IN-PART’s “Global Challenge” campaigns were born out of the response to COVID-19 in March 2020. As the impacts of the pandemic began to be felt, IN-PART recognized its position at the interface of the industry and academia and its responsibility to leverage its networks to find solutions to the ongoing crisis. Through online matchmaking platforms, IN-PART simplifies the initial connection between academia and industry to bring academia’s innovations out of the lab and into the world, whether new drugs , health technologies or sustainable energy systems.

IN-PART’s first Global Challenge campaign, then called “Open Call for Research”, aimed to mobilize the academic and industrial community to come together around COVID-19 and provide a clear and accelerated path to that new innovations are quickly commercialized and deployed . Reallocating the capacity of its platforms and teams, IN-PART proactively disseminated new research on COVID-19 to companies in its global industrial network, many of which had quickly shifted their R&D priorities towards combating the virus. pandemic.

As a result of this campaign, which received 174 new research projects and initiated more than a hundred conversations between teams from industry and academia, IN-PART has taken this model forward as a way to address some of today’s biggest challenges, including plastic sustainability, and more recently water pollution. The idea is to capture the momentum of the pandemic response and the egalitarian approaches taken by industry and academia in an effort to commercialize solutions that address other pressing health and environmental issues.

How do Global Challenge campaigns work?

Each Global Challenge campaign runs over an initial six-week period, during which IN-PART invites the academic and research commercialization community to submit a brief summary of any research, technology or innovation addressing the issue in question.

During this period and for a limited time thereafter, in-house STEM experts post each submission on IN-PART’s Connect matchmaking platform and distribute them to relevant people in its global network of R&D professionals. When a project matches a company’s technical requirements, the IN-PART team then sets up an introduction so that a conversation can continue to explore potential collaborations.

During the third Global Challenge campaign, which aimed to address the sustainability of plastics, polymers and PLFs, 64 conversations were initiated, 81% of which were international. 30 research institutes around the world have become involved in the campaign, including Emory University, University College London and the University of Leipzig, thanks to the commitment of industry partners Pepsico, Avient and one.five.

Have your say on future global challenges

When identifying topics for Global Challenge campaigns, IN-PART seeks to find a problem with widespread impact and a clear industry demand to develop solutions.

IN-PART uses data sources, such as industry survey responses, to build consensus on what the next campaign should address. This fall, IN-PART plans to launch a campaign to address a major challenge in global healthcare, with more life science-based campaigns planned for next year.

That’s why IN-PART has compiled a short survey to gather feedback from biotech and pharma industry leaders. If you work in R&D, business development or open innovation, please take 10 minutes out of your day to complete this survey and help shape the work we do to solve pressing issues in the biopharmaceutical industry.

All who respond will gain access to Labiotech’s 2022 Cell Therapy Industry Report and be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 Amazon voucher (or currency equivalent). The survey was launched on Monday June 20 and will end on Friday July 8.

Take me to the survey!