Seeking novel research and assets addressing the causes and treatment of rare diseases

This campaign is now closed for submissions.

Through this campaign, which was open to submissions from Tuesday 30th May to Tuesday 11th July, we invited all academic researchers and technology transfer offices to share with us non-confidential details of novel rare disease research, technologies and assets. 

As part of this Global Challenge, we are working with four industry partners who are looking to leverage new diagnostic and therapeutic breakthroughs to treat and identify rare diseases – Sanofi, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, Ultragenyx, and General Inception. R&D leads at each of these companies have shared with us their R&D pipeline priorities and academic partnering requirements through one-page interest documents (links below) and will be presenting them in more detail through a series of virtual partnering events.

Our ultimate aim for this campaign is to start valuable new conversations between teams in academia and industry to support the development of new, improved, and more effective healthcare interventions that work towards faster diagnoses, better treatment, and greater quality of life for rare disease patients across the globe. 

Content navigation:

• How does the campaign work?
• Who should respond to the campaign?
• What should you submit?
• How to submit your research, technologies or assets
• Other important details

If you have questions or want to better understand how you can get involved, send a message to submissions@in-part.co.uk and 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 teams in academia and industry based on the alignment of interests and priorities. We do the matchmaking, set up the conversations, and then leave the project teams to explore and establish collaborations where suitable. We don’t take success fees from successful partnerships with these campaigns or through our platforms. 

Submissions to the campaign will be proactively disseminated to industry teams with aligned interests from July 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 30th May, and the deadline for submissions is Tuesday 11th July.

Who should respond to the campaign?

We want to hear from any researchers working on breakthroughs that can be developed or commercialised by an industry partner to improve the diagnosis or treatment of a rare genetic disease. We also want to hear from university technology transfer and research commercialisation professionals that can provide non-confidential details of projects, technologies, or assets at their institute.

Our Global Challenge campaigns are not limited 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.

What should you submit?

The scope of this campaign has been informed by industry stakeholders within our rare disease network. The R&D and external innovation priorities of each of our industry partners can be found through the following links:

• Sanofi
• Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation
• Ultragenyx
• General Inception

For the first time, this Global Challenge campaign will also include a non-profit campaign partner, RARE-X/Global Genes. 

The scope of the opportunities we’re seeking as part of this campaign include, but are not limited to: therapeutics such as cell therapy, gene therapy, small molecule drugs, and diagnostic tools. 

A full breakdown of the scope of research, technologies and assets sought can be found in the submission form.

In addition to our industry campaign partners, we also have an extended network of 2000+ pharmaceutical and biotech companies with active pipelines seeking new innovation from academia. We will be disseminating the campaign submissions to industry teams across this network whose interests cover every angle of rare disease R&D. Some of these companies have also shared their specific research priorities:

• Biogen
• Chiesi

We are also partnering with other stakeholders in the research ecosystem to support the delivery and drive success through the campaign

• ASTP
• PraxisAuril
• BIA
• Labiotech
• Healx 

How to submit your research, technologies, or assets:

If you are an academic researcher, or you work in a technology transfer office: 

Use our submissions form to outline a short non-confidential summary of your project, research, technology, or asset 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).

Alternatively, if your technology transfer office has an active IN-PART subscription, you can also simply contact your account manager to ask about the best way to submit new and nominate existing technologies.

Your technologies, including any updates, will then be included in our industry dissemination programme, open research directory, white paper, and associated campaign communications.

For more information on our Global Challenges campaigns visit our FAQs page. 

If you have questions or want to know more about this campaign, please share your queries to submissions@in-part.co.uk and a member of our team will get back to you promptly.

Other important details:

• Information about your project or technology will be proactively 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 in-house team of STEM experts will be provided where required to review and quality-control your 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 rare disease innovations, please share this submission form with relevant colleagues or teams.
• A maximum of 6 submissions can be made per institute (for institutes without a subscription) 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.

BIA’s Rare Disease Industry Group (RDIG) represents a group of innovative bioscience companies that specialise in treatments for rare and ultra-rare diseases. Learn more.

Healx is a global AI-powered techbio company redesigning drug discovery to develop treatments for rare diseases at scale. 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 research and assets addressing the causes and treatment of rare diseases’

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.

Discover, a bespoke scouting service for open innovation.

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.