Psychiatry Consortium second call for proposals
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An overview of scope and eligibility for funding, including lessons learnt from the first call - with a chance to ask questions. Presented by Laura Ajram on 4th May 2020.
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Psychiatry Consortium second call for proposals
- 2. Webinar, 4th of May 2020 Psychiatry Consortium second call for proposals: An overview of scope and eligibility for funding, including lessons learnt from the first call - with a chance to ask questions
- 3. What we will cover • Background on Psychiatry Consortium Challenges, opportunities and aims • The application process Key eligibility and project criteria Scope • What does the Psychiatry Consortium offer? • What makes a strong application? • Q&As We will NOT cover: The review process Intellectual Property Funding T&Cs
- 4. Background
- 5. Challenge Opportunity Aim • Lack of novel, validated drug targets • Challenging pre-clinical validation • Reduced investment in drug discovery & development for psychiatry Accelerating innovative drug discovery: • Increased understanding of biology • Emerging genetic data • Renewed Pharma interest • Robustly validate new therapeutic targets for psychiatric diseases • Provide opportunities for funding, collaboration and industry know-how
- 8. The funding cycle: Calls for proposals from the research community Proposal assessment & expression of interest from the consortium members Funding awarded and project delivery through collaboration with CROs Project development & approval for funding 1 2 4 3 Call open NOW Deadline for applications: 12th June Next call: October 2020 Key stages 1. Initial scope assessment 2. Expression of interest 3. Project development 4. Project approval
- 9. Key eligibility Applicant: • Universities and other research institutes worldwide • Applications from small companies (micro and medium) may also be considered, as standalone or in collaboration with an academic institution or research institute • Multi-party collaborative grants will be considered Project: • Expected to last up to 3 years • Total eligible project costs will be between £200,000 and £1,000,000 • Preclinical projects focused on validation of new drug targets
- 10. Scope
- 11. Scope: Disease area The Psychiatry Consortium is focused on the identification & validation of new drug targets to address the unmet therapeutic needs of people with mental health conditions including: OCD PTSD anxiety depression bipolar disorder psychotic disorders stress-related disorders autism spectrum disorders psychiatric symptoms associated with dementia
- 12. Scope: Target • Novel, or ‘not well studied’ • Targets that have not been taken through drug discovery and exploited in the clinic • Some initial studies to link the target to human disease • Evidence of potential translation
- 13. Scope: Study Type • Target identification of new biological targets • Early target validation studies to show target modulation having a therapeutic effect • Identification of target modulation biomarkers relevant to disease • Generation of tools for target validation • E.g. through optimizing existing tool compounds
- 14. We will not fund: • projects focused on well-studied targets and pathways for psychiatry diseases • projects with advanced chemistry e.g. lead/candidate molecules already synthesised and requiring only in vivo PK studies, preclinical proof-of-concept studies or IND- enabling studies • non-pharmacological interventions • purely academic explorations of new animal or cellular models (unless there is a clear drug discovery application) • early target identification studies without a proposed target (i.e. projects that are mostly characterization and/or hypothesis generating studies) • repurposing of existing drugs (unless as a tool for validating new molecular targets) • clinical trials or clinical studies requiring prospective collection of human samples
- 16. We will offer The Psychiatry Consortium will provide the successful applicants access to: drug-discovery expertise drug-discovery capabilities, through specialised Contract Research Organisation (CRO) partners commercial know-how project management resources project funding project development
- 17. Writing a strong application
- 18. Key areas of the application form • Is the project in scope? • Project summary • Project plan • Expertise and Resources – Applicant • Expertise and Resources – Psychiatry Consortium
- 19. Passing the initial scope assessment Is the target novel for the indication? Is the indication a psychiatric disorder, condition or symptom? Is there evidence in humans to link the target to the disorder? Is the study intended to validate the target? Is the study intended to optimise tools for validating a defined target? Is the study intended to identify target modulation biomarkers relevant to disease?
- 20. Project summary: key details target details (anything known) any evidence supporting therapeutic modulation of the target and its relevance to the primary indication indicated evidence to support association of the target with disease Cellular, knockout, GWAS, patient tissue studies, etc
- 21. Outlining a project plan: Key milestones Outputs and deliverables for each milestone Estimated timescales for each milestone Overall project timeline Identify where the PC can support*
- 22. Expertise and resources : Applicant Explain the key expertise your group brings to the project: • Strong target/pathway biology expertise • Key skills • Previous drug discovery expertise Explain the experimental resources you have available: • tool compounds, proteins, cell lines, antibodies, patient samples, in vitro and in vivo target engagement models, relevant disease models and/or biomarkers
- 23. Project funding Drug discovery expertise in vitro biology knowledge high-throughput screening chemical and fragment libraries medicinal chemistry assay development Expertise and resources : Psychiatry Consortium
- 25. Resources Visit our website: www.psychiatryconsortium.org Previous webinars Frequently asked questions Scope assessment checklist
- 26. Resources ‘What we’re looking for’ Terms and Conditions View the application form: ‘Apply now’
- 27. Contact us Queries via email Phone call with Programme Manager Sign up to the Mailing List
- 28. Key dates Call open NOW Deadline for applications: 12th June 2020 Scope assessment: 12th July 2020 Project development: August 2020 Project launch: ~ September 2020
Editor's Notes
- Psychiatric drug discovery is faced with a real challenge – the lack of novel drug targets combined with the challenge of validating them pre-clinically, and the high failure rate in clinical trials have led to a reduced investment in drug discovery and development in the last decade and there have been no new effective types of treatment for over 30 years. The Psychiatry Consortium was established to make the most of the current opportunity that’s presented by our increased understanding of disease biology and emerging genetic data to inform new efforts in drug discovery. As we’ve heard from John – there is still an interest from Pharma which means there are opportunities for re-investment. And as Gerome has demonstrated, work leading academic initiatives such as the PGC are already generating new targets. The Psychiatry Consortium aims to bring these two worlds together to enable the robust validation of therapeutic targets and screening assays, to industry standards. This is a truly collaborative effort, though our funding scheme, we offer funds to support the discovery and development of new drugs, but more over, we facilitate collaboration and access to industry and commercialisation know-how.
- So who are we? The Psychiatry Consortium is a strategic collaboration of 2 leading medical research charities and 6 pharmaceutical companies. The Consortium is managed by the Medicines Discovery Catapult and supported by the Wellcome Trust via a grant which funds our academic outreach work. The consortium acts as a syndicate, whereby the Partners collectively share the funding of, and therefore the risk associated with drug discovery. This is a new model of funding is unlike typical grant funding- here we work with the applicant, provide project management support and access to industry and commercial know-how, and it’s a real collaborative effort between the PI, the pharma partners and our partner CROs to robustly validate targets to industry standards.
- 2-3 times a year we have a call for applications for funding projects. Briefly, we request very high level proposals from the academic community, 2-3 pages to outline the background to the target and any evidence which links the target to the proposed disease in humans. We perform an initial scope assessment to see whether the project meets our criteria (see right hand side) – primarily looking for preclinical projects focused on the validation of novel targets for the treatment of psychiatric conditions, or the psychiatric conditions associated with dementia. Open to If an application is in scope, the Partners decide whether they are interested in pursuing the project. We then proceed to work up a full project proposal and budget with the PI and partner CRO who bring their specific drug development expertise.. If approved, the project is then launched and delivered by the PI, in collaboration with the Partners/CROs. We aim to have 3 funding calls a year and will fund projects of up to £1m in cost and 3 years duration. Our latest call for applications opened earlier this week.