LUMC launches LUMC Donation Investment Fund to strengthen frontier research

Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) is introducing the LUMC Donation Investment Fund I and II, funds aimed at funding unique scientific research. The goal is for new scientific inventions to reach patients faster.

Through the LUMC Donation Investment Fund, donors offer initial financial support to promising research projects. Projects that could use the acceleration through funding. Once a project has successfully led to a product and can be introduced to the market, the second phase begins. These same donors, as well as other interested parties, can then invest in a new company or spin-off to be set up.

Why this fund?

Every day, leading experts at LUMC work on groundbreaking research to improve care and health in the Netherlands. A major challenge, especially now that the population is aging and the number of chronic patients is increasing. Scientific research forms the basis for this. But that very research, some of which involves risk, is under financial pressure. Pancras Hogendoorn,dean and vice chairman of the Executive Board, is adamant: "Financing research from the first flow of funds is not sufficient. The government thinks it should also be in the private domain. That is why there is now an LUMC Donation Investment Fund."

Anti-cancer drug

A total of eight research projects have been selected, divided between LUMC Donation Investment Fund I and II. Each project offers a solution to an appealing problem that patients are facing or the health care system is struggling with. Think of research projects on an anti-cancer drug for eye melanoma, making the malaria parasite 'visible' to our immune system or making a portable MRI scan to recognize joint rheumatism earlier. The researchers tell more about it in person in the brochures of LUMC Donation Investment Fund I and II or on the site of the Bontius Foundation.

Champions League of research

The goal of these projects is to bring a new product or therapy to market that will benefit healthcare. This is done through a commercial-driven development plan that takes shape in a collaboration with an existing company or within a new company to be established. "With the LUMC Donation Investment Fund, we are focusing on the future," Hogendoorn says. "LUMC belongs to the 'Champions League' of scientific research and with this fund we want to bring our fantastic research to patients faster."