Rosalind Franklin Institute to increase support for innovators
The Franklin’s mission is dedicated to developing disruptive new technologies to tackle major challenges in life sciences, better ensuring UK pandemic preparedness and accelerating the discovery of new treatments for chronic diseases affecting millions of people around the world, such as dementia.
Since its establishment in 2018, the Franklin has delivered novel discovery across its research portfolio. With this foundation in place, the Franklin has become better positioned to translate discovery into innovation for real-world benefit.
Professor Paul Matthews, Director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, said, “Now is the right time for the Franklin to build on the creativity and expertise of its scientists, translating their discoveries to invent methods, tools and products that can be scaled through commercial partnerships and spin outs to bring the benefits of its science to people who need them.”
Supporting the Franklin’s ambition to turn discovery into impact, the Translation and Enterprise Advisory Board (TEAB) will play a central role in guiding invention and translation. TEAB will be chaired by Jo Pisani, a national leader in science entrepreneurship with 30 years in industry and consulting, including leading PwC’s UK Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences practice. She is on the board of translational science funders and delivery organisations including LifeArc, UK Dementia Research Institute and Beacon for Rare Diseases (FindACure), and chairs both the MedCity Advisory Board and Birmingham’s Precision Health Technology Accelerator.
Jo is enthusiastic about the work of the Franklin and leading TEAB. She has exciting ideas about how to help enhance its training in entrepreneurship and commercialisation skills, recognise potentially valuable invention as discoveries emerge, and support the development of partnerships to put them on sustainable paths towards becoming products.
“The Franklin has a rich portfolio of methods and tools. Exciting and novel discoveries are being made. There is a tremendous opportunity to tailor these to the needs of industry and biotech to speed and de-risk new therapeutics discovery. Accelerated translation of Franklin science promises to add valuable differentiators to the UK therapeutics ecosystem.”
Over the coming year, Jo will recruit other leaders from the biotech and VC world to TEAB. The Board then will begin supporting the Franklin’s researchers by holding entrepreneur clinics and coaching sessions. In doing this, TEAB will both foster interest in translation and develop the skills needed for this to be successful. TEAB will lead also in helping to embed a framework for critical self-evaluation of new ideas:
- Is the idea strong and differentiated, with a defined place or potential application in the marketplace?
- Is there a capable team ready to move the idea forward?
- Is there a clear business plan outlining required funding, timing, and development steps?
Jo believes that the success of the TEAB will be evident if Franklin researchers begin to feel more confident in identifying ideas with translational potential: “I want them to feel comfortable coming to the board and saying – I think we have something here!”