Funding priorities
Discovery and Innovation
Growing the University as an Intellectual Hub of New Thought and Invention
Drug Discovery and Development Centre
Sub-Saharan Africa has long struggled with the challenge of disease outbreaks which develop into dangerous pandemics. Millions of lives have been lost through a lack of effective drugs to treat specific strands of diseases taking their toll on innocent lives. UCT's Drug Discovery and Development Centre is the first of its kind in the African continent, harnessing modern pharmaceutical industry skills and expertise in the drug discovery value chain. Its pioneering approach integrates the disciplines of medicinal chemistry, biology, pharmacology as well as drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics studies. These are the essential elements in nurturing a critical mass of African scientists with the capacity to develop pre-clinical drug candidates, thereby patenting drugs that target specific strands of diseases afflicting our region. In this way the Centre poises itself to overcome historical African challenges of translating basic scientific knowledge into lifesaving medicines.
The establishment of a state-of-the art drug discovery centre is able to fulfil the critical need for a pharmaceutical industry that will address the challenges of infectious and non-infectious diseases endemic to Africa, enriching the quality of our healthcare and saving lives. The Centre seeks to refurbish its laboratories at a cost of R15 million. Your partnership in this venture will realise the goal of creating world class laboratories for UCT's Drug Discovery and Development Centre.
The Evergreen Seed Fund
From the discovery of novel drug compounds, to developing state of the art technologies and ground-breaking medical devices, UCT researchers have always been at the forefront of new ideas and inventions. Transferring technology into innovations that make a real difference to the growth and development of the economy requires generous funding. The lack of early stage funding in South Africa in the R500,000 to R 2 million zone has proven to be a major barrier, causing many promising inventions to stall and lose momentum before they are usefully applied.
The UCT Evergreen Seed Fund seeks to bridge this funding gap and enable attractive opportunities to be created that will secure next-stage investors so that UCT innovations ultimately reach the market.
The UCT Evergreen Seed Fund is a new initiative that builds on the significant success of the existing "Pre-Seed Fund". The intention is to create an endowment that will provide sustainable funding for innovation activities. Successful projects / spin-off companies will replenish the fund in the form of interest-bearing loans or equity, which can be sold by UCT.
With your assistance and contribution we can boost UCT innovation, taking our ideas into the market-place through commercially viable innovations. These, in turn, will benefit the economy and society as well as promote entrepreneurship and create jobs. With your help, we are confident that we will realise our target of securing R10 million for the fund, building off the R2 million nucleus that was provided by a generous donation from Mr. Richard Sonnenberg.
| The Drug Discovery and Development Centre seeks to refurbish its laboratories at a cost of R15 million. |
| The Evergreen Seed Fund has set a target of securing R2 million to help bring new innovations into the market place. |