Page 23 - Eclipse - Autumn 2021

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 SET’s 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 resistance’, 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 West’s 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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