News

European Institute of Innovation Technology (EIT) partnership workshop on diet, metabotypes and healthy living

The Life Science Research Network is supporting an European Institute of Innovation Technology (EIT)  partnership workshop on diet, metabotypes and healthy living next Tuesday the 19th of May in the Life Science Hub at Cardiff Bay.   This event is being led by Aberystwyth University and will be of most value to individuals and businesses interested in bringing new health innovations in precision nutrition and diagnostics to market. The event is open to all but places are limited. For further information, please contact Lia Tseki at evt3@aber.ac.uk.
EIT Health (http://eit.europa.eu/eit-community/eit-health) is the newly designated Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) for Healthy Living and Active Ageing. KICs are a unique type of partnership within the European innovation landscape and develop innovative products and services, foster new business, encourage growth, and train a new generation of entrepreneurs. Characterised by a high degree of integration, a long-term perspective, efficient governance, the co-location model and an entrepreneurial culture, KICs aim to increase Europe’s capacity for innovation by bringing together leading companies, universities, and research labs.

 


Tackling AMR Theme 2: Accelerating therapeutic and diagnostics development

The AMR cross-council initiative has launched a new call under theme  2 –  “Accelerating therapeutic and diagnostic development”.

MRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, and ESRC are supporting this call and the MRC is managing it on behalf of the funding partners.

The focus of the call is to:

  • Refresh the pipeline for human and animal antibiotics;
  • Develop new non-drug based treatments for bacterial infections (vaccines, immunotherapies, probiotics, prebiotics, phages, amongst others);
  • Improve the efficacy of existing drugs through effective dosing strategies to minimise development of resistance and/or develop more targeted delivery methods;
  • Accelerate the scale-up and manufacture of novel antibiotics and vaccines;
  • Underpin the development of rapid, point of care diagnostics to enable the most appropriate therapy/intervention to be chosen;
  • Develop innovative diagnostics data linkages for community settings to monitor spread; and
  • Consider the real world issues that will affect the development and utilisation of new treatments and diagnostics

Partnership between industry and academia is actively encouraged under this initiative.

The call has two funding modes:

  • Collaborative grants – ~£3m each for 4-5 years, multidisciplinary in nature across more than one research organisation
  • Innovative grants – ~£200k each over 12-24 months, highly innovative, high risk/high gain

Deadline for submission is 4 June 2015.

Please circulate widely to your communities and direct them to this webpage:

http://www.mrc.ac.uk/funding/browse/tackling-amr-theme-2-accelerating-therapeutic-and-diagnostics-development/

For queries:

MRC: Ghada Zoubiane / Ruth Kelly amr@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk

BBSRC: Sian Rowland: amr@bbsrc.ac.uk

EPSRC: Victoria Marlow: healthcare@epsrc.ac.uk

ESRC: Naomi Beaumont: Naomi.Beaumont@esrc.ac.uk


Record Number of Applications Received

Our call has now closed and we have received and acknowledged a record number of applications – 83 in total! Thank you for applying.

For information, the board will be meeting on 29th and 30th April to discuss applications and award successful ones.

If you have any queries in the mean time, please contact us nrn@cardiff.ac.uk

 


Life Sciences Bridging Fund Scientific Advisory Board: Appointment of Chair and Members

The new £3m life sciences bridging fund, established in March 2015, will create commercial opportunities from Welsh life sciences research projects, stimulating further growth in the sector. The fund will be managed by the Life Sciences Hub Wales and will support up to 25 research projects over 3 years.
The Scientific Advisory Board will be responsible for the administration, governance, management and delivery of the fund and will report to the Life Sciences Hub Board who will be responsible for providing oversight of the fund.

Welsh Government, on behalf of the Life Sciences Hub Wales, is seeking applicants with an interest in, knowledge and experience of the life sciences sector, in particular research and commercialisation; technology transfer, academia and commercial exploitation of life sciences research.

Background to the Fund:
http://gov.wales/newsroom/businessandeconomy/2015/9877571/?status=closed&lang=en

Closing date: 15 April 2015

Further details and application information can be found at: http://www.lifescienceshubwales.com/news/life-sciences-bridging-fund-scientific-advisory-board-appointment-of-members/


GSK Discovery Fast Track Challenge

GSK have recently launched their Discovery Fast Track Challenge.  This scheme is an opportunity for academic researchers to work with GSK scientists on the development of new medicines.   It is aimed at academics that have identified a drug development concept and wish to work with GSK to translate novel science into new medicines.

The Discovery Fast Track Challenge is looking for proposals that are able to address the following questions:

Do you have a clear therapeutic hypothesis?

GSK are looking for a coherent ad supportable hypothesis for the development of a medicine that would provide therapeutic benefits to particular groups of patients.

Do you have a defined target and/or pathway?

You should have identified a specific drug target linked to disease and can propose ways of modulating this to provide a effective and safe therapy

Do you have enabling expertise?

The Discover Fast Track Challenge is a partnership.  You should have generated data which provides proof of concept for your proposal and, ideally, already developed key reagents and assays.

The deadline for submission of a brief non-confidential summary is the 24th of April 2015.  Please note that you should contact your relevant Technology Transfer Office in the first instance who will be able to support you with the application process.

GSK_DiscoveryFastTrack_Flyer    GSK_DiscoveryFastTrack_PI_Tips

www.openinnovation.gsk.com


China-United Kingdom Cancer (CUKC) Conference 2015

Venue: National Museum Cardiff, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NP
Date: Friday 17th and Saturday 18th July 2015

The 4th China-United Kingdom Cancer (CUKC) Conference is being held on the 17th – 18th July 2015 at the National Museum, Cardiff. The Conference is hosted by Cardiff University, together with our partners and co-organisers, Peking University, Capital Medical University and Yiling Group.

The Conference will bring together elite speakers and distinguished representatives from China and the UK who will share their state of the art knowledge and experience in clinical, translational and basic research in Cancer. The conference will also serve as a platform to explore and discuss collaborative opportunities. Previous Conference details can be found here and a draft Programme is available here

To register your attendance, please complete and return the Conference Registration Form and Abstract Template by Monday 2nd March 2015 to cardiffchina@cardiff.ac.uk. Both forms, along with Fee information, are available on our website: http://cukc.org.uk/how-to-register/. Accepted abstracts will be published in a SCI listed journal.

If you would be interested in Sponsoring the Conference, opportunities and package information is available here http://cukc.org.uk/sponsors/

Should you require any further information, please contact: cardiffchina@cardiff.ac.uk


Life Science Bridging Fund

Life Sciences Bridging Fund

The Life Science Research Network Wales are pleased to announce that they are working with the Welsh Government on establishing a Proof-of-Concept fund for the Life Sciences.  The Welsh Government has identified the Life Sciences as a key economic sector and have already made a number of other major investments such as establishing the Life Sciences Hub Wales and the Wales Life Sciences (Arthurian) Investment Fund.  To further support these initiatives the Welsh Government has just agreed to consider “in principle” an additional sum for a Bridging fund in the Life Sciences, to bridge the gap between basic sciences and commercialisation.  Part of this will involve matched funding with the Private Sector, which is a model already strongly exemplified by the Life Science Research Network Wales and Arthurian. We are hopeful that the model will be operational by the start of fiscal year 2015/16.

This fund will enable researchers to develop the commercial potential of their research thus generating significant economic, social and health benefits for the people of Wales.  The fund will be open to researchers from across Wales and support a broad range of life science areas including:

  • Drug Development
  • Diagnostics
  • Medical devices

Projects will be awarded via open competition and assessed on research excellence and commercial potential.   Projects will be assessed by an independent panel chaired by Dr David Owen OBE, who was previously responsible for establishing the MRC’s independent technology transfer arm – MRC Technology.

The fund represents a major opportunity for members of the Life Science Research Network to develop the commercial potential of their research proposals.

Further details will be available on the Life Science Research Network’s website shortly.