50th EID to research cancer blood supply
The European Commission has awarded the 50th European Industrial Doctorate (EID) research grant to assist cancer research. The €1.5m grant will be used to develop new antibodies that will destroy a tumour’s blood vessels and eradicate the tumour.
The VAMPIRE project (‘Vascular Antibody-Mediated Pharmaceutically Induced tumour Resection’) is led by the University of Birmingham in the UK and SomantiX, a Dutch biotech company based in Utrecht. The research is supported by associated European universities, companies and research centres including Swiss science and technology university ETH Zurich and the charity Cancer Research UK. The EID scheme is targeted at projects which bring together business and academic partners in two countries.
Commenting on the award, Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, said: “I am delighted that we have reached this milestone with the EID and there could surely be no better example of the kind of cross-sector collaboration we wish to encourage than this partnership to fight cancer. The EID is an excellent illustration of the added value that EU investment can bring for excellence, innovation and competitiveness by building bridges between academia, research and business.”
The European Industrial Doctorate was launched as a pilot project in 2012 as part of the Marie Curie Actions and aims to provide PhD candidates with professional experience in excellent research projects, as well as to attract more young people into scientific careers.
The EID grants will be maintained under the renamed Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions as part of Horizon 2020.
