At Kidney Research UK we are determined to make research happen faster and make it count for patients sooner.  

Although we are the largest charity dedicated to funding kidney research in the UK, if we are going to end kidney disease, we need to do more to drive discoveries and make sure advances in research rapidly make a difference to people with or at risk of kidney disease. 

To this end, we are starting to think differently and are exploring and developing different funding opportunities for researchers and scientists in addition to our traditional grants rounds. 

Intellectual property and commercialisation 

As part of our alternative funding strategy, we are aiming to help researchers explore the opportunities around two key areas – intellectual property and commercialisation.  

Intellectual property refers to an idea or invention. It is where researchers own or legally protect their intellectual property to prevent other people from using it without consent or exploiting it. 

Commercialisation is the process of bringing new products or services to market. This is a very important step if we want to see more research being translated to the clinic. Commercialisation involves production, distribution, marketing, sales, and customer support which are critical to achieving commercial success with a new product. 

Our current partnerships

We are exploring a range of alternative funding opportunities to generate more investment, accelerate breakthroughs in kidney research and quickly translate them into life-changing advances.  

We plan to develop partnerships and opportunities at each stage of the commercialisation process. Our current partnerships include: 

• Accelerate@Babraham - an initiative that nurtures early-stage bioscience ventures via a five-month programme of support, including £10,000 funding, free lab space, mentoring, business support and personal introductions to an exceptional investor network genuinely interested in funding the science being explored. 
• UK BioIndustry Association (BIA)- The BIA is the trade association for innovative life sciences in the UK. They have a number of programmes to support innovative research and commercialisation including: 
  • BIA PULSE - a three-day leadership and entrepreneurship training programme developed by the BIA and The Francis Crick Institute. 
  • BIA Startup Festival - a new event for emerging companies. This will comprise a day of networking, meetings and educational sessions to learn from peers and established industry experts. 

These methods of alternative funding will help to drive research progress and help to close the gap between making discoveries and meaningful change for patients. 

Find out more

Find out more about how we are accelerating research through alternative funding.