South Africa-UK: Collaborative Research & Development Programme in Precision Medicine 2017

Deadline: 10 May 2017

The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and Innovate UK with support from the Newton Fund, are seeking applications for its program “Precision Medicine 2017” with an aim to stimulate the development of new affordable gene based diagnostics for specific non-communicable disease that take into account the wide genetic variance of the South African population.

Program Objectives

nurturing new South Africa-UK partnerships which focus on industrial outcomes
accelerating the commercialisation of R&D that will benefit South Africa (and other countries including the UK), with preference given to small and medium-sized enterprises, and on high impact projects which can show near-term results
fostering the identification of new public policies that will correct market failures, to support innovation in both countries
strengthening overall bilateral relations

Funding Information

The projects should range in size from total costs of £300,000 to £500,000. Projects should last up to 36 months.

Program Challenges

Projects should put forward precision medicine solutions addressing one or more of the following challenges:

diabetes
cardiovascular disease
cancer
child mortality

Eligibility Criteria

Project composition
- Any team proposing an R&D project that addresses the requirements detailed below is eligible to apply to this competition.
- A South African Project Lead (SAPL), responsible for the South African application submission, leading the South African part of the project and communicating with the UK Project Lead. This can be either a South African company or a South African researcher.
- A UK registered company Project Lead (UKPL), responsible for the UK application submission, leading the UK side of the project and communicating with the South African Project Lead.
- A joint collaborative application is expected from each consortium per project.
Eligible South African applicants are:
- South African companies owned by a South African of any size, registered, based and operating in South Africa. Please note: private large companies are not eligible for funding under this competition.
- South African researchers based in public or private organisations/universitiy
Eligible UK applicants are:
- UK companies of any size, registered, based and operating in the UK.
- Academic institutions, other research organisations, public sector bodies and charities undertaking research activity in the UK are also eligible to participate as per Innovate UK’s normal funding rules but cannot lead the UK side of the project.
- Applications must be business-led on the UK side.