SBRI: Clinical biomarker tools and technologies for dementia

To lead a project, you can:

• be an organisation of any size
• work alone or with others from business, research organisations, research and technology organisations or the third sector as subcontractors

Projects must:

• start on 1 December 2023
• end by 30 November 2024
• last between 6 months and 12 months
• have a dedicated project manager

The feasibility study R&D contracts will range from £100,000 up to £1 million, inclusive of VAT, for each project for up to 12 months. We expect to fund up to 10 projects.

The aim of the competition is to accelerate innovations in dementia biomarker detection to transform the clinical development of precision therapies. These technologies will enable the discovery, validation and implementation of a suite of decision-enabling biomarkers. Your project can involve exemplar biomarkers that can be adapted towards a broader range of clinically actionable dementia markers.

This will be achieved by the development of or repurposing of technologies that will enable the robust detection of emerging dementia clinical biomarkers.

Your project must:

• improve the sensitive detection of neurodegeneration, inflammation or vascular biomarkers associated with dementia
• advance the development of a novel biomarker platform or repurposed technology towards dementia indications
• describe how the technological solution would be implemented, including consideration of dementia patients, their carers and infrastructure and healthcare requirements
• consider diversity of patients to provide an accessible, equitable solution
• describe a credible and practical route to market, including manufacturing, health economic and regulatory considerations
• have a dedicated project manager

We are especially interested in technologies that enable detection during early stage of the disease.

Contracts will be given to successful applicants.

You must demonstrate a credible and practical route to market, so your application must include a plan to commercialise your results.

We will not fund projects that:

• are for medicines discovery
• are biomarker discovery or validation
• focus on disease families outside of dementia
• have not considered ethical and regulatory implications and requirements

Your project can focus on one or more of the following:

• technologies to subtype and stratify dementia patient cohorts
• technologies to measure early-stage trial endpoints in dementia clinical trials
• technologies to predict efficacy of emerging therapies currently in the drug discovery and clinical pipeline
• technologies for longitudinal monitoring of treatment outcomes in dementia
• repurposing of technologies that will enable the robust detection of emerging dementia clinical biomarkers

We are particularly looking for minimally invasive wet biomarker solutions including, but not limited to, blood, saliva, urine or breath sampling.

Technologies applying cerebrospinal fluid, neuroimaging or digital tools that augment, integrate and support clinical biomarker decision support can be included as part of your project.

Innovate UK will hold an online briefing on Tuesday 25th July at 11am: click here to register for a place.

If you would like to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK KTN’s Health team.