The Lilly Research Awards Program was established in 2011 to provide an avenue to Lilly scientists working in basic research for engaging external research groups in academia or small biotechnology companies possessing valuable expertise in the area. The Lilly Research Awards Program seeks to foster innovation in basic research by:
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Enabling ideas
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Removing barriers to collaboration
The program provides a two-way, pre-competitive collaborative environment in which the external partner can gain invaluable access to tools to conduct basic research, and in turn, Lilly scientists receive critical information to help inform the future of drug discovery and development.
Projects selected for funding in 2011 fulfilled several important criteria, including global reach, application across multiple therapeutic areas and multiple functionalities and potential to improve the humanization of drug discovery.
By 2014, Lilly expects to support approximately 30 active projects a year including the following areas:
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development of new assays
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validation of disease targets or biomarkers
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improvement of preclinical models
The Lilly Research Awards Program projects are initiated by internal Lilly scientists only. At this time, an external solicitation system is not in place.
