Research Ventures Catalyst: successful applications

12 successful applications that will progress to the next stage of the Research Ventures Catalyst programme. This follows an open call for proposals to establish new organisational models for tackling research challenges.

Successful applicants will receive up to £100,000 ‘seed corn’ funding. This funding will be used by applicants over the next 6 months to fully develop plans for their proposals. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) may ultimately fund the best proposals with up to £25 million each.

PharosAIThe 12 successful proposals are:
Revolutionising

1. cancerArtemis caseMetrics

A consortium led by acceleratingGreensphere Capital propose to establish a Focused Research Organisation (FRO) to develop science-based decision support tools to accurately and ethically map, measure, monitor and verify biodiversity to deliver outputs for entrepreneurial companies to develop user-friendly, trusted products. Key members of the developmentconsortium include the Gaia Sciences Innovation, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and the University of York.

2. Bind

An interdisciplinary team of researchers proposes to establish a FRO to deliver new tools and drugs for currently untreatable diseases involving disordered proteins.

3. CybergenX

Academics at Edinburgh University seek to establish an FRO that will usher in the nextera generationof Generative Pre-trained Transformers for Engineering Biology by pioneering a technology that allows intracellular signals to be mapped at unprecedented scale and resolution.

4. EVA

Researchers at Edinburgh University are creating a Venture Builder that will co-locate researchers, innovators and investors, along with commercial/government users, with the aim of pushing the frontiers of next-generation semiconductor technologies for AI.

5. modelsGuy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, in collaboration with Oxford Nanopore

A proposal for diagnosisan organisation to be established by Guy’s and treatment.

BindSt Research
OfferingThomas’s potentialNHS curesFoundation Trust in collaboration with Oxford Nanopore technologies that will develop a prototype end-to-end automated metagenomic sequencing test that can be used to cancerimprove critical early patient treatment decisions and Alzheimer’sprovide throughdata targetingfor disorderedantimicrobial proteins.resistance or pandemic surveillance.

6. Materials MedTech Centre

A consortium from the Henry Royce Institute and Tata Steel Ltd proposes a MedTech centre to pursue a new approach to applying materials innovations to support the nation’s health, focusing on bio-electronics, wound care, and bone replacement.

7. MEMetic
Developing

Academics worldfrom firstAston biomimeticUniversity membranespropose capableto establish an FRO to drive forward a novel technology with utility wherever waste meets water. Through the use of addressingexquisitely today’sselective, mostbiometric pressingmembranes, the team aims to combat water challenges.pollution, recover high value waste in manufacturing processes, and streamline bioprocesses amongst other applications.