It is a pleasure to begin this month’s blog with the news that The Faculty have been awarded two MRC grants that support enterprise development. Â
This first is The Confidence in Concept award. This is money given “to accelerate the transition from discovery science to the early stages of therapeutic/biomarker development.” Thanks to all those who sent in a vignette of their research to support this application. Full details of strategic themes and how to apply for these funds will be announced soon.
Hand in hand with the CIC award is the Proximity to Discovery award. This award will enable Future Worlds to support projects with health related themes. A number of faculty members have already engaged with this project which is based on the Stanford University model of enterprise. For more information visit Future Worlds.
All in all these awards give The Faculty new enterprise opportunities to develop projects and translate basic research findings towards the clinic.
Already this year The Faculty have hosted Sanofi and also the venture capitalist firm, The IP group. Both companies had one-to-one sessions with individual PIs from around the University. These sessions gave the PIs a commercial opinion on their work, with the potential for future development within the commercial sector.  Later this year we are having a visit from GSK Immunology. People interested in engaging with GSK should contact Brigitte Lavoie (Research & Information Services) for details.
On a separate note, The Faculty’s Enterprise Units form a cornerstone of our Enterprise agenda. The work of the Clinical Informatics Research Unit “EDGE” and The Wessex Institute is not always immediately visible to the remainder of The Faculty. However The Wessex Institute has an important role in public engagement and is managing the the recently launched NIHR research “#twosides campaign”, and if you want to find out more about EDGE, it is hosting a two day conference at the end of March at The Grand Harbour Hotel. Good luck to the EDGE team in this endeavour.
Professor Salim Khakoo
Professor of Hepatology
Associate Dean (Enterprise) Director of Biomedical Research (IFLS)