Funding priorities
Enterprise and Innovation - growing the University as an intellectual hub of discovery and invention
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Drug Discovery and Development Centre
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. |
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The Evergreen Seed Fund
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. |
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The UCT Knowledge Co-Op UCT has grown a firm commitment to make available its resources for public purpose and benefit. The Knowledge Co-Op is just one of many ways in which this is being accomplished. The University acts as a broker with community groups who approach us with suggestions to address issues and problems they are facing. The Co-Op then attempts to match these to academic departments in order to identify suitable partners; it mediates between the community partner and academics to jointly develop a project. Students, supervised by academic staff, or academics themselves will take on the project to conduct research or give practical support to community groups. In each case the work they do will fit the needs of the community partner as well as those of the University and aim to deliver a product to both. The immediate value is for the community partners, who are able to plan developments based on sound developments, their staff gain skills and communities benefit from new designs.Your help is essential in making sure that this initiative continues to make an impact in the communities we serve. The estimated budget is set at R 1.8 million |
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. 
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.