Wellcome Leap builds bold, unconventional programs, and funds them at scale.
Programs that aim to deliver breakthroughs in human health over 5 – 10 years and demonstrate seemingly impossible results on seemingly impossible timelines.
Wellcome Leap is a global ARPA for health.
Programs.
$45M PROGRAM
$50M PROGRAM
Programs.
$60M PROGRAM
$50M PROGRAM
$55M PROGRAM
Programs.
$60M PROGRAM
$50M PROGRAM
$55M PROGRAM
Just as Sputnik ignited the Space Age, so too could the coronavirus inspire
The Health Age.
The right time.
The right time.
On October 4, 1957, a beach-ball-sized satellite we know as Sputnik was launched into orbit. It inspired a new curiosity about a new frontier.
Sputnik was an inflection point. It led to one of the greatest periods of advancement in science and engineering in history.
The global pandemic has laid bare how much there is to do in health, from policy to equity to financing. But it has also revealed the difference a scientific breakthrough makes. We need more breakthroughs and we need them faster.
Just as Sputnik ignited the Space Age, so, too, might the coronavirus inspire a Health Age. Not just to defeat future pandemics, but to make urgent progress on cancer, mental health, and more.
The right time.
The right time.
On October 4, 1957, a beach-ball-sized satellite we know as Sputnik was launched into orbit. It inspired a new curiosity about a new frontier.
Sputnik was an inflection point. It led to one of the greatest periods of advancement in science and engineering in history.
The global pandemic has laid bare how much there is to do in health, from policy to equity to financing. But it has also revealed the difference a scientific breakthrough makes. We need more breakthroughs and we need them faster.
Just as Sputnik ignited the Space Age, so, too, might the coronavirus inspire a Health Age. Not just to defeat future pandemics, but to make urgent progress on cancer, mental health, and more.
The right model.
The right model.
Wellcome Leap is built on a unique model of innovation practiced at DARPA.
For more than six decades, this model has been an uninterrupted engine of breakthrough innovation. It is not a discovery science model, but neither is it a pure application model. It sits firmly at the intersection of the two.
Work in what we call Pasteur’s Quadrant demands that we set ambitious goals that are measurable and testable. So that we’ll know if we succeeded or failed. It requires that we intersect life sciences and engineering, so that we can demonstrate advances at convincing scale — because that’s how an idea once thought impossible, is seen as possible.
The right model.
The right model.
Wellcome Leap is built on a unique model of innovation practiced at DARPA.
For more than six decades, this model has been an uninterrupted engine of breakthrough innovation. It is not a discovery science model, but neither is it a pure application model. It sits firmly at the intersection of the two.
Work in what we call Pasteur’s Quadrant demands that we set ambitious goals that are measurable and testable. So that we’ll know if we succeeded or failed. It requires that we intersect life sciences and engineering, so that we can demonstrate advances at convincing scale — because that’s how an idea once thought impossible, is seen as possible.
The right leadership.
The right leadership.
Led by Wellcome Leap CEO, Regina E. Dugan, who served as the 19th Director of DARPA, where she oversaw an annual $3B portfolio of projects ranging from hypersonics to RNA-based vaccines. An experienced Silicon Valley executive, she also built and led advanced project organizations at Google and Facebook.
Chaired by one of the most effective business leaders in the life sciences industry, Jay Flatley. As CEO of Illumina, Jay helped to transform gene sequencing from a scientific pursuit to a commercially accessible service and moved the cost of sequencing an entire human genome from $1 million to $1,000.
Founded by visionaries Jeremy Farrar, Mike Ferguson, and the Wellcome Trust Leadership with a $300M seed investment, Wellcome Leap intends to assemble international partners such that together we create the critical mass of funding required.
Since founding, Wellcome Leap has welcomed COO, Ken Gabriel, most recently the President and CEO of Draper, and expanded our global representation with Board member, Ho Ching, former CEO of Temasek Holdings.
Jeremy Farrar
Director, Wellcome Leap
Mike Ferguson
Director, Wellcome Leap
Ho Ching
Director, Wellcome Leap
The right leadership.
The right leadership.
Led by Wellcome Leap CEO, Regina E. Dugan, who served as the 19th Director of DARPA, where she oversaw an annual $3B portfolio of projects ranging from hypersonics to RNA-based vaccines. An experienced Silicon Valley executive, she also built and led advanced project organizations at Google and Facebook.
Chaired by one of the most effective business leaders in the life sciences industry, Jay Flatley. As CEO of Illumina, Jay helped to transform gene sequencing from a scientific pursuit to a commercially accessible service and moved the cost of sequencing an entire human genome from $1 million to $1,000.
Founded by visionaries Jeremy Farrar, Mike Ferguson, and the Wellcome Trust Leadership with a $300M seed investment, Wellcome Leap intends to assemble international partners such that together we create the critical mass of funding required.
Since founding, Wellcome Leap has welcomed COO, Ken Gabriel, most recently the President and CEO of Draper, and expanded our global representation with Board member, Ho Ching, former CEO of Temasek Holdings.
Jeremy Farrar
Director, Wellcome Leap
Mike Ferguson
Director, Wellcome Leap
Ho Ching
Director, Wellcome Leap
The right leadership.
The right leadership.
Led by Wellcome Leap CEO, Regina E. Dugan, who served as the 19th Director of DARPA, where she oversaw an annual $3B portfolio of projects ranging from hypersonics to RNA-based vaccines. An experienced Silicon Valley executive, she also built and led advanced project organizations at Google and Facebook.
Chaired by one of the most effective business leaders in the life sciences industry, Jay Flatley. As CEO of Illumina, Jay helped to transform gene sequencing from a scientific pursuit to a commercially accessible service and moved the cost of sequencing an entire human genome from $1 million to $1,000.
Founded by visionaries Jeremy Farrar, Mike Ferguson, and the Wellcome Trust Leadership with a $300M seed investment, Wellcome Leap intends to assemble international partners such that together we create the critical mass of funding required.
Since founding, Wellcome Leap has welcomed COO, Ken Gabriel, most recently the President and CEO of Draper, and expanded our global representation with Board member, Ho Ching, former CEO of Temasek Holdings.
Ken Gabriel
COO
Jay Flatley
Chair,
Wellcome Leap
Jeremy Farrar
Director, Wellcome Leap
Mike Ferguson
Director, Wellcome Leap
Ho Ching
Director, Wellcome Leap
a new program?
Who joins Wellcome Leap?
Our programs are actively led and orchestrated by a Program Director who adjusts, iterates, and directs teams working together so as to solve problems they cannot solve alone. You should join Wellcome Leap if you want an opportunity to pursue what others may think too crazy an idea, to challenge an entire industry, or to catalyze the formation of a new one.
But don’t plan to come for a career. Program Directors come to run a project that can change the world. And many do.
Global from day one, Wellcome Leap is already harnessing best-in-class in all dimensions of operations.
Who joins Wellcome Leap?
Our programs are actively led and orchestrated by a Program Director who adjusts, iterates, and directs teams working together so as to solve problems they cannot solve alone. You should join Wellcome Leap if you want an opportunity to pursue what others may think too crazy an idea, to challenge an entire industry, or to catalyze the formation of a new one.
But don’t plan to come for a career. Program Directors come to run a project that can change the world. And many do.
Global from day one, Wellcome Leap is already harnessing best-in-class in all dimensions of operations.
Who joins Wellcome Leap?
Our programs are actively led and orchestrated by a Program Director who adjusts, iterates, and directs teams working together so as to solve problems they cannot solve alone. You should join Wellcome Leap if you want an opportunity to pursue what others may think too crazy an idea, to challenge an entire industry, or to catalyze the formation of a new one.
But don’t plan to come for a career. Program Directors come to run a project that can change the world. And many do.
Global from day one, Wellcome Leap is already harnessing best-in-class talent in all dimensions of operations.
What to expect from Wellcome Leap.
Speed.
Speed.
From abstract submission through execution, feedback in days and weeks, not months or years.
Expert, objective selection.
Expert, objective selection.
Not a consensus-driven review process for programs or proposals.
Tenacity.
Tenacity.
Programs stop when, together, we run out of ideas. Not when the first idea doesn’t work.
Agility.
Agility.
Diverse, interdisciplinary efforts.
Diverse, interdisciplinary efforts.
Active dialogue. Plus annual or biannual meetings for the entire project team.
Impact.
Impact.
Transition support, because it’s not enough to find a solution, that solution has to find a way into the world.
What to expect from Wellcome Leap.
Speed.
Speed.
From abstract submission through execution, feedback in days and weeks, not months or years.
Expert, objective selection.
Expert, objective selection.
Not a consensus-driven review process for programs or proposals.
Tenacity.
Tenacity.
Programs stop when, together, we run out of ideas. Not when the first idea doesn’t work.
Agility.
Agility.
Diverse, interdisciplinary efforts.
Diverse, interdisciplinary efforts.
Active dialogue. Plus annual or biannual meetings for the entire project team.
Impact.
Impact.
Transition support, because it’s not enough to find a solution, that solution has to find a way into the world.
What to expect from
Wellcome Leap.
Speed.
From abstract submission through execution, feedback in days and weeks, not months or years.
Expert, objective selection.
Not a consensus-driven review process for programs or proposals.
Tenacity.
Programs stop when, together, we run out of ideas. Not when the first idea doesn’t work.
Agility.
Collaborative project adjustments based on the newest results.
Diverse, interdisciplinary efforts.
Active dialogue. Plus annual or biannual meetings for the entire project team.
Impact.
Transition support, because it’s not enough to find a solution, that solution has to find a way into the world.
This kind of work is hard.
The hard is what makes it great.
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