GOSH Charity and LifeArc® launch £1M grant scheme

Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH Charity) and LifeArc, a leading UK medical research charity, today announce the launch of a new joint funding scheme: ‘Translational Research Accelerator Grants’ open primarily to research active health professionals at GOSH.Much of the research performed at GOSH and its dedicated research partner, the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (ICH) is focused on understanding rare diseases that affect children.

This new grant scheme will support researchers to translate their findings into practical benefits for patients by delivering new therapeutics or diagnostics. A total fund of £1 million is available and is expected to support several grants, each lasting up to three years. Collaborations with industry and other academic partners will also be encouraged. Funded projects will address a rare disease medical need, have a strong scientific rationale, credible delivery plan and have the potential to deliver clinical impact for the patient population at GOSH.

GOSH Charity and LifeArc will run workshops to provide further information and to assist candidates with their applications. The first workshop will be held in February 2019.

Find out more about the Translational Research Accelerator Grants and the application process.

Welcoming the scheme Dr Catriona Crombie, Philanthropic Fund manager, LifeArc, said; “LifeArc’s main goal is to move innovative life science research further along its development path towards the patients who so desperately need effective treatments. LifeArc’s philanthropic activity has a particular focus on rare diseases. GOSH, with its unique patient population, wealth of expertise and aligned goals, is our ideal partner for this project.”

Speaking about the partnership, Dr Kiki Syrad, Director of Grants and Impact at GOSH Charity has said; “Helping to find new ways of diagnosing, treating and curing rare childhood diseases is something GOSH Charity is committed to. We’re delighted to be able to partner with an organisation like LifeArc, whose goals so closely mirror our own. This exciting joint endeavour will enable us to drive more vital research towards the clinic and the children who need it most.”

LifeArc is a medical research charity with over 25-years’ experience in helping scientists and organisations turn their research into effective diagnostics and treatments. LifeArc collaborates with a wide range of life science charities and other partners. In addition to early stage research funding, LifeArc also offers its partners expertise in; liaison with technology transfer offices, IP protection, diagnostics development, drug discovery, portfolio review, scientific scouting, campaigning, licensing opportunities, drug discovery pipeline, in vitro diagnostics and antibody engineering.

For further information please contact the GOSH-ICH Press Office on 020 7239 3039.

For genuine and urgent out-of-hours queries call switchboard on 020 7405 9200.

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust is the country’s leading centre for treating sick children, with the widest range of specialists under one roof.

With the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, we are the largest centre for paediatric research outside the US and play a key role in training children’s health specialists for the future.

Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity needs to raise money to support the hospital to give children who need help the most the best chance for life. The charity funds patient and family support programmes, provides the latest medical equipment and supports the essential redevelopment of the hospital. It has also launched a five-year strategy to support research into some of the most serious and complex childhood diseases. Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity is the largest dedicated funder of paediatric research in the UK and our work is entirely funded through the generosity of supporter donations.

For more information visit www.gosh.org