. In three years, we have been able to transform this technology to a product made of an array of sensors embedded into a mattress protector that can extract data through nearable, not wearable, contact.”
“REMi is an all-Australian, patent protected technology which has been created for the aged care sector."
"We are incredibly proud to have created a product which is capable of non-invasive monitoring of residents in an aged care facility and it can pick up a person’s presence, position and posture on the bed."
“The Sleeptite Collaboration was funded by the CRC-P program in 2018 and to go from a vision to a product in three short years - with the challenges of the pandemic to boot - has been phenomenal."
"We are looking forward to further developing this technology when it enters the sector for field trials later this year."
Quotes attributable to Bill Mantzis, Managing Director - Sleepeezee Bedding Australia
“The Sleeptite CRC-P has allowed us to develop a good idea from Sleeptite, with the incredible research from RMIT and the manufacturing history of Sleepeezee, and prove that we could, with the right support, deliver a world-first product that has the potential to bring great change to the aged care industry,”
“Through the CRC-P we’ve been able to work directly with the RMIT researchers to adopt new technologies and develop new processes and prove, not only our ability to create a product to solve a real world issue, but our capability to build scale “
ENDS