PROVIDENCE – Three organizations and four individuals will be honored with 2008 Rhode Island Innovation Awards in a ceremony to be held later this month at Kirkbrae Country Club.

The Innovation Awards – intended to recognize and encourage innovation critical to Rhode Island’s economy – highlight products, services and programs developed by residents or businesses in the state within the past three years. Applications in each category were reviewed by a panel of judges from Providence Business News, the R.I. Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and others active in the New England innovation economy.

The winners of this year’s Innovation Awards are:

• Collaboration Innovation Leader: ER Card Inc., whose wallet card, phone hotline and online database give consumers and their caregivers access to personal health records. The West Warwick-based company was founded by sisters Janice and Maria Gil. (READ MORE)

• Innovation of the Year: GyPSii, for its mobile-phone application that ties together GPS and other location technologies with Web-based communications and advertising. (READ MORE) An Amsterdam-based startup, GyPSii has its North American headquarters in Warwick.

• Innovation Champion: R.I. Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC), established in 2005 to help turn Rhode Island into a regional hub for the life sciences, IT and other research-based industries. Last year, it established the R.I. Research Alliance, which offers grants to collaborative projects across the state and presents the state’s annual Collaborative Research Symposium. (READ MORE)

• Student Innovator: Jean Merlain, CEO of the Big Picture Soda Company, a nonprofit venture launched two years ago by students at the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (the Met), a Providence high school run by education reform agency Big Picture Company. Big Picture Soda’s all-natural soft drinks and sparkling water now are available at retailers, restaurants and caterers across the Northeast. (READ MORE)

• Rising Star Innovator: David Berube, founder and “chief architect” of mobile technology startup MoFuse Inc. His company, founded in August 2007, enables online publishers to quickly adapt Web sites for mobile-phone browsers. (READ MORE) “We went from 0 clients in October of 2007 to 12,000 in August of 2008,” Berube wrote.

• Innovator of the Year: Chris Crawford, founder and CEO of North Kingstown-based The Corporate Marketplace Inc. (www.TCMPi.com), whose proprietary system enables corporate employee-recognition programs to buy jewelry and other products from many luxury brands. (READ MORE)

• Innovation Champion: Elizabeth M. Pierotti, an author, educator and longtime self-employed inventor. A speaker for year on topics such as small-business financing and product development and marketing (READ MORE), she created the “Innovation Monday” program at the R.I. Small Business Development Center.

They will be recognized – along with the winners of the Tech Collective’s 2008 Tech Laureate Recognition Awards – at a gala celebration at Kirkbrae Country Club in Lincoln on Sept. 18.

The 2008 Tech Laureate categories and their honorees are:

• Adancement of Technology: TeleComm Partners, for its “dedication, participation and leadership” in work-force development.

• Excellence in Workforce Development: The University of Rhode Island’s Providence Biotechnology Center, for its “efforts and commitment to attract, develop and retain skilled technology workers in Rhode Island through providing and supporting education and training” to current and future workers.

• Exceptional Community Building Partner: The Ocean State Higher Education, Economic Development and Administrative Network (OSHEAN) Inc. (READ MORE) The communications infrastructure company “is committed to developing network expertise among its member organizations and to creating an environment that encourages collaboration,” the Tech Collective wrote.

• Outstanding Partner: Hasbro Inc., for its “exemplary performance in partnering with Tech Collective in every aspect of its mission to champion technology growth and innovation in Rhode Island.”

The Rhode Island Innovation Awards and Tech Laureates Night 2008 is to be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18, at Kirkbrae Country Club, 197 Old River Road, Lincoln. For reservations, or to donate goods for the silent auction, contact Tech Collective’s Melissa Punchak at 521-7805, ext. 109; for directions and other event information, visit www.tech-collective.org or write mpunchak@tech-collective.org.