SBRI: Clinical biomarker tools and technologies for dementia

Fund details

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 the 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

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

Specific themes

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 the 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

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

Innovate UK will not fund projects that:

• are for medicine discovery
• are biomarker discovery or validation
• do not show that you have the required expertise to complete work packages to the appropriate time, cost and GxP standards
• do not have appropriate industrial expertise and commercial insight in project design
• focus on disease families outside of dementia
• cannot be undertaken within the working restrictions of any pandemic such as coronavirus (COVID-19)
• duplicate other UK government work you have already been funded to deliver
• duplicate existing innovation, or work in progress by others
• have total eligible project costs over the amount allowed
• have not considered ethical and regulatory implications and requirements
• do not have a dedicated project manager

Eligibility

Projects must:

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

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

Funding

A total of up to £6 million, inclusive of VAT, is allocated to this competition.

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.

Your application must have at least 50% of the contract value attributed directly and exclusively to R&D services, including solution exploration and design. R&D can also include prototyping and field-testing the product or service.