First strategic highlight for the Translation Fund focuses on ‘restoring the body’
13 September 2012
The global population is rapidly expanding and people expect to lead longer and healthier lives, but their ageing bodies are continuing to suffer from wear and tear. At the same time, in part because of increased life expectancies, the demand for donor organs exceeds supply.
With few alternatives to transplants currently available, this shortage presents a clear unmet medical need worldwide. 'Restoring the body' has been selected as a strategic highlight in response to this need, with a view to attracting ground-breaking proposals in biomedicine that seek to restore function to the body and enable people to lead full and independent lives.
Ted Bianco, Director of Technology Transfer at the Wellcome Trust, said: "We saluted the resilience of the human spirit as we watched in awe the achievements of the competitors in the London Paralympics, but most of us need more of a hand to overcome the limitations that accident and ageing can bring. Now is the turn of science and technology to awe us with their ability to find elegant solutions to improve quality of life by 'restoring the body'."
The new Translation Fund represents a merger of budgets from the previous Translation Awards and Strategic Awards to create a more flexible approach to funding translational research that will better facilitate innovative research and development. The aim is to support the brightest minds through ambitious awards and to accelerate new product development.
The Wellcome Trust is seeking applications from academic groups, companies and not-for-profit organisations worldwide. Proposals must have translational outcomes and should include clear and credible strategies for adopting the research into clinical practice or public health.
Prospective applicants should contact the Technology Transfer team to discuss the suitability of their product development concept. Suitable proposals will be taken forward for review by the funding committee as preliminary applications and, if successful, as full applications.
The Translation Fund complements the Trust's existing portfolio of translational research schemes, namely Seeding Drug Discovery, the Health Innovation Challenge Fund, the Pathfinder Awards and the R&D for Affordable Healthcare in India initiative.
Image: ‘Swine Flu’, glass sculpture, 2011. Credit: Luke Jerram.
