The Proximity to Discovery: Industry Engagement Fund is designed to provide flexible funding for innovative ways to enable the initial development of academic-industry collaborations.
 |
 |
 |
 |
LSTM has again successfully secured institutional funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to fund projects under the Proximity to Discovery Fund (P2D). This year's call is expanded to include the members of the Tropical Infectious Disease Consortium and aims to increase interactions, foster new collaborations, and knowledge exchange between industry and academic researchers in the MRC strategic areas .
Objectives
The Proximity to Discovery: Industry Engagement Fund aligns with CiC to further enable research organisations to establish academic industry relationships. Short term people exchanges between industry and academia are seen as a key way of exchanging skills and knowledge and developing a longer term working relationship. Proximity to Discovery: Industry Engagement Fund can be used for people and knowledge exchange at the very earliest stage of collaboration and may not necessarily be aligned to a specific project objective.
Funding will enable research organisations to be proactive in developing opportunities for collaboration and allow greater flexibility to respond quickly to opportunities when they arise.
Examples of potential uses include:
- People exchange that allows for an exchange of skills or knowledge which will enable new collaborative projects to develop.
- P2D:IEF supports people exchange at all levels but this year the MRC would particularly like to encourage people exchange of post-doctoral staff.
- An additional change this year is P2D funds can be used to support academic and industry costs related to people exchange.
- People exchanges between Technology Transfer Offices in Universities and Business Development teams in industry, where the placement will enhance the understanding of each other’s business model and allow them to better support their organisation to develop medical research collaborations with industrial partners.
- Other creative ways to encourage new collaborations or two-way people exchange to increase the permeability between industry and academia.
- Projects that would enhance academic understanding of industry or vice versa
- Showcases/workshops which enable Universities to develop relationships with potential industry partners