Picture here (left to right) David Hughes (PhD Student), Dr Seni Chanapai (Post Doc Researcher) and Geraint Roberts (PhD Student) at the 2nd Annual Drug Discovery Congress 2015 (C) Huw John, Cardiff
Research Impact Awards
The Life Sciences Research Network held its 1st round for applicants interested in a Research Impact Award in 2015 , followed by a 2nd round in 2016, with a 3rd and final round in March 2017.
The Network has funded 15 Research Impact Awards up to a value of £694k cumulatively.
The aim of the Research Impact award is to maximise the commercial, societal or scientific impact of previously funded Research Projects or PhD studentships.
All successful applicants contacted the NRN to check the eligibility of their proposal before submitting an application.
Applicants described what additional research needs to be undertaken and why further support is justified, support was offered at up to £50k per project.
During the application progress the Network identified proposals based on research that had already resulted in scientific outputs such as :
- Number of new collaborations
- Value of grant applications submitted
- Value of grant applications awarded
- Commercial Potential
- Papers
- Patents
- Conference abstracts
- Links with external partners (universities, companies, charities etc)
We are not currently inviting applications to this fund.
Round 3 Funded Impact Awards
Wang, Developing novel SMO inhibitors to target the hedgehog signalling pathway in cancer (Swansea University)
Stanton, Developing HCMV as a vaccine vector (Cardiff University)
Wakeman, Small molecule inhibitors of Brachyury: addressing unmet clinical needs by targeting a sub-type of colorectal cancer with particularly poor patient-prognosis (Bangor University)
Brancale, Small molecules inhibitors of CtIP to sensitise cancer cells to therapy (Cardiff University)
Rodrigues, Development of novel GATA-2-specific inhibitors to target leukaemia stem cells (LSCs) in acute myeloid leukaemia (Cardiff University)
Godkin, Identifying biomarkers to predict response to immunotherapies (Cardiff University)
Round 2 Funded Impact Awards
The Network has recently funded 4 Research Impact Awards. These include (PI and title):
Dr Gonzalez, ADC targets from in-silico high-throughput screening identification into target validation (Swansea University)
Dr Parker, Evaluation of folate receptor α (FRα) binding oligopeptides for targeted gene and drug delivery (Cardiff University)
Dr Patel, Evaluation of Novel CD200:CD200R Blockade Cancer Immunotherapy (Cardiff University)
Dr Francis, Targeted metabolic inhibition of T-lymphocytes: directing immunity during human disease (Swansea University)
Round 1 Funded Impact Awards
The Network funded 5 Research Impact Awards in Round 1. These include (PI and title):
Dr Gwenin, The use of 3D culture to test the efficacy of a novel enzyme for cancer prodrug therapy (Bangor University)
Prof McGuigan, Improved Fingolimods for multiple sclerosis (Cardiff University)
Dr Westwell, Discovery of novel site-specific FAK inhibitors for potential treatment of metastatic breast cancer (Cardiff University)
Dr Huws, Characterisation of novel antimicrobial peptides from the rumen eukaryotome (Aberystwyth University)
Dr Brancale, (Cardiff University)
