Get IMI Funds

With a total budget of € 2 billion, IMI will fund pan-European public-private partnerships in biomedical research projects adresing the current bottlenecks in the biomedical research and development process.

Half of the funding for IMI will be made available through the 7^th Framework Programme (FP7). The other half will be provided by companies belonging to EFPIA's Research Directors Group. The contribution of these companies will include R&D resources such as staff, laboratories, materials and clinical research capabilities.

It is important to note that FP7 funds will be used exclusively to boost the R&D capabilities of the public sector and small and medium sized companies, not the larger biopharmaceutical companies.

Selection of public partners 

The public partners will be seleceted in a open EU tender. In order to apply for funding under IMI consortiums of public partners needs to submit an Experession of Interest (EOI). Eligible public partners, which may submit a short EOI, include universities, hospitals, SMEs, regulatory authorities and patients associations. The call for EOI is expected to be opened 30 April 2008.

MVA is supporting public partners in the Øresundsregion in their pursuit for IMI funds. More information about MVA support. 

The deadline for Expression of Interest (EOI) is expected 3 months later (July 2008). After peer review organised by IMI, one single public consortium will be selected to collaborate with the EFPIA partners (always more than one big pharma company) for the real project proposal. At this second stage the industry will serve as project coordinators. It should be remembered that the projects will not develop new pharmaceuticals, but precompetitive methods useful to several companies.

The specific rules and guidelines for applying for IMI funds has yet not been published, but is expected to be presented at the opening conference 30 April in Brussels.