Institutional Translational Partnership Award: Thailand Major Overseas Programme
Wellcome Trust
University of Oxford
MORU iTP has successfully demonstrated rapid growth in its research portfolio, which we will be continuing. So far we have been particularly successful with encouraging projects at earlier stages of their translational pathways, therefore we now have a number of projects which are on the middle of translational research pipeline (TRL 4-7). These projects require the final push into the late stages of the translation research pipeline, where further support is needed either in the form of further funding or a cooperates partnership. In order to ensure that the transition of the projects can be run smoothly we are creating a dedicated panel of experts to help develop their implementation strategy (Business model development, partner finding), identify pathways to impact, and customize support based on specific project fields. Thus, the exit strategy is well defined. This will allow for the continuous flow of the projects through the iTP portfolio. With a large number of portfolio projects focusing on diagnostic tests, reflective of MORU’s research landscape more generally, we have singled out this area as one that would benefit from more extensive supportive infrastructure to support diagnostic tools development. These renewal plans reflect the accomplishment of the MORU’s iTP programme as we had set out in our primary aims which is to ensure that the world class global health research being done in MORU and at the Faculty of Tropical Medicine (FTM) in Mahidol University is translated into tangible positive impact. We work towards this overarching goal by identifying and helping develop projects and ideas with high impact potential, by guiding and supporting their progress through translational pipelines.
Infrastructure