04 Aug 2016
Written by Tamar Ghosh
Tamar leads the Longitude Prize.
Over the last two weeks we have been delivering a series of meetings and events across India to bring awareness to the Longitude Prize Discovery Awards, as the deadline for applications – 26th August – is soon approaching. We tried to see as many of our current registered teams as possible.
We know seed funding is needed by many of the teams, but some are also looking for specific skills and expertise to help them develop their ideas.
The team from the University of Delhi is close to proof of concept on the scientific aspect of their idea, but is looking for an organisation that fabricates small chip micro arrays. Another is looking for engineering and mobile technology support to help apply their idea to be used with a smart phone.
At the same time, we also heard from organisations ready to offer their skills and facilities to help teams. IIT Chennai has offered space in their bio-incubator facility, and others are offering lab space to test out new concepts.
We’re working on new ways to help teams access other collaborators and resources. Watch this space for more information on this in the coming weeks, and please get in touch if you have any suggestions.
£100K of the total Discovery Awards pot is just for teams from India, and is thanks to the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a not-for-profit organisation set up by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) within the Government of India.
We held events in Bangalore, Chennai and Pune working with the British High Commission and Deputy High Commissions. A big thank you to the Venture Centre in Pune, C-Camp in Bangalore and SRM University in Chennai for inviting academia and industry to form our prestigious panels as well as learn about the Prize.
We also held meetings in Chandigarh and Kolkata to speak to students and faculty about their ideas on how to slow antibiotic resistance. Thanks to everyone from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Panjab University, IMTECH, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and individuals from industry for sharing their thoughts with us.
The Discovery Awards are small seed funding grants, available to all individuals and teams registered for the Longitude Prize, and who need a small amount of funding to further develop their ideas to win.
Since we opened the call for applications in May we have seen new teams register to compete from the UK, China, Saudi Arabia and Sweden. There are now 172 registered teams in 34 countries, and we hope this seed funding, and other support we’re offering, will help bring forward many ideas for novel and exciting diagnostics.
We hope that many teams are considering applying for the Discovery Awards, and we look forward to seeing these great ideas in just a couple of weeks.
Congratulations to the winners of the Longitude Prize on AMR, Sysmex Astrego!
