Philanthropic organisations play vital and strategic roles in health research projects, bringing a unique, long-term perspective and a knowledgeable community, and leveraging resources from around the globe to address major challenges. Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) projects are a good example. IHI (formerly IMI, the Innovative Medicines Initiative) is a European public-private partnership (PPP) funding health research and innovation.
Strategic alignment to support structural change
In IHI call 11, philanthropic organisations are part of topics on mental health, type 1 diabetes (T1D), and the interplay between infectious and chronic diseases. These are highly challenging, complex areas, and no organisation or country can address them alone. Broad coalitions are key to creating lasting change in these areas of high unmet medical need. As a public-private partnership, IHI (and previously IMI) creates a trust-based platform where the whole health community can come together in a safe and collaborative environment and identify strategic alignments between diverse stakeholders.
Philanthropic organisations have joined the partnership on call 11 topics that align with their strategies because they share IHI’s commitment to change and recognise IHI’s ability to facilitate large-scale, transformative projects that will contribute to their own missions. As IHI contributing partners, the organisations have actively shaped the topics to ensure alignment with their own strategies and plan to commit resources (including funding) to the projects.
For example, Breakthrough T1D, together with Fundación Diabetes CERO and Fondazione Italiana Diabete, considers the topic "Leveraging Europe’s expertise to accelerate cell therapy for type 1 diabetes" highly relevant to its research strategy. Cell-based therapies represent one of the most promising paths toward a functional cure for T1D, and Europe’s scientific leadership in stem cell research, immunology, and clinical translation is critical to advancing this field. Supporting this work aligns directly with their mission to drive transformative, disease-modifying treatments for people living with T1D.
Wellcome is contributing to the topic on transdiagnostic stratification of brain dysfunction. Wellcome’s mental health mission is to enable a step change in early interventions for anxiety, depression and psychosis. Having reliable biomarkers and clinical endpoints is an important enabler in achieving this mission; however, fragmented efforts have made this challenging so far. Wellcome therefore looks to seize this opportunity to collaborate with multidisciplinary partners towards identifying reliable mental health biomarkers and endpoints. These will boost the future development of novel therapeutics that offer earlier, safer and more effective treatment for people living with mental health challenges.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation is part of the topic on improving our understanding of the links between infectious and non-communicable diseases. The foundation is committed to improving the health of people around the world, and has a century of expertise in supporting research in non-communicable disease, primarily cardiometabolic disease, and significant and growing experience in infectious diseases. They believe that better understanding of the interplay between these is crucial in order to define risk factors and ultimately develop preventative, diagnostic and therapeutic solutions. They are proud to support this call that can help advance EU-based research and innovation in this critical and burgeoning field.
Based on its interest in accelerating research and development in the area of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), Gates Ventures is part of the topics on brain dysfunction and the links between infection and non-communicable diseases, specifically focused on transdiagnostic stratification of neurodegeneration and ways the gut-brain axis might play a role in triggering neurodegenerative disorders.
Pooling collective capabilities and sharing risks
These partnerships are successful because the partners - industry, philanthropic and public stakeholders - bring complementary knowledge, skills and resources to the table. The strength of the philanthropic sector is the long-term view, rooted in a deep knowledge based on their partnership with civil society and communities of patients, carers and specialist centres.
For Wellcome, public-private partnerships are key to driving groundbreaking progress that supports people living with mental health problems, and wider society. By pooling collective expertise, resources, and efforts we can effect real change in how we diagnose and treat mental health conditions. IHI call 11 is a unique opportunity to work with partners who focus on different health challenges, meaning together we can be greater than the sum of our parts.
Working together also allows organisations to share risks as well as benefits. The participation in IHI projects of philanthropic organisations helps de-risk high-cost, high-risk areas of innovation where industry alone may be hesitant to invest. Public-private partnerships like IHI enable collaborative efforts that share risk, accelerate progress, and unlock breakthroughs that would otherwise remain out of reach.
A tried and tested model
The strength of this approach, and its value to philanthropic organisations, is clear from the fact that some philanthropic organisations have contributed to a number of IMI and now IHI projects over the years. A good example here is Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF), which first partnered with IMI back in 2014 and has since contributed strategically to a whole portfolio of projects designed to improve the lives of people living with T1D. Another example is the IMI antimicrobial resistance project Value-Dx, where Wellcome was an associated partner.
Gates Ventures’ partnership with IHI (then IMI) started with the European Platform for Neurodegenerative Diseases (EPND), a large consortium that connects researchers to data and biosamples to facilitate the discovery of crucial biomarkers and advance new treatments. This successful collaboration with a wide range of partners convinced Gates Ventures that public-private partnerships play a vital role in creating global public goods by combining the strengths of industry, academia, and government to tackle complex health challenges that no single sector can solve alone.
In conclusion, IHI call 11 amply demonstrates how public, private and philanthropic partners can work together strategically. Together, we look forward to making significant progress towards our shared goals, and ultimately delivering transformative results that will make a real difference to the lives of people living with disease.