Women in Innovation Award Winner: Dr Jessica Bruce, Run3D

KTN interviews Dr Jessica Bruce, Founder & Director of Run3D Ltd, and Women in Innovation Award Winner, on her real-time 3D gait analysis system.

Introduction

“The progress that we have made in the past 12-months, since I received the Women in Innovation Award, is incredible. It has helped us expand our offering to all people suffering from musculoskeletal pain during activity and also to sell our first systems in the US and China.”

Experienced runners may be all too familiar with the common injuries from how their feet strike the ground which can affect their flexibility and strength. Jessica Bruce combined her passion of running and her PhD in Biomechanics, to investigate similar injuries in runners and developed real-time gait analysis technology and also founded her biomechanical engineering company Run3D. In fact, Jessica questioned why the technology she was using in her research, which she knew to be beneficial, wasn’t accessible to real runners.

Jessica wanted to take 3D gait analysis technology out of the lab and into clinics.

“What we have done is to make it affordable and make it easy to use. We now effectively franchise our technology to podiatrists, physiotherapists, clinics and sports injuries clinics across Europe. We have our first system in the US and China. The biggest challenge is managing the workload within the team, letting go and delegating as we grow. But opportunities are massive, for us our big thing now is expanding globally.”

How did Women in Innovation help?

After receiving funding to build Run3D, through the Innovate UK Smart Grant, Jessica went on to apply for the Women in Innovation competition and joined a cohort of women who received £50,000 and a year long package of bespoke support and coaching as part of the competition. “Our focus initially was Run3D, but the award expanded it. We are currently developing Walk3D because the same principles apply: the way that you walk impacts how the loads are applied to your body and ultimately dictates then whether or not you are going to get injured and the types of injuries you are likely to have.”

Jessica acknowledges that being an award holder and the exposure that it brought are invaluable – she is now selling her product to both clinicians and consumers.

Impact / Outcomes

Jessica and her team now look forward to expansion in the United States. “We’ve got a fantastic partner working with us out there, he’s already installed the first system. I’ve been very fortunate with Women in Innovation, plus I have a good investor network that is very involved”.

Not only that the programme enabled them to enter a new market with Walk3D, but has also led to a new engineer entering the team.

“The network of contacts is exceptional, and the programme has raised credibility in us, in our company and in what we do”.

For more information on Women in Innovation, visit the Programme page here.