Pioneering companies in the county have been praised after Oxfordshire won an award as one of Europe's most innovative regions.

The Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, Hugo Brunner, travelled to Sweden to receive an Award for Excellence, presented as part of the European Union's PAXIS Programme, which has the objective of spreading best innovation practices throughout Europe.

Yesterday, Mr Brunner visited Oxford Centre for Innovation to present the trophy to staff.

Mr Brunner said: "This award is a great honour for Oxfordshire and for the UK, recognising us as one of the European leaders in innovation and enterprise. "The future lies with the EU, and if Great Britain is to share in that future we must take every opportunity to work closely with our European counterparts. Oxfordshire's involvement in this initiative sets an example for other parts of the UK."

It is the second time Oxfordshire has been recognised. This year the county was joined by Greater Cambridge and Edinburgh among the 22 winners across Europe, who received their awards from Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden.

The PAXIS -- Pilot Action of Excellence on Innovative Start-ups -- programme started after Paul Bradstock, director of the Oxford Trust, headed an EU working group which recommended developing the expertise of European regions with a successful enterprise economy in the same way that the success of Silicon Valley's computer industry lifted the US economy. This resulted in EU funding being allocated to set up the PAXIS Programme.

Mr Bradstock said: "Under the programme we can boost the expertise of those regions which are recognised as technology centres of excellence, and also spread their ideas to benefit the rest of Europe."

Over the next three years, Oxford Innovation and its partners from Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy, will be delivering a series of projects aimed at helping new businesses to thrive. One of the aims is to to set up business angel networks based on the Oxfordshire Investment Opportunity Network (OION), one of the most successful in Europe.

As reported in yesterday's Oxford Mail, during the past two years OION has raised more than £9m for 30 technology-based firms.

Colin Alexander, Oxford Innovation's director of projects and consultancy, said: "Not only is the county in the premier league when it comes to innovation and technology, it also has one of the most successful business angels networks in Europe."