MIT-Royalty Pharma Faculty Founder Prize Competition
A two-year Oxford-MIT initiative helping faculty turn human health research into ventures that reach patients.
Current cohort (2025-27) underway. Applications for the next cohort have not yet opened.
Programme overview
Great health science doesn't always make it out of the lab. The MIT-Royalty Pharma Faculty Founder Prize Competition is a joint initiative between the University of Oxford and MIT to change that. It runs for two years (current cohort: October 2025 to May 2027) and supports faculty at both institutions as they take diagnostics, therapeutics, devices and AI-driven digital health technologies towards real-world impact.
The initiative was recently renamed in recognition of a gift from Royalty Pharma, which is supporting the programme through 2029. Professor Dame Molly Stevens, EnSpire's Academic Champion for Women and Diversity in Entrepreneurship, is the academic lead for the programme at Oxford.
Why it exists
A landmark study by Sangeeta Bhatia, Susan Hockfield and Nancy Hopkins found striking gender disparities in biotechnology commercialisation among MIT faculty. One finding stood out: there could have been forty additional biotech firms today. Each of those firms was a potential medicine, and each is lost impact.
This competition is the response. It makes the route into entrepreneurship more accessible for women founders, and it is open to all eligible faculty at Oxford and MIT.
What finalists receive
- A supportive cohort, expert mentorship, commercialisation workshops, executive education classes, investor introductions and tailored resources
- Two fully funded trips to MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts
- A $10,000 annual flexible stipend, which can cover postdoc time, childcare, travel and more
- Consulting support from MIT Sloan MBA students
Prizes
- $250,000 Grand Prize
- $125,000 Oxford Runner-Up Prize
- $75,000 Breakthrough Science Prize, for early-stage projects
The programme culminates in the MIT-Royalty Pharma Prize Competition Showcase in 2027.
The model works
Since the MIT Faculty Founder Initiative launched in 2021. The goal: 40 faculty-founded life science ventures by 2029.
Faculty at Oxford and MIT working on human health technologies, including (but not limited to):
- Diagnostics
- Therapeutic devices
- Digital health
- AI-driven tools
Twelve finalists were selected for 2025-27, six from Oxford and six from MIT. The Oxford finalists are:
Professor Rachael Bashford-Rogers (Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry): Uses a multi-AI platform to find and validate druggable targets in menopause-related diseases, including osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease, working towards novel therapies and drug repurposing.
Professor Sally Collins (Nuffield Department of Women's and Reproductive Health): Oxailis is an AI decision-support platform that uses existing ultrasound hardware to assess tissue perfusion quantitatively and non-invasively, offering a low-cost alternative to contrast-based imaging.
Professor Monika Gullerova (Sir William Dunn School of Pathology): RAIDEN is an AI-driven drug discovery project developing small-molecule medicines that target RNA, opening up diseases long considered "undruggable".
Professor Rebeccah Slater (Department of Paediatrics): Has developed a tool that reads brain and heart signals to objectively measure children's pain, and plans to build it into existing hospital vital-signs monitors.
Professor Charlotte Stagg (Human Neurophysiology): T-STAR is a closed-loop brain stimulation system (tACS) designed to improve motor recovery after stroke by boosting brain activity at specific phases of movement.
Professor Louise Thwaites (Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health): Is developing AI-enabled clinical decision support tools, linked to wearable monitors, for patients with serious infectious diseases in resource-limited settings.
Applications for the next cohort have not yet been released. We'll share details here as soon as they're confirmed. To hear about future opportunities for Oxford founders in health and life sciences, sign up to the EnSpire Newsletter.
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