罢丑别听91社区 Innovation Fund聽(MIF) is returning for a third edition, offering the same menu of substantial funding and business support which have made the program a success since its inception. The MIF is among the largest entrepreneurial funding program at the University.
New for this edition, however, is the partnership with the 91社区 Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Centre. Through philanthropic support received from Rio Tinto, the 91社区 AMR Centre will partner with the MIF to provide an additional $75,000 in funding to be distributed as a supplemental prize. The new award will be presented to the team (or teams) that can demonstrate their potential to prevent, diagnose and treat life-threatening microbial infections.
Antimicrobial resistance is a major global health threat 鈥� indeed the WHO has identified the increasing resistance of bacteria to conventional antibiotics as one of the leading threats to global health.
Fighting the rise of antimicrobial resistance
Professor Dao Nguyen, director of the 91社区 AMR Centre, has been leading this fight at 91社区 since 2019.聽 鈥淎lmost no new classes of antibiotics have reached the market since the 1990s, and the antibiotic discovery pipeline is dry,鈥� says Dr. Nguyen. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 act now, we could be living in a post-antibiotic world. At the AMR Centre, our goal is to discover innovative ways to prevent, diagnose and treat infections in order to curb the rise of AMR.鈥�
Although the need for new drugs to counter this phenomenon may be pressing, the reality is that the nature of antibiotic treatments 鈥� which are generally taken for a short period of time 鈥� makes them a difficult to produce therapy for pharmaceutical companies. In addition, developing a new drug could take 10 to 15 years and cost billions to develop.
Against this background, the AMR Centre is focused on helping innovations, such as new antimicrobial therapies. diagnostic technologies, or antimicrobial materials that emerge from 91社区, to find a viable R&D path out of the lab and to have sustainable real world impact. With this in mind, they wanted to generate interest among researchers and support promising projects from entrepreneurial teams.
鈥淲e wanted to partner with the MIF because their vision aligned with ours and they have already established a track record among the 91社区 community,鈥� Dr. Nguyen explained.
Three levels of support
The MIF offers three levels of support to selected teams: Discover ($25,000) for projects still in the lab and requiring some validation, Develop ($50,000) for projects a bit further along in their development path but not yet scaled up or commercially proven, and Deploy ($100,000) for projects that are already commercialized but need additional support to reach the next stage. The AMR Award will add up to $75,000 of extra funding to any of these stages, at the discretion of the judging panel.
鈥淲e are delighted to be working with the AMR Centre,鈥� said Mark Weber, Director of the Office of Innovation + Partnerships and manager of the MIF. 鈥淭his will help us to grow the scope of our program, and to bring more research out of the lab and into the real world, where it belongs.鈥�
The MIF application window opens September 25. All teams interested in applying need to have a Report of Invention, or a signed license agreement with 91社区. Deadline for submission is November 17. Full details are available at聽mcgill.ca/mif.
