Projects and Seed Funding
SPARK NTD will provide microfunding (US$10-50k) for projects to answer specific questions based on jury feedback. Advice will also be given to connect projects to relevant local and international funding agencies, business developers and investors.
Our Impact
Building on existing foundations and partnership
SPARK NTD will be built in a first step leveraging learnings from the SPARK and INCATE models at University of Basel and SPARK Stanford, along with the already engaged academic groups within Swiss TPH, IS Global, SPARK Africa, ACTI and CERI at Stellenbosch University, H3D at University of Cape Town and FioCruz Foundation in Brazil.
Join the SPARK NTD community partners
Each institution that joins as a partner would provide access to their network resources to deliver training and support and where relevant access to discovery and development platforms. In return they receive access to a community of diagnostics, drugs and vaccine developers, support for their own projects and opportunity for collaborations.
Launch in 2026
SPARK NTD will launch in 2026 during the SPARK Global Annual meeting in Helsinki, Finland with first partners coming on board and initial support being delivered in 2026. 2026 targets are to establish a mentor network, broaden the partner network and start talent development to 100+ individuals and 10-15 projects with 5 selected for focused support.
Biotech development is changing
The development model has changed with increasing focus on Academia and smaller companies than big pharmaceutical companies. Changes in the innovation landscape provide an opportunity to boost the pipeline of talent for early stage translation in NTDs.