Wellcome Trust Institutional Translational Partnership Award (iTPA) : ‘Access to Expertise’ Fund

The University of Manchester (UoM) has been awarded Wellcome Trust (WT) funding to undertake a pilot scheme aimed at building better links between science, technology and innovation by removing barriers between disciplines and making it easier to take the first translational step.

As a part of our proposal to use the funds of the WT Institutional Translational Partnership Award (iTPA), we have allocated £250,000 over 2 years (£125,000 pa) to enable investigators to access appropriate expertise to help unblock specific bottlenecks associated with translational research and shift their research to the next phase of translation.

The ‘Access to Expertise’ fund aims to enable:

• Access to appropriate technical expertise; for example,
  • Second bioinformatics/biostatistics expertise or time to maximally capitalise on large data sets
  • Buy out dedicated time for trials physicians and nurses to interact fully with academics, and for academics to spend time in a clinical setting
• Access to complex and specific regulatory advice
• Recruitment of external mentors/entrepreneurs in residence to guide academics in engaging with translational research with tailored routes to clinic/market
• Secondment in a clinical or industrial environment
• Analysis of market/patient need and competitive landscapes

Six awards up to the value of £25,000 will be allocated on a competitive basis, to fund projects of between 6-12 months duration.

Full details of the application process will be circulated in the call on Tuesday 29^th May.

^{Applications are open to the Faculties of Humanities, Science and Engineering, and Biology, Medicine and Health, and research active partner NHS Trust clinicians.}