Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has awarded eight grants totaling $1 million to a dozen of its scientists through the Evergreen Fund, which supports early research projects thought to be good prospects for commercial partnerships.
Since 2017, the Evergreen Fund has awarded $3 million to projects proposed by researchers seeking a timely boost to help bring their ideas from the lab bench closer to the bedside.
“Evergreen Fund grants allow researchers to complete the critical experiments that venture capital and pharma partners expect to see when evaluating a partnership opportunity,” said Hilary Hehman, the Hutch’s director of strategic partnerships and alliances. “It’s also fantastic to have a group of seasoned investors around the table to provide feedback on all the programs, funded or not, that are evaluated.”
This year, the Evergreen Fund distributed four pilot grants of $50,000 each that are designed to give “big and bold ideas with commercial application” an infusion of funds to demonstrate the project’s potential within a six-month period. Another four projects were awarded $200,000 each to accelerate their research over a two-year period. The goal of these larger, so-called “Beyond Pilot” grants is to help researchers whose ideas are further along. They have shown promising data and a commercial path forward, but their projects need more development to attract external financial support.
