The Baby Products Association champions new product design and development within the industry via the BPA Concept & Innovation Awards. The awards have been running for six years and the BPA has seen the programme evolve, driven by the increasing quality of the designs being entered.

As the program has gained momentum, we have seen an increasing number of entries with novel solutions that are in the very early phases of conception with drawings or primitive prototypes. In such format, they are unlikely to reach the productions stage; a scenario very similar to the automotive industry with their 'concept cars'. However, many warrant recognition for their ability to stretch the imagination and the boundaries of design.

Our core objective has always been to recognise new concepts and the scope of development has been open and often, very wide. BPA wishes to reaffirm the origins of its endeavor, by recognising the far reaching conceptual ideas that enlighten us to the potential of future designs as well as designs closer to the finished article. Under the umbrella of BPA Concept & Innovation, we now have two awards; the BPA Concept Award, acknowledging unique designs still in their early visionary phase and the BPA Innovation Award, acknowledging unique products developed to a potential production stage.

The awards are open to anyone, from students and parents, to budding entrepreneurs and accomplished designers. If you or your company have an idea or creation relating to the nursery industry, that is unique or unique in design application, entering BPA Concept & Innovation could provide you with the ideal platform to launch your product. This is an incredible opportunity for you to showcase your product design at BPA Baby & Child 2010 and the experience alone is considered a worthy prize!

Tim Loughton MP Shadow Minister for Children presented the award winners of last year's BPA Concept & Innovation Awards at the BPA Baby & Child show. He stated: “I am looking forward to seeing the entries that have made the final of this year’s awards. The UK has outstanding talent when it comes to invention and innovation and no more so than in the nursery products industry. The BPA does outstanding work on behalf of the industry in particular by ensuring products are as safe as they can be and in encouraging new product development into the market.”

Winners of BPA Concept & Innovation Awards 2009

The Baby Products Association (BPA) is delighted to announce the winners of its Concept & Innovation Awards for 2009.

Presented by Tim Loughton MP, Shadow Minister for Children, during a ceremony at BPA Baby & Child yesterday (Monday 12th October), the overall winner of the Concept & Innovation 2009 Award is Claire Mitchell with her product Chillipeeps.

The judges were impressed with this simple, yet extremely effective product, which has the potential to be a ‘must have' item for mothers who choose to bottle feed their babies.

Chillipeeps is a teat in a pod that is pre-sterilised ready for 1st use and can be directly attached to a ready-made baby formula milk carton.
Easy to attach, use, seal in-situ and then remove, clean. it can then be sterilised and returned so that its ready for the next use.

This year, the Concept and Innovation Awards were split into two recognising two distinct phases in a products development. BPA Concept, acknowledges products still in their early visionary phase, while BPA Innovation acknowledges products developed to a potential production stage.

The Winner of Concept 2009 is Robert Wakerell with his Omnibus product.

This is a new child car vehicle restraint concept with an emphasis on providing postural support to the child in transit. It is suitable for use with any 3-point seat belt and the integrated base model is ISOFIX compatible.

The winner of the Innovation Award is Gavin Reay with his original idea - a Milk Scoop & Counter.

This self-leveling scoop can count for you, reducing some of the stresses of preparing formula milk. Powder leveling is integral to the scoop and as a backup, the counter reminds how many scoops have been taken.

Peter White, BPA chief executive comments: "The standard of entries this year were extremely high and I continue to be awestruck by the inventiveness of some of these products. We are proud and privileged to bring these to the attention of the industry.

For more information about how to enter and the process involved, please contact Julie James on 0845 456 9570 or at julie@b-p-a.org.
To download Guidance Notes and Application Form click here.

2008 CONCEPT & INNOVATION AWARD WINNER

Tilly Beazeley and Phil Jackson with The Wean Machine, have gone from strength to strength since being presented with the award at our 2008 trade show. Plans for production are underway and they are delighted by the interest their product design has received. The Wean Machine proved an instant hit with the BPA Concept judges and everyone who saw it at BPA Baby & Child in October.

It gives us great pleasure to see individuals showcasing their ideas; nursery products with an innovative twist, creations that fill a gap in the market place. Many go on to launch their products and return to our trade show as exhibitors.

We look forward to hearing from entrants for 2010