26 Jul 2021
Programme led by the college awarded cash as part of ongoing efforts to commercialise research and bring products to market to tackle infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
A programme looking to help commercialise research into infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been awarded £1.9 million in additional funding.
The Bloomsbury SET – described as a knowledge exchange programme led by the RVC – has been awarded the cash from Research England.
Building on work already undertaken by The Bloomsbury SET, a new programme called “The Bloomsbury SET: a London-Liverpool alliance to accelerate solutions to infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance” will retain three of the four original institutions in the next stage of a collaborative project.
Joining the RVC, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and SOAS University of London will be new partner the Infection Innovation Consortium (iiCON), led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
The programme also works closely with the London International Development Centre, a consortium of seven colleges of the University of London shaping the future of international development.
iiCON will bring together public and private partners in a £170 million programme, which has been born out of the Liverpool City Region. The consortium builds on the north-west’s capability in infectious diseases research and development. It has been established to fast-track the discovery and development of new antimicrobial products and treatments to reduce the global burden of disease caused by infectious diseases and AMR.
The Bloomsbury SET’s new Impact Connector programme will work with businesses to deliver products including vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics that will benefit animals and humans.
Aiming to transform the support for commercialisation of research across the partner institutions, it will build a collaborative culture across geographically dispersed sites.
Impact Connector will target colleagues across the consortium at an early stage in their work to commercialise products, and aims to develop a pipeline of skilled innovators and support the most competitive ideas to progress.
Across a 12-month period, the programme of activities will include:
Richard Bomphrey, interim vice-principal for research at the RVC, said: “There has never been a better time to bring together an outstanding interdisciplinary and inter-sectorial consortium to take on the globally important and pressing issues of infectious disease and AMR.
“The Bloomsbury SET Impact Connector programme will support innovators as they take promising therapeutics from the laboratory to communities worldwide.”
Janet Hemingway, director of iiCON, said: “Joint innovation and collaboration is critical if we’re to revitalise and innovate the anti-infectives pipeline, and combat the growing global threat of AMR.
“iiCON is delighted to be joining the Bloomsbury SET’s Liverpool-London Alliance and we look forward to working in partnership to support industry, and expedite the discovery and development of innovative new treatments and products to reduce the global burden of infectious diseases.”
