Wellcome Trust to invest £500m in medical innovation

UK charitable foundation the Wellcome Trust has revealed plans to provide up to £500 million ($624 million) to help researchers and organisations turn discoveries and inventions into treatments, products and cures for disease.

According to a statement released by the foundation yesterday, February 2, the funding will be provided over the next five years.

Wellcome’s director of innovation, Stephen Caddick, said: “This new approach recognises the huge complexity of today’s innovation landscape and the key role we can play in supporting scientific discovery in our changing world.”

Later this month, Wellcome will launch an open call for innovator awards—of up to £500,000 each—to finance the development of technologies that have the potential to improve health.

The Wellcome Trust will also contact Wellcome-funded institutions and researchers to find out how it can best support “early translation through pilot and proof-of-concept awards”.

Support will include money along with access to expertise through other Wellcome resources and networks.

Examples include Hilleman Laboratories’ vaccine research and development facility in New Delhi (a joint venture with Merck), as well as the recently announced Wellcome Centres at King’s College London, UCL and Dundee University.

In the first year, most of Wellcome’s support will focus on ideas and solutions involving mental health, neurological disorders and neglected tropical diseases.