INVO I NewCures

Area of Interest

All molecular-based therapeutic projects with an identified biological target with a translational/commercialization trajectory are encouraged to apply. At this time, NewCures does not support projects involving therapeutic delivery/formulation, diagnostics, devices, research tools or healthcare information.

Eligibility

Applicant: Northwestern University principal investigator (PI) with a full-time faculty appointment.

Intellectual property (IP)* related to the application must meet the following criteria:

• Owned by Northwestern University;
• If IP is jointly owned, NU must be the lead, and joint owner must be a non-profit organization;
• Should cover Composition of Matter (issued or pending);
• Should be eligible for international protection; and
• Not licensed to a third party.

*If IP has not been disclosed to INVO, please contact INVO and NewCures to discuss. All projects must be reviewed for IP protection by INVO to be considered. The disclosure process is on INVO website.

Funding/Benefits

Projects will be supported at a level deemed necessary to achieve carefully evaluated objectives. After project selection and PI agreement, NewCures will:

• Work with the PI and external experts to formulate a development plan, outlining key pre-clinical experiments for proof-of-concept validation;
• Collaborate with the PI to execute milestone-driven project plans (i.e., data collection); the experimental work will be outsourced to third party contract research organizations (CROs) – outsourced work will be managed and paid for by NewCures (up to $200K); and
• Work with INVO and the PI to engage potential private sector partnership and/or investment, contingent on the achievement of desired experimental outcomes/milestones.

*NewCures does not support investigator’s salary, research personnel salaries, project reagents, supplies or equipment, intellectual property services, or travel.

Evaluation Criteria

The goal of NewCures Accelerator is to advance molecular-based technologies to the point where technology transfer is achieved or additional funding/partnership is secured from the private sector. Thus, applications will be evaluated on overall potential for technology transfer, including scientific/technical merit, unmet medical need and commercial potential.

Please refer to Table 1 for a list of evaluation criteria for project review. The gaps identified will be noted as potential areas of support by NewCures once the project is selected for NewCures development processes. Importantly, NewCures does not expect that submitted projects will have the data/information to support all criteria listed below.

Table 1. Example list of criteria for NewCures Review and Development

Review Process

Each application will be judged on the basis of translational and commercialization potential, scientific merit, and medical need.

Applications will be initially reviewed for basic eligibility and feasibility, followed by a review and prioritization by NewCures and INVO team members experienced in therapeutic technology assessment and development. Prioritized applications will be presented to NewCures Board of Advisors.

To ensure a thorough selection process, the NewCures Advisory Board consisting of members from within and outside of the Northwestern community will collectively review the applications. Internal members are leaders from Northwestern scientific communities with experience in therapeutic translation. External members are highly recognized leaders with expertise in therapeutic development from pharmaceutical, biotech and investment communities; all external members will have signed confidentiality agreement with Northwestern. To avoid potential conflict of interest, Northwestern-affiliated board members will not have voting rights to determine which projects will be supported by NewCures. Only external members will be involved in the final selection of NewCures projects.

Project Execution and Management

NewCures project team will work with the PI, external consultants and subject matter experts to develop a pre-clinical development plan for the technology. The experimental work will be coordinated and managed by NewCures, either through internal resources (Northwestern Core Facilities) or third party CROs.

NewCures will work with the PI to generate a “pitch deck” to facilitate NewCures and INVO to engage the private sector for potential licensing, collaboration and/or investment.