Medical Research Council Proximity to Discovery Industry Engagement Fund
Following the successful implementation of Phase 3, The University of Manchester has been awarded £237,000 from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to deliver Phase 4 of the MRC Proximity to Discovery (P2D) Industry Engagement Fund, running from 1 May 2018 to 30 August 2019.
The fund aims to overcome the bottleneck to the establishment of new collaborations by supporting early interactions and knowledge exchange between industry and academic researchers. Successful proposals will:
- enhance academic understanding of industry or vice versa in order to foster biomedical research collaborations;
- showcase biomedical research to highlight the opportunities it provides for potential industry partners;
- allow an exchange of skills or knowledge to enable development of new collaborative projects.
The competition is structured around two schemes, Relationship Incubator and Industry Secondment, and invites applications from across the biomedical field, including but not limited to:
- therapeutics;
- medical devices;
- diagnostics;
- digital health.
Funds will be provided to facilitate partnerships between industry and academic researchers via the following activities:
Relationship Incubator Scheme
We want to foster new relationships between industry and academic researchers, create opportunities for collaboration and encourage exchange of knowledge and skills.
The scheme aims to overcome the ‘market understanding – innovation awareness’ and relationship barriers by supporting the interactions between academics and industry partners to explore the application and exploitation/translation opportunities for biomedical research. The scheme will also to support academics to develop greater understanding of industrial research priorities and models of engagement, and vice versa.
Get involved
If you have a project that you think may be suitable for our Relationship Incubator Scheme, please contact us for more information.
We can help you to make your application:
- Download our Relationship Incubator Scheme guidance notes (PDF document, 321KB)
Industry Secondment Scheme
One of the best ways to increase the exchange of knowledge is to encourage the exchange of people between universities and external organisations.
We can provide flexible support for secondments between our University and businesses or organisations that focus on the commercial/translational development of specific MRC research outputs. This includes secondments into the University of industry staff, or the secondment of University staff to an industry partner.
Get involved
If you have a project that you think may be suitable for our Industry Secondment Scheme, please contact us for more information.
We can help you to make your application:
- Download our Industry Secondment Scheme guidance notes (PDF document, 327KB)
Find out more
The first call for proposals opens on 1 May 2018, with a closing deadline of 30 June 2018, 12 noon.
The second call for proposals opens on 1 August 2018, with a closing deadline of 30 September 2018, 12 noon.
Where possible you are encouraged to submit your proposal to the first call. Should all the funds be allocated in the first call, a second call for proposals will be cancelled.
For more information about how the MRC P2D Industry Engagement Fund can help industrial partners to access our biomedical research expertise, contact:
Naomi Chandler
Business Engagement Officer
email naomi.chandler@manchester.ac.uk
tel 0161 306 0554