Fund Boosts Life Science Innovation

MedCity has launched a major programme to promote greater collaboration between small life sciences firms across South East England and leading academics at London’s top universities with the aim of increasing innovation and making products commercially viable.

‘Collaborate to Innovate’, a programme worth £1.5 million, will fund up to fifteen projects in areas such as drug discovery, digital health, medical devices and diagnostics. Each project, which will be submitted by the SMEs, will be handed up to £100,000 to fund collaboration with specialist academics to provide research, build knowledge and develop their products.

The programme follows a recommendation made by Sir Andrew Witty in 2013 when he identified the need for the UK culture of invention to successfully translate from the ‘mind to factory’, through greater incentives for universities to partner with innovative, local SMEs in the development and commercialisation of new technologies.

Sarah Haywood, CEO at MedCity said: “Across the South East there are a wealth of ideas and world-leading innovation. From developing artificial intelligence, to cell and gene therapies and using smartphones to assist care delivery, we have some of the smartest health pioneers anywhere. But often innovators need a helping hand to overcome the hurdles of bringing ideas to market. By matching leading academics with ground-breaking SMEs we can help them negotiate those hurdles.”

The Collaborate to Innovate programme is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. Applications from SMEs will opened at the launch event 28 September and will close October 21, 2016. For full details on application submission visit www.mecityhq.com