Seeking novel academic research and assets in immuno-oncology to treat solid tumour cancers (Closed: 14th Mar 2023)

Through this Global Challenge campaign, which is open to submissions from the 31st of January 2023 to the 14th of March 2023, we invite academic researchers and technology transfer offices to share with us non-confidential details of any opportunities targeting solid tumour cancers by harnessing the immune system. We are looking to uncover new research, technologies and assets that will lead to the development of new cancer immunotherapies, or improve the efficacy or availability of existing immunotherapies, through collaboration with industry. 

We are working with three industry partners who are actively looking to leverage immuno-oncology innovations to treat cancer – MSD, Tocris Bioscience (a Bio-Techne brand), and Immunitas Therapeutics. R&D leads at each of these companies have shared their pipeline priorities and academic partnering requirements through one-page interest documents (links below) and each of them will be presented them in more detail through a series of online ‘industry partnering events’ (view the recordings of the events here).

With this campaign, our ultimate aim is to start valuable new conversations between teams in academia and industry to support the development and deployment of new, improved and more effective immuno-oncology innovations that ensure greater quality of life for cancer patients across the globe. 

• How does the campaign work?
• Who should respond to the campaign?
• What research should you submit?
• How to submit your research, expertise or technologies
• Further Details

If you have any questions or want to better understand how you can get involved, share your queries to submissions@in-part.co.uk and a member of our Global Challenge team will get back to you promptly.

How does the campaign work?

Submitting research, technologies or assets to the campaign and having them disseminated to industry is free for all TTOs and academics and doesn’t require a subscription to IN-PART.

Our role in the research ecosystem is to simplify the initial connection between academia and industry based on the alignment of interests and priorities. We do the matching, set up the conversations, and then leave the experts to explore and establish collaborations where suitable. We don’t take any success fees from successful partnerships from campaigns or through our platforms.

Submissions to the campaign will be disseminated to industry teams with aligned interests from February 2023 onwards and, based on their performance, will feature in our post-campaign content programme and research trends white paper.

The campaign will be open to submissions from Tuesday 31st January 2023, and the deadline for submissions is Tuesday 14th March 2023.

Who should respond to the campaign?

We want to hear from any researchers who are working on immuno-oncology innovations that can be developed with an industry partner to treat or facilitate the treatment of solid tumours in cancer patients. We also want to hear from university technology transfer and research commercialisation professionals who can provide non-confidential details of suitable projects, technologies or assets at their institute.

Our Global Challenge campaigns are not restricted to universities that have a subscription to IN-PART’s matchmaking platform, Connect. These campaigns help us to raise our profile and to grow our academia-industry networks (into which there is a free entry point for every stakeholder), but our core ambition is to contribute to the research ecosystem and society by leveraging our position between the two worlds and our experience in bringing them together. 

What research should you submit?

This campaign has been informed by leading companies and industry stakeholders whose work focuses on the relationship between the immune system and solid tumour cancers and the resulting development of new medicines and interventions. The R&D and external innovation priorities of each of our industry partners can be found through the following links:

• MSD
• Tocris Bioscience
• Immunitas Therapeutics

The scope of the opportunities we’re seeking as part of this campaign include, but are not limited to; therapeutics such as immune checkpoint inhibitors; CAR-T therapy; monoclonal antibodies; cancer vaccines; and technologies targetting the tumour microenvironment.

A full breakdown of the most pressing research topics we’ve identified to be of priority can be found in the submission form.

In addition to our campaign partners, we also have an extended network of 2,000+ pharmaceutical and biotech companies with active pipelines in the immuno-oncology space. We will be disseminating the campaign submissions to industry teams across this network whose interests cover every angle of solid tumour immunotherapy R&D. Some of these companies have also shared their specific research priorities:

• Servier

How to submit your research, expertise or technologies:

If you are an academic researcher, or you work in a technology transfer office that isn’t subscribed to IN-PART’s matchmaking platform, Connect: 

Outline non-confidential details of your project, research, or technology in the submission form below and submit it by email to submissions@in-part.co.uk (there will be no costs from IN-PART to engage with this campaign at any stage).

If your technology transfer office is subscribed to IN-PART:

Submit new technologies and opportunities directly through your institute’s dashboard:

If your technology transfer office is subscribed to IN-PART and you already have opportunities listed on the platform that fit the criteria of this campaign: 

Contact your institute’s account manager at IN-PART to highlight these for inclusion in our industry dissemination programme, open research directory, white paper, and associated communications around the campaign. Updates to existing technologies will also be distributed to companies with aligned interests.

Other important details:

• Information about your project or technology will be distributed to industry R&D teams with aligned research interests through our online matchmaking platform, Connect.
• Submitting your work does not require a subscription to our platform, there will be no costs from IN-PART at any stage.
• Support from our team of STEM experts will be provided where required to review and quality-control submissions.
• Any information sent to us should be non-confidential.
• If you are aware of academic research or technology transfer taking place at your institute to develop new immuno-oncology innovations, please share this submission form with relevant colleagues or contacts.
• A maximum of 6 submissions can be made per person and we reserve the right to only accept research that is aligned with the aims and themes outlined in the call. 
• For subscribed universities with a submission limit for IN-PART, any new technologies that are submitted to the global challenge will not count towards your submission total. Twelve weeks after the call closes, this exemption will no longer apply and you may be asked to unlist technologies and/or upgrade your submission limit if your current limit is exceeded.
• Universities with relevant technologies already on IN-PART can email their Account Manager to request their inclusion in our open research directory, white paper, and associated communications around the campaign.
• We strongly recommend submitting your research in advance of the campaign deadline to maximise exposure with our industry networks.

Campaign partners

This campaign is being run with support from:

Labiotech.eu is the leading digital media covering the global biotech industry. Over 150,000 monthly visitors use it to keep an eye on the business and innovations in biotechnology. Learn more.

ASTP are Europe’s premier association of knowledge transfer professionals whose work aims to improve the quality of impact that public research has on the economy and society. Learn more.

PraxisAuril are a world-leading professional association for knowledge exchange practitioners, whose network includes 5000+ KE professionals. Learn more.

BIA: The BioIndustry Association (BIA) is the voice of the innovative life sciences and biotech industry, enabling and connecting the UK ecosystem so that businesses can start, grow and deliver world-changing innovation. Learn more.

Written by Anabel Bennett. Edited by Joseph Ferner and Alex Stockham.

Copyrights reserved unless otherwise agreed – IN-PART Publishing Ltd., 2023: ‘Seeking novel academic research and assets in immuno-oncology to treat solid tumour cancers’

About IN-PART:

We believe brilliant connections can solve real-world problems. We match research pioneers from academia with decision-makers in industry sectors striving for a greater positive impact.

Our goal is to enable connections from around the world to match academic research with industry on a level playing field. Through our intelligent, matchmaking platform we showcase leading university innovations and connect academics with an international community of decision-makers in industry, creating meaningful dialogue and partnership.

Connect, a digital partnering platform for university-industry collaboration.

250+ universities and research institutes around the world currently showcase their research and innovation on IN-PART to find new collaboration partners in industry. R&D teams get free access to the platform (create an account here). There are no hidden costs and we don’t claim downstream success fees.

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Through Discover, corporate R&D teams can leverage our extended academic network, which reaches multiple teams across 2,600+ universities and research institutes worldwide. In response to a specific research requirement or challenge, Discover enables R&D teams to identify new opportunities for commercialisation or to solicit proposals for new research. Sign-up for weekly Discover emails.