{"id":424893,"date":"2025-09-14T23:49:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T23:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/424893\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T23:49:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T23:49:14","slug":"inspiring-edinburgh-founder-awarded-purple-plaque-by-innovate-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/424893\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspiring Edinburgh founder awarded purple plaque by Innovate UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Danae Shell, the founder and CEO of digital legal platform Valla<\/a>, has been honoured for her work in tech during a special ceremony at Edinburgh Napier University.<\/p>\n

As part of an initiative to challenge stereotypes in innovation, Shell received her purple plaque from Innovate UK as part of a campaign inviting Women in Innovation Award winners to return to their former schools and universities to lead assemblies and workshops, showing students that anyone, regardless of background or gender, can shape the future through innovation.<\/p>\n

Shell\u2019s creation, Valla, is an AI-powered platform which simplifies legal processes for workers and helps them get fixed-price support without incurring the costs typically associated with conventional services. More than 13,000 people have already used the firm\u2019s services since its inception in 2016.<\/p>\n

\"Scot-Secure<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cReceiving this purple plaque is incredibly meaningful to me, not just as recognition of Valla\u2019s work in making legal support accessible to everyone, but as an opportunity to give back and inspire the next generation,\u201d said Shell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want every young woman to know that innovation and entrepreneurship aren\u2019t reserved for a certain type of person \u2013 they\u2019re for anyone with curiosity, determination, and a desire to solve problems that matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf my journey from Edinburgh Napier to building Valla can show even one student that they too can use technology to change lives, then this recognition will have achieved its true purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Statistics show that girls are underrepresented compared to boys in studying STEM<\/a> subjects in Scotland, with notable gender disparities especially in Higher and Advanced Higher subject choices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As recently as 2023, female candidates made up just 27% of physics Higher students, with even fewer numbers in computing science (17%), and in engineering science (11%).<\/p>\n

To encourage more young women in STEM fields, Innovate UK\u2019s purple plaques have been designed to recognise the achievements of inspirational women innovators across the country.<\/p>\n

Recommended reading<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the UK boasts thousands of blue plaques honouring pioneering historic figures, fewer than one in seven feature women, exposing a broader lack of role models across media, business and education.<\/p>\n

To provide some balance, Innovate UK introduced the Purple Plaques campaign in 2019, with eighty-six new plaques unveiled at schools and universities around the UK. Other notable recipients include Laura Bayliss, the founder of TimeTrove, Charlotte Windebank, managing director and co-founder of FIRST, and Sam Woodham, co-founder of The Divorce Surgery.<\/p>\n

Karen Souza, senior diversity and inclusion partner at Innovate UK, said: \u201cThese plaques spark conversations about innovation in the schools, colleges and universities where they\u2019re unveiled, fostering pride among students and educators \u2013 making each institution a hub for celebrating and championing the contribution of women in innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Danae Shell, the founder and CEO of digital legal platform Valla, has been honoured for her work in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,84021,145082,145083,712,7022,16,15,145084,32632],"class_list":{"0":"post-424893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-innovate-uk","12":"tag-napier-university","13":"tag-purple-plaque","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-stem","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-valla","19":"tag-women-in-tech"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115205332671469373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}