World’s First Academic Life Science Research Exchange

Connecting academic scientists to the global life science ecosystem

Like everyone else, academic researchers are finding that funding sources are drying up and that they somehow must do more research work with less money. To do something about it, a group of Universities in Missouri and Kansas have teamed up with Scientist to create the world’s first academic research exchange.

Created in collaboration with the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, the University of Missouri, the University of Kansas and Kansas State University, this science marketplace facilitates research collaboration and cooperation across the Midwest and allows researchers to access potential research partners in over 100 countries.

In effect it gives all academic researchers access to the tools and technologies that have historically been restricted to well-funded pharmaceutical laboratories. Our hope of course is that easy access to experts and tools will allow every academic researcher to engage in translational research, cross the so-called “valley of death” and find a partner with the resources needed to develop and commercialize a new potentially life-saving therapy. But we’d be happy if the platform simply helped thousands of outstanding Midwest scientists take the next step in their research projects and life’s work.

The underlying purpose behind the creation of the platform is to make the unknown known in the field of Life Sciences — to bring the information scientists are looking for to their doorstep rather than making them search for it. By empowering researchers with the information and tools they need to create and run any life science research project, researchers become limited only by their imagination (and funding) in what they can achieve.

Scientist has created similar private research exchanges (aka innovation marketplaces) for four of the world’s top ten pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and AstraZeneca, and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). In this world of shrinking research budgets, even the world’s largest research organizations need ways to save time and money and access the innovation in the long tail of global CROs.