Open Innovation Call Led by UK Research Body and Pharmaceutical Giant

AstraZeneca, an Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company has entered into partnership with the UK's Medical Research Council (MRC), and yesterday announced an initiative aimed at the development of better medicinal treatments to benefit patients. The initiative is an open innovation call to the UK's academic community to put forward research proposals which if accepted could be in receipt of a significant cash award to fund the proposals' extensive research and development.

As the world's population continues growing so to does the need for more effective medicinal treatments. Developing new medicines can be time consuming and expensive, costing around £630 million. The first step involves developing chemical compounds which are then trialled to determine the best ones that would be transformed into medicine. However for an assortment of reasons, mainly cost and lack of resources, these trials are put on hold, sometimes indefinitely. It has been argued that some of these compounds are vital for new medicines and so AstraZeneca plan to make 22 such compounds available as part of the challenge.

The MRC has stated that AstraZeneca will provide to all those who take up this challenge, access to the compounds. The participants then have to propose how these compounds can be used in new areas of medicine. The MRC will review and select the best proposals and award up £10 million to fund the research that will cover a broad range of diseases.

Innovative collaborations are playing a crucial role in finding ways to unlock the potential of new treatments. The UK has a strong heritage of research excellence in life sciences. - David Brennan, Chief Executive, AstraZeneca

The call for submissions is now open and a two stage selection process will be used to determine feasibility of the studies. Any studies that are deemed to duplicate existing work or overlap with any of AstraZeneca's active studies will be rejected. For more information about how to take part visit the MRC's funding opportunities page.

Image Credit; Tulane Public Relations

Crowdfunding British Horror Films

The UK has an outstanding reputation for creating some of the world's most renowned horror films. Whether it is the Hammer films of old (Dracula, Curse of Frankenstein) or even new (Let Me In, The Woman in Black) British Horror has been successfully frightening the life out of audiences in cinemas and in the comfort of their homes. Looking to keep alight the flame of British Horror are two independent projects featured on some of the UK's prominent crowdfunding platforms working to bring their scary movies to life.

The Missing

When a young girl escapes her abusive life in Manchester and heads for London searching for her long lost father, her nightmare life turns even more upside down. Our heroine finds herself broke and homeless caught in the desolate world of London's seedy underworld, rife with prostitution, drugs, and gang violence. When the young girl is saved from a horrific fate she is at first grateful but then her saviour is not all she seems.


  
This spooky tale with an urban setting is the brain child of writers Lee Asquith-Coe and Sinitta Monero. A quick glance at the trailer and the synopsis, it has all the hallmarks of classic horror but carries with it a social message about the forgotten and destitute. The production needs£5,000 to get the cameras rolling however time is against them with only 17 days left (at time of this post). Helping the writers secure that much needed cash is the Sheffield based crowdfunding platform Sponduly. In return for funding, investors awards include, acknowledgements & thanks yous, limited edition merchandise, copies of the film, and invitations to a special screening. So if you want to see this nightmare vision become celluloid reality then visit The Missing's funding page on Sponduly and pledge your support.

Bigger and Badder

The makers of this Gothic horror tale describe Bigger & Badder as "Brighton Rock" meets "The Howling". Pete is a package boy hired to run errands for his shady and particularly ruthless boss Trevor Deacon. When Pete's first delivery goes horrifically wrong he has to explain to his boss exactly what happened. Trouble is Pete's tale could prove hard to believe, and if he doesn't succeed in convincing his boss then Pete is about to find out just how big and bad Trevor can be. 



Bigger and Badder was written by Richard Wantuch, also the film's director. Werewolves and gangsters makes for an appetisingly grisly story that should appeal to fans of Gothic horror, in particular, anything to do with wolves. The team only need £500 to finish production, and have already secured 46% of funding. This leaves only £270 still remaining and less than 28 days to reach that all important target. The team are using Exeter based Crowdfunder (see Gazette Profile) , and are hoping to tempt you the investor with an assortment of rewards. A minimum donation of £10 will secure a digital copy of the film, a thank you in the credits plus invitation to the premier screening. Other rewards, which depend on the size of the pledge, include limited edition merchandise, associate producer credits and even an original cast of "Wilbur". So if you want to see just how bad Trevor really is then visit Bigger and Badder's Crowdfunder page and make that investment. 

Not Sure About Crowdsourcing? Try Co-creation

It seems many businesses are still reluctant to take advantage of the benefits crowdsourcing has to offer whether the business is an SME or a leading international company. It is perhaps a daunting prospect to entrust a task to a limitless faceless crowd, even through a specialised platform. Maybe it is the thought of wading through large amounts of submissions to find the right one that causes one to groan with disdain. Crowdsourcing is not for everyone yet in this current economic climate it is important to stay one step ahead of the competition, especially if their competitive edge relies on crowdsourcing. Co-creation is an off-shoot of crowdsourcing that has grown exponentially within a relatively short time and could provide the alternative for the less adventurous with all the benefits. 

Co-creation, like crowdsourcing, relies on collaboration for ideas and information from a crowd. The crucial difference however is in the size of the crowd. Instead of putting a call to an open forum or a specialised platform seeking the resources of many, the task/conundrum is placed before a smaller specialised crowd. You could call it a form of focused crowdsourcing in which the individuals of this "focus group" have skills and knowledge that are dependent on the needs of the client. For example, a car manufacturer looking for a new design of vehicle or update of an existing model, instead of using the crowd, would present the instructions to a specialised group of engineers, mechanics, and designers. The group works together and present a single idea to the client, rather than the client sifting through many ideas. 

So is there much of a difference between co-creation and crowdsourcing? In some ways there is very little difference as they both operate on the concept of consulting the wisdom of the crowd. The principle difference is that co-creation encourages more collaboration between the members of the specialised crowd. Co-creation also allows the crowd to think more outside the box thus fostering innovation. It is still as cost effective as crowdsourcing and in fact provides a level of accountability as well as focus. There are many service providers working with leading brand names including eYeka who has worked with Coca Cola and Unilever, and Infosys currently in partnership with Volkswagen and recently Nike.

This is probably the difference that crowdsourcing does not quite achieve, the ability to work with a specialised group, capture the ideas of the many and work with them through different steps to ultimately create a better experience for the consumer. Crowdsourcing focuses on quantity and results in incremental changes, co-creation focuses on quality and produces innovative solutions. - Scott Teng, Regional Collaborative Planner for eYeka

Such is the increasing popularity of this crowdsourcing spin off that there is even a Co-creation  Association. The association's goal is to promote the use of co-creation, and even recognises organisations that best incorporate it into their organisation with the annual Co-creation Awards.    So if you're not certain about crowdsourcing then maybe co-creation is the way forward, with a more focussed and innovative approach. 

Image Credits; WhyOhGee