SYRACUSE — On June 23, Nick Astbury, deputy consul general of the British Consul-General in New York, led a mission to Syracuse to promote the Great Tech Awards.

The competitive awards program, which is co-sponsored by the consulates in New York City and Boston and by the UK Trade & Investment Department, is designed to “encourage high-tech companies [organized] in the Northeast USA to select the United Kingdom as a destination of choice for international expansion,” says Astbury. “The winners of six different categories will be flown to London for a five-night stay at the five-star  Corinthia Hotel; receive professional services from legal, accounting, recruiting, and real-estate firms; attend high-level meetings with mentors and government officials; visit a major digital conference; and enjoy development services provided by sector specialists.” All expenses are incurred by the host government and the program underwriters 

The competition categories include EdTech, FinTech, Health, Lifestyle, Media, and CleanTech. The awards program also includes a category called “The Best of USA,” a prize awarded to a U.S. company from the Northeast that established a presence in the UK within the last 18 months. This year will mark the third year of the British government’s transatlantic business-awards competition.

“Last year, we received over 100 applications,” says Astbury. “We expect more companies to apply this year, since the program is better known and we have added the [remaining] New England states [to the original four states — New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania]. The application process will close on July 31, at which time a panel of judges and advisers will review the submissions. The finalists will be announced during the last week of September, and we are hosting a gala awards event in New York City on Oct. 29. The six winners fly to London at the end of November.”

The program is looking for established companies “… that already have an international client base and are ready to grow internationally,” explains Astbury. Contestant businesses with a minimum of 10 employees are preferred. The application is available online (www.greattechawards.com), and the applicant must indicate the award category. The judging criteria include past company growth, the degree of innovation, how the product or service relates to the category chosen, and the potential business growth in the United Kingdom. The top-three highest scoring contestants in each category will be selected as finalists.

Previous winners have included businesses that created an equity-based funding platform, a critical-care blood-purification system, a modern replacement for PDF forms, online auctions for nonprofits, and a simple interface to manage classroom observations and teacher evaluations.