Infection Innovation Consortium lands £6m grant to build permanent R&D hub

What's the deal? The Infection Innovation Consortium (iiCON)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has secured a £6 million grant from UK Research and Innovation's (UKRI)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → Local Innovation Partnership Fund to launch the second phase of its infection research programme. The Liverpool-based consortium is led by the Liverpool School of Tropical MedicineDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and unites academia, industry, and the NHS.

What's the endgame? The funding will support a permanent, globally facing R&D hub in the Liverpool City Region, built around six research platforms. These cover early-stage drug discovery, organoid modelling, rapid clinical trials, nanotherapeutics, antibody humanisation, and molecular diagnostics.

Follow the money. The £6 million grant has already generated £9.25 million in private funding, with a minimum projected £75 million in private investment by 2033.

Why now? iiCON launched in 2020 with an initial £18.6 million from UKRI's Strength in Places Fund and has since grown into a £260 million programme. It has created more than 770 jobs and brought 36 new products to market.

What backs the second phase? Consortium partners include Unilever, Medicines for Malaria VentureDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Infex TherapeuticsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, LYVA LabsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Liverpool University Hospitals GroupDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, LifeArcDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the University of LiverpoolDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Evotec. The £20 million Liverpool Accelerate Laboratory, launched earlier this month, will run the consortium's human organoid infection research.

The signal: At £6 million, the grant sits in the top 4% of UK grant rounds by size, underscoring the scale of public backing for infection R&D. Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram said iiCON has shown "what can happen when you bring together Liverpool's world-class research."

Read more: insidermedia.com

Image credit: Infection Innovation Consortium