School in London reveals Purple Plaque to celebrate Lise Pape, a Women in Innovation Award Winner
on 22nd June 2023, Alleyn’s School hosted an event to celebrate Lise Pape, who has won the prestigious Women in Innovation Award from Innovate UK by unveiling a purple plaque in her honour on the school site.
The purple plaque is Innovate UK’s twist on the blue plaques seen in the UK. Currently, just 14% of blue plaques in the UK celebrate the achievements of women. This highlights a national issue of the under-representation of women in the media, the workplace and in the education system, resulting in a lack of relatable role models for children and young people.
Purple plaques are being displayed at schools across the country to recognise the achievements of some of the women innovators who have won its prestigious Women in Innovation Award. The Award also sees recipients receive a cash injection of £50,000 and bespoke mentoring to scale up and bring to market their pioneering business ideas.
Lise Pape is one of a network of over 150 Women in Innovation Award winners who are developing pioneering innovations to tackle pressing societal, environmental, and economic challenges; from delivering precision medicine to underrepresented populations, to offering eco-friendly materials for the aerospace industry and creating cutting-edge digital educational tools.
Lise Pape, aged 41, developed Path Finder and Path Feel, which are mobility aids to improve balance and walking abilities. Path Feel is a connected insole system with an app and dashboard, which is first being marketed in diabetes, with the aim of improving gait and balance, and reducing the risk of ulcers on the feet, which can cause amputations. Path Finder is a visual cueing device for people with Parkinson’s disease. Lise started ‘Walk With Path’ driven by personal cause as her father suffered from Parkinson’s disease and this inspired her to develop easy to use solutions which can improve daily life.
Lise Pape said: “I am thrilled to be recognised by Innovate UK with the Women in Innovation Award, and with a purple plaque today. It is also great to collaborate with Alleyn’s School for the event and the celebration. I am a big believer in sharing stories, and am very happy that I have the opportunity to share my story today with students at the school. The purple plaque enables the story to carry on to future pupils too, which I hope can become a value for the school and society.”
Frank Keenan, Director of Development and Alumni Relations at Alleyn’s School, said: “We are delighted that Lise’s work to develop technology to help improve mobility has been recognised by Innovate UK with a Women in Innovation Award. Lise has founded ‘Walk With Path’ to support people with mobility challenges and her work is making a real difference to people’s lives. At Alleyn’s we are passionate about innovation and enterprise and her inspirational work to date is an example of how these values can make a real difference in the world. Lise has supported us through our ‘Festival of Inspiration’ and her experience shows how studying STEM can open up exciting challenges and opportunities for everyone”.
