The Bloomsbury SET hosted its first virtual conference focused on knowledge exchange and infectious disease during the 22nd to 26th February 2021.

Throughout the week, Bloomsbury SET and wider partners will explore interdisciplinary innovation, research translation, commercialization, impact and connecting capabilities to tackle global health challenges through knowledge exchange. Read more on programme, speakers’ biographies and a blog review of the week produced by Dr Ray Kent.

The programme was designed in collaboration with the Conference Organising Committee:

• Ms. Cristin Alexis Fergus – Researcher for the LEAD project (LSE)
• Dr Caroline Dolan – Reader in Anthropology (SOAS)
• Dr Laura Bugiotti – Bloomsbury SET Innovation Fellow (RVC)
• Dr Ben Swift – Bloomsbury SET Innovation Fellow (RVC)
• Dr Kevin Tetteh – Bloomsbury SET Innovation Fellow (LSHTM)

The recordings from this event are available here.

An overview of the whole Conference can be found here.

The third in a series of four symposia, the event was chaired by Prof Dirk Werling (RVC) with presentations from Innovate UK and the knowledge exchange projects supported by The Bloomsbury SET. Programme included presentations:

• Vaccination research to commercialisation: the funder’s perspective, Dr Phil Packer, Innovations Lead AMR & Vaccines, Innovate UK
• Development of low-cost glycoconjugate vaccines for pigs, Dr Brendan Wren, Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis and Dean of Faulty of Infectious & Tropical Disease, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
• Development of a poultry vaccine platform based on transgenic coccidia parasites and evaluation of immunoprotection against necrotic enteritis, Dr Virginia Marugan-Hernandez, Research Fellow in Vaccinology, Royal Veterinary College
• Multi-disciplinary research for the strategic and translational development of late-stage tuberculosis vaccine candidate, Professor Richard White, Professor of Infectious Disease Modelling, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Puck Pelzer, KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation

The recording from this event is available here.

The event aims were to connect researchers from our College partners to bring new perspective on global human and animal health challenges  to tackle infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Topics discussed included the value of social sciences, cultural differences,  business opportunities and policy making to support the governance of these problems. The event was facilitated by Caroline Broad, and resulted in 9 proposals for the Arts, Humanities and Social Science funding call.

This was the second event of a series of four Symposia presenting the Knowledge Exchange projects supported by The Bloomsbury SET. The event was chaired by Professor Claire Heffernan, Director of the London International Development Centre (LIDC) with the following presentations:

• Localised Evidence and Decision-making (LEAD) Project by Dr Cristin Fergus, LSE
• The potential role of wildlife in antimicrobial resistance and ecosystem contamination by Prof Ayona Silva-Fletcher, RVC
• Using system dynamics modelling for collaborative, evidence-based design of interventions to reduce tuberculosis transmission in South African health facilities by Dr Aaron Karat, LSHTM

This was the first event of a series of four Symposia presenting the Knowledge Exchange projects supported by The Bloomsbury SET. The event was chaired by Dr Ray Kent (RVC) with presentations from:

• Dr Penny Morton, Programme Manager, Translation at the Medical Research Council, UK
• Dr Gabriela Juarez Martinez – KTN Life Sciences (Pharma/MedTech), Knowledge Transfer Network

And showcase of the following projects:

• Impact of a novel point-of- contact diagnostic test for targeted treatment of zoonotic hybrid and livestock schistosomiasis in sub-Saharan Africa by Prof Joanne Webster, RVC
• Bacteriophage technology: rapid point-of-care detection and antibiotic resistance profiling of tuberculosis infections by Dr Ben Swift, Innovation Fellow at RVC 
• Development of a suspension bead assay targeting the zoonotic malaria parasite Plasmodium knowlesi by Dr Kevin Tetteh, Innovation Fellow at LSHTM
•  Mining RNA unmapped reads: developing a fast diagnostic tool for infectious disease in cattle by Dr Laura Buggiotti, Innovation Fellow at RVC
• Neglected malaria parasites: genomic discovery and translation by Dr Susana Campino, LSHTM

This sandpit event was the second phase for our AI and Big Data funding call. The event was facilitated by Dr Steve Hutchinson, and reviewed the eight Knowledge Exchange projects given exploratory funds of up to £2,000 as a result of the first Workshop, held on 29 May. Up to five KE projects will be selected by a panel for support at up to £30,000 each over 1 year.

The first workshop took place on 29 May followed by a second sandpit event in September 2019. These two key meetings  of leading researchers across multiple disciplines at four University of London Colleges – RVC, LSHTM, LSE and SOAS explored the potential impact of AI and machine learning techniques on large, high-quality data-sets and models.  As a result of that meeting, the Bloomsbury SET will award a series of £2,000 grants to bring multidisciplinary teams around new ideas. These ideas, among others, will be followed up at a residential day Sandpit event in September that will award £30,000 grants for knowledge exchange.

The second round of networking events for The Bloomsbury SET programme, designed to put life scientists from RVC and LSHTM in touch with social scientists and humanities academics from the LSE and SOAS, took place on 8 November at SOAS, presenting opportunities under the second funding call for Project Grants.

Networking events for the programme continued with this focus on social scientists at LSE, putting them in touch with life scientists from RVC and LSHTM to assist the preparation of collaborative bids, that are inter-disciplinary or multi-disciplinary in nature.

A lunchtime event for researchers from all four Colleges to learn about opportunities under the current funding call for Project Grants.

The first round of networking events for The Bloomsbury SET programme, designed to put life scientists from RVC and LSHTM in touch with social scientists and humanities academics from the LSE and SOAS, took place on Tuesday 26 June. Hosted by SOAS, the specific objective was to assist the preparation of collaborative bids, that are inter-disciplinary or multi-disciplinary in nature.

An event held at the Royal Veterinary College on Monday 18 June not only marked the official launch of The Bloomsbury SET programme, but also its first two award schemes. Supported by almost £5 million from the HEFCE Connecting Capability Fund, it runs for three years and aims to lever at least £700,000 of in-kind support from industry and other organisations, as well as creating a sustainable platform for Knowledge Exchange.

The Connecting Capability Fund (CCF) supports university collaboration in research commercialisation through allocation of £100 million for competitive projects and formula funds. It aims to share good practice and capacity internally across the higher education sector, forge external technological, industrial and regional partnerships, and deliver the Government’s Industrial Strategy priorities.

The two award schemes are Project Grants, and Innovation Fellowships, with closing dates of 31 July and 29 October 2018 respectively.

Dr Ray Kent, Director of Research Administration at the Royal Veterinary College, said,

“We are excited to be leading this unique programme, which aims to distribute around £4 million in grant funding to staff at RVC, LSE, LSHTM and SOAS, for translational research / knowledge exchange projects to help combat infectious disease.”