FLIGHT release resources to support global health innovation

While universities and research institutions are expected to deliver real-world impact, approaches to understanding, benchmarking, and strengthening the systems, culture, and capabilities that enable this have varied significantly, which the Framework for Leveraging Innovation in Global Health Technologies (FLIGHT) programme set out to address.

FLIGHT was a two-year programme funded by Research England through the Connecting Capability Fund, delivered collaboratively by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

The result is the Innovation and Enterprise Framework (IEF) and Commercialisation Maturity Level Index (CMLI), a maturity framework and digital self-assessment tool that helps institutions evaluate and strengthen translational and innovation capability across four levels and 18 indicators, spanning the innovator, the innovation, and the wider institutional ecosystem. We hope it becomes a lasting resource for institutions, researchers, funders, and policymakers across global health and beyond. The white paper sets out the full evidence base and thinking behind the programme.

The FLIGHT White Paper, IEF and CMLI are now live and freely accessible at flight-project.co.uk

Programme partners and acknowledgements:

Thank you to FLIGHT’s programme partners and collaborators in Malawi Liverpool Welcome Programme (MLW), Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS), CDT-Africa, MRC Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Market Access Africa, Nagasaki University, LyvaLabs, Institut Pasteur de Dakar, LifeArc, Unilever, Moderna, iiCON, BioIndustry Association, Cancer Research UK, Addis Ababa University, Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), Innovate UK ICURe Programme, LGC Group, NCUB, NC3Rs, Trinity College Dublin, Trio Medicines, University of Cape Town, University of Liverpool, University of Sussex Innovation and Business Partnerships Team, UNICEF and World Intellectual Property Organization.

Thank you to Metro Dynamics for the white paper development, Be Smart Design for the branding of this paper, and to Recognition Creative for building the digital CMLI tool, and Research England for funding the programme.