TEES TECH AWARDS 2026

SPONSORED BY TEESSIDE UNIVERSITY

NCB Hazcheck CIO Mike Durkin with Teesside University associate dean Charlotte Nicol.

WINNER

A double award-winner at the Tees Tech Awards says there are“ lots more avenues to go down” as it continues to detect unsafe cargo.

NCB Hazcheck – which prevents shipping from carrying potentially hazardous loads – won both the Tech For Good and the Innovation categories at this year’ s awards.

And after receiving the Innovation award, NCB Hazcheck’ s CIO Mike Durkin pledged there was much more to come.

He told Tees Business:“ We can get bigger – there are lots of avenues for us to go down. We’ re looking at moving into things like drug precursors and contraband smuggling. Our focus has been on safety but now we’ re moving into other areas as well, including air cargo, so not just maritime cargo.”

NCB Hazcheck uses technology to prevent harm before it happens. And with container ship fires occurring roughly every 60 days, early intervention is critical.

The Darlington-based firm’ s core innovation is Hazcheck Detect, an AIpowered platform that screens cargo to identify dangerous goods risks before shipment.

Screening around 1m bookings per day, it also detects illicit cargo, including wildlife trafficking, extending its impact beyond safety.

In 2024, it was selected by the World Shipping Council( WSC) as the primary cargo screening solution for the WSC Cargo Safety Programme. And with more than 80 % of global goods transported by sea, it represents a critical safety intervention on a true global scale.

Hazcheck Detect is supported by Hazcheck Validate, which combines automation with expert review to ensure accuracy. The combined system is on track to screen 70 % of all maritime cargo.

Mike said:“ It’ s the first time the cargo industry has come together to share information on a global scale – that’ s the innovation of this award.

“ We’ ve overcome a lot of obstacles. One of the biggest has been dealing with cross-border regulations, such as data protection requirements around the world. We work with various countries and regulatory frameworks to share data on a global scale in support of safety.

“ But we’ ve done it through determination and being in the right place at the right time. And our reputation over 40 years – people respect and understand what we’ re here for.”

SPONSOR’ S MESSAGE

Charlotte Nicol, associate dean( research and knowledge exchange) at Teesside University, said:“ Hosting this prestigious event is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the achievements of businesses and organisations driving innovation across the region’ s thriving technology sector.

“ Innovation sits at the heart of everything we do at Teesside University. From our research and teaching to our close collaboration with industry, we are committed to supporting new ideas, developing creative solutions and helping businesses harness technology to grow, innovate and make a real impact.”

FINALISTS

ACE EDUCATION TRAINING

An innovative Middlesbrough-based EdTech organisation, ACE Education Training delivers high-quality professional learning, consultancy and digital solutions for schools and colleges.

In 2025, it developed a pioneering AIpowered 360 platform, rich with potential, that brings together assessment, personalised learning, teacher training, planning and realtime analytics into one unified system.

Built by educators for educators, the platform blends deep pedagogical expertise with advanced AI to reduce workload, improve accuracy and support whole-school improvement.

ASSESSABLE

Tees Valley EdTech firm Assessable’ s core innovation enables portfolio-based writing assessment at scale, analysing multiple pieces of writing to generate structured, evidencebased judgements- a step-change from traditional marking approaches, supporting consistent and defensible decisions over time.

Since early 2025, the platform has progressed from proof of concept to live testing with more than 20 primary schools and academy trusts.

It now has a clear pathway to commercial launch in 2026 and a scalable subscription model.

THE FARADAY CENTRE

A global leader in electrical safety training, Faraday, from its Wilton Centre base, provides specialist high and low voltage courses for industries including oil, gas, marine, engineering and construction.

Serving many major clients, its key mission is to prevent industrial electrical accidents. To meet growing renewables demand it has launched Faraday Nexus, a VR-based, highvoltage training platform developed with Teesside University.

Using advanced technologies, it enables safe, immersive training previously impossible with live equipment.

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