Biomedical Catalyst: Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (DPFS) outline

DPFS is an ongoing scheme, with outline deadlines every 4 months.

Further details of open and future DPFS deadlines can be found on the submission deadlines page for the scheme.

The DPFS scheme is a key part of our Translational Research Strategy and supports the translation of fundamental discoveries toward benefits to human health. It funds the pre-clinical development and early clinical testing of novel therapeutics, devices and diagnostics, including “repurposing” of existing therapies.

Remit

The scheme supports academically led projects whose goals are to improve prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment of significant health needs, or that focus on developing research tools that increase the efficiency of developing interventions.

Projects supported by the scheme have up to four clearly defined milestones, outcomes and future plans. These help to maximise both the chance of success and the likelihood of the project attracting the downstream funding, from public or private sources, required to meet its clinical and commercial aims. The funding panels assessing the project will, if necessary, help to develop proposals and suggest enhancements.

The following activities are eligible for support:

• Developing candidate therapeutic entities (e.g. drug discovery)
• Pre-clinical testing of novel therapeutic entities
• Early-phase clinical studies of novel therapeutic entities (phases 1 and 2)
• “Repurposing” clinical studies – using existing therapies for new indications
• Developing and testing novel devices
• Developing and testing diagnostics (including biomarker validation)

To find out more, or to apply, visit the call webpage.