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Translational Research Office (TRO)

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Access to Funding and Policy Influence

Through an ongoing relationship with MedCity, UCL TRO has supported translational research initiatives and brough academic communities together to contribute valuable insights and innovations.

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10 February 2022

Unmet Need

Academic input is critical for shaping government’s R&D policies and simultaneously delivering against them. Through our ongoing relationship with MedCity, UCL has supported initiatives to highlight key challenges and opportunities associated with research translation and brought our academic communities together to contribute valuable insights and solutions.

Research Advancement

Efforts around policy development have ranged from the identification and development of the British Library site as part of the Euston Knowledge Quarter (London R&D Demand study, Apr 2016) to MRC and LifeArc launching a funding call to address London’s GMP capacity constraints for Cell and Gene therapy and align it to future academic requirements (Apr 2020). Furthermore, in response to Collaborate to Innovate (C2N), a MedCity funding call, UCL research groups collaborated with five UK SME’s to secure funding, with the B&IG team providing complementary expertise, application advice and project management.

How we helped

The Business & Innovation Group within the TRO has played a pivotal role in supporting UCL with R&D policy advancement. This has included initiatives to identify unmet need and challenges across key research areas, as well as provide thought leadership and continued advocacy for solutions to address these. Regular participation in MedCity’s national and overseas business development endeavours has resulted in number of successful collaborations at UCL, including research collaborations with overseas organisations such as Ono Pharma, Santen and Eisai.

Sustained Engagement

Our strong relationship with Medcity provides a valuable connection within and around the South East Life Science ecosystem. As we continue to identify and link synergies between UCL’s strengths and market needs as well as target our focus on further areas of research such as Diagnostics, we anticipate these efforts will continue to result in deep and effective collaborations and healthcare impact moving forward.