Using wool to tackle microplastics in our waterways
50 of the UK’s leading women entrepreneurs backed by Innovate UK for game-changing ideas
From using plants to recover metal from contaminated land to harnessing satellite data to detect long-lost archaeological sites. And from an artificial intelligence that curbs your unhealthy cravings to 3D printed bionic prosthetics. The winners of Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation Awards are developing novel solutions to major social, environmental and economic challenges.
From Aberdeen to Portsmouth and Belfast to Cambridge. Innovate UK is empowering 50 pioneering women to scale their innovative businesses in every part of the UK. Each winner will benefit from a £50,000 grant, one-to-one business coaching, and a suite of networking, role modelling, and training opportunities.
Knowledge and experience of working with wool
Kate Drury has been working in the agricultural industry for the past 30 years. First on the family farm in Northamptonshire where she helped lamb 700 ewes, including a pedigree flock of Berrichons.
Showing and promoting the breed around the UK only increased her passion for wool, which led her to a masters in sustainable agriculture at the The Royal Agricultural University. Kate is also one of our Board Member’s at British Wool and represents the English Central region.
“I came to understand the essential transition we must make to natural products to assist ecosystem renewal as quickly as possible,” says Kate. “Wool is a biogenic resource that can be deployed to assist with this. In the last year I have set up a business manufacturing commercial wool rope and working on a PhD to capture its characteristics and potential.”
Wool innovation for sustainable rope
Kate’s business, Sustainable Rope, is developing a natural fibre alternative to synthetic ropes for the aqua-culture and mari-culture industries in order to reduce microplastics polluting our waterways. Marine rope pollution is now believed to be a significant ecological problem. And Kate wants to empower big industry to convert to a natural fibre rope or adapt their business model to reduce their dependence on synthetic products.
Kate’s long term ambition is to head up a successful company that has championed innovation providing solutions for our environmental crises. And to be a “go to” person as a mentor in agriculture and business and to be a game changer for our wool industry.