The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is to manage two funding competitions as part of the £21.5m Regenerative Medicine Programme.
Regenerative Medicine Programme: Tools and Technologies will see the TSB, the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and EPSRC invest up to £8m in collaborative research and development projects.
The intention is to establish consortia that address generic challenges in the development of cell-based therapies and will lead to demonstrators that are commercially viable.
The TSB said in a statement that applications must be industrially led and are expected to consist of academic, industrial and end-user collaborators.
Through the Regenerative Medicine Programme: Developing Therapeutics 2 competition, the board is to invest up to £2.5m in commercial research and development projects in the area of regenerative-medicine therapeutics.
This will be aimed at supporting businesses in the pre-clinical, and particularly clinical, development of regenerative-medicine therapeutics. These must be collaborative and led by a business.
The two-stage competitions open on 14 March 2011 and compulsory expressions of interest must be submitted by 20 April 2011. The deadline for receipt of full applications is 20 July 2011.
