Month: July 2019

Imperial Confidence in Concept scheme funds 20 new projects

We are delighted to report the outcome of the seventh Imperial Confidence in Concept (ICiC) competition. The aim of the ICiC scheme is to accelerate the transition from discovery research to translational development projects by supporting preliminary work or feasibility studies to establish the viability of an approach. These awards ‘pump-prime’ the translation of novel therapeutics, devices and diagnostics towards clinical testing.

We had a fund of over £1.4million for the ICiC scheme this year, and this includes contributions from the MRC, NIHR Imperial BRC, Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund, EPSRC Impact Acceleration Accounts, and HEIF funding, as well as support from NIHR BRC at The Royal Marsden and The Institute of Cancer Research.

Professor Roberto Solari chairs our cross-College Panel, which includes Imperial academics from scientific, engineering and medical fields, as well as external industry experts. Over 70 applications were received this year, and the Panel was impressed with the high quality of applications. Proposals covered the full breadth of biomedical translational research across the College, including:

  • ‘Stem cell-derived hepatocytes for high throughput antimalarial drug screening’ (Jake Baum and Wei Cue – Faculty of Natural Sciences & Medicine)
  • ‘A device to prevent pressure ulcers using novel pressure equalisation technology’ (Spyros Masouros and Colin Boyle– Faculty of Engineering)
  • ‘Development of a Food Standards Agency approved Nutritional Milk with a Legume-base for children with severe malnutrition’ (Kath Maitland and Gary Frost – Faculty of Medicine)
  • ‘Novel, low-cost instrumentation for clinical histopathology of kidney disease’ (Paul French, Candice Roufosse, Terence Cook, Christopher Dunsby, and Mark Neil – Faculties of Natural Sciences & Medicine)

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Confidence in Collaboration scheme

London Advanced Therapies is seeking applications for its Confidence in Collaboration scheme, which offers a total of £1.5m funding to stimulate new research collaborations between two or more London academic partners in cell and gene therapy. This is the second of two calls for proposals.

Funding of up to £50K per project will be awarded to provide consumables and/or equipment to pump-prime new, exciting collaborative work that has the potential to go on securing more substantial funding from UKRI, charitable funders and/or Industry.

The London Advance Therapies – Confidence in Collaboration projects will have the following attributes:

  • Supporting new research collaborations in cell and gene therapy between two or more  London Academic Institutions (with the aim of building cross-institutional teams)
  • Applicable to pre-clinical, clinical, manufacturing and underpinning technology research (and other similar areas)
  • Maximum of £50K, normally 12 months duration, supporting pump-priming/pilot research
  • Funding can support directly-incurred costs, including facilities use (but not salaries)
  • Applications must be led by an established academic at one of the London institutions and always involve a PI from  King’s College London, University College London and /or Imperial College
  • Submissions should be co-led by PIs working at two or more London Institutions.

Applications will be assessed by a cross-institutional expert panel.
Expression of Interest should be submitted by email to: advanced.therapies@kcl.ac.uk – contact us with a paragraph describing your project and we will send you an application form.

Deadline for full submission  will be on 12 September 2019please make sure you contact us well in advance with your expression of Interest.