Wellcome announced today (4 May) that they will be funding the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute as one of their new Discovery Research Platforms.
Discovery Research Platforms will bring together researchers, teams and networks of collaborators to develop new tools, knowledge and capabilities, with the hope of accelerating progress for the benefit of the wider global research community. Wellcome selected eight platforms to fund a total of £73 million.
Michael Dunn, Director of Discovery Research at Wellcome, said: “Discovery research is essential to advancing our ability to understand and improve health. But in addition to researchers’ bold and imaginative ideas, we know that new tools, methods and capabilities are also needed to unlock new avenues of research that can disrupt and transform the research landscape globally.”
The Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (CSCI), as the Discovery Research Platform for Tissue Scale Biology at the University of Cambridge, will seek to move stem cell biology to the tissue and organ scale of research, creating a new network of local and international researchers to enable strategies that capitalise on new in vitro models to develop better treatments for human patients.
CSCI Director Bertie Göttgens said of the announcement, "I am delighted that Wellcome will support our ambition to build a new discovery research platform to provide international leadership for Tissue Scale Biology. Our vision for this platform resulted from extensive discussions across the wider Cambridge Stem Cell community and the formation of a highly interdisciplinary team connecting the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute with the West Cambridge Engineering/Technology community. The platform also incorporates exciting new training partnerships with Anglia Ruskin University and the Cambridge Academy for Science and Technology, to help us fill critical skills shortages and widen participation across Cambridge."
More information on the Discovery Research Platforms will be released in the coming weeks.