Page 23 - Eclipse - Autumn 2021

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Page 23 - Eclipse - Autumn 2021
P. 23

RESEARCH NEWS



        Combating infectious disease and


        antimicrobial resistance






        London-Liverpool alliance awarded £1.9 million to accelerate solutions to combat
        infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance




               he RVC and its partners in The   With infectious diseases and AMR   ֱ  A programme with bespoke
               Bloomsbury SET programme     now a high priority for global public   workshops, peer-to-peer learning,
               will bring together academic   health, there is an urgent need for both   and business mentoring to support
        Tand commercial sectors to          academic and commercial sectors      product development.
        respond to One Health challenges.   to work together more effectively to   ֱ  A skills programme for academics and
                                            prepare and respond to existing and
        The Bloomsbury SET ֱ a knowledge    emerging challenges.                 other university staff to develop their
        exchange programme led by the                                            understanding of the concepts required
        RVC ֱ has been awarded further      In response to these critical threats,   to commercialise academic research
        funding from Research England,      The Bloomsbury SETֱs new Impact      and work with strategic partners.
        totalling £1.9 million. Beginning in July   Connector programme will work with   ֱ  A series of events and activities
        2021, the year-long project will help   businesses to deliver products including   to support connections between
        commercialise research into infectious   vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics   academics and appropriate
        disease and antimicrobial resistance.  that will benefit both animals and   commercial partners.
                                            humans. Aiming to transform the
        Building on the current work of The   support for commercialisation of   As part of this process, The Bloomsbury
        Bloomsbury SET, this new programme,   research across the partner institutions,   SET will provide small grants to nurture
        entitled ֱThe Bloomsbury SET: A     it will build a collaborative culture across  new collaborations and knowledge
        London-Liverpool alliance to accelerate   geographically-dispersed sites, creating   ecosystems, support the best
        solutions to infectious diseases and   the potential for strong synergies to   technologies to move closer to market,
        antimicrobial resistanceֱ, retains three of   arise from linking the key investments by   and thus help safeguard global health.
        the four original collaborating institutions.
                                            Research England.                   Professor Richard Bomphrey, Interim
        Joining the RVC, the London School of                                   Vice-Principal for Research at the RVC,
        Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM),   Impact Connector will target colleagues   said: ֱThere has never been a better
        and The School of Oriental and      across the consortium who are at an   time to bring together an outstanding
        African Studies (SOAS) University of   early stage in their commercialisation   interdisciplinary and inter-sectorial
        London, is a new partner, the Infection   journey, aiming to develop a pipeline   consortium to take on the globally
        Innovation Consortium (iiCON), led   of skilled innovators and support the   important and pressing issues of infectious
        by the Liverpool School of Tropical   most competitive ideas to progress to   disease and antimicrobial resistance.
        Medicine. The programme also works   higher Technology Readiness Levels.   The Bloomsbury SET Impact Connector
        closely with the London International   Throughout the 12-month period, the   programme will support innovators as
        Development Centre (LIDC), a        programme of activities will accelerate   they take promising therapeutics from the
        consortium of seven colleges of the   partnerships, skills training and product   laboratory to communities worldwide.ֱ
        University of London shaping the    development, including:
        future of international development.

        iiCON brings together public and
        private partners in a £170 million
        programme born out of the Liverpool
        City Region. The consortium builds on
        the North Westֱs UK-leading capability
        in infectious diseases R&D. 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 antimicrobial
        resistance (AMR).

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