INVENT 2018...Gray's Clip Takes Top Award -

The overall winner, Gray’s Clip walked away with a prize package of £13,000 (from the overall prize total £33,000), as well as a bespoke business trip to the United States in 2019.

Gray’s Clip based in Bangor has revolutionised the process of clipping electrical cables. The product works with a battery powered stapler to secure cables to wooden joists and structures. With this product no more hammering is needed, the user simply loads the strip of 20 clips into a stapler and presses the button. It’s quick, easy and safe.

Company owners, husband and wife team Julie and David Gray, created the idea in 2016 after electrician David couldn’t find an insulated staple to secure the cables and had to hammer each clip individually. Although searching for years, he was disappointed not to find anything suitable and teamed up with wife Julie to develop their product.

INVENT sponsor, Gavin Kennedy, Bank of Ireland UK’s Head of Business Banking NI said, “Julie and David demonstrated outstanding commitment, passion and belief towards realising their ambition in bringing their idea, Gray’s Clip to market. Witnessing such determination and vision from them and all of the participants highlight what an inspiration our local Entrepreneurs are for Northern Ireland in business and the wider community.”

The INVENT competition offers an opportunity for the innovators of Northern Ireland to come forward and be recognised as the next ‘big thing’ – and this year attracted a record breaking 131 entries across the six categories.

INVENT Programme Manager, Kerry McGarvey said, “The INVENT competition is continuing to grow each year, proving that Northern Ireland is bursting with innovation. Tonight, we see a culmination of several months of hard work and as always we are overwhelmed with the energy and enthusiasm from everyone involved.”

Also, at the event, John Rainey MBE, of Denroy Group, received the prestigious 2018 Innovation Founder award. With John at the helm since 1972, Denroy has been focusing on innovation through a diverse range of plastic products including medical devices, aircraft wing components and the globally successful iconic Denman hairbrush. He joins an esteemed list of previous recipients – James Lecky, Martin Naughton KBE, Brian Conlon, Dr William Wright CBE, Dr Peter FitzGerald CBE, Tom Eakin, Dr Hugh Cormican and Prof John Anderson.

There are also five other category winners of the INVENT 2018 competition who each receive £3,000 each. They are:

· Agri Science

Crafted Equestrian: An Injury prevention solution for horses

Team: Jenny Gregg

· Electronics

Machine Eye: Intelligent safety device

Team: Brendan Digney, Alan Ferguson, Jonathan Atkinson, Ben Kelly, Tiernan Conlon

· Life & Health Science

SonoTarg: Ultrasound targeted cancer drug delivery

Team: John Callan

· Engineering

Gray’s Clip: Fully insulated power cable clip