Nature Awards, part of Springer Nature, has partnered with Voyager, a company engaged in the discovery and development of precision medicine technologies, to launch the Healthspan Accelerator, a programme intended to support researchers developing innovations to identify, delay, or reverse age-associated diseases. The announcement describes metabolic health research as central to understanding how to live healthier, longer lives and notes that cellular functions degrade over time due to internal processes and external factors.
According to Richard Hughes, vice-president, Publishing, Nature, the programme aims to identify technologies grounded in solid science within a landscape crowded with anti-ageing products that often lack clear scientific backing. According to Hughes, experts from Nature Portfolio, Voyager, and the wider community will lead the effort, and applications are welcomed from research groups worldwide.
For the 2025 awards, the accelerator will focus on four areas: regulating host metabolism and the rate of ageing; better identification and mediation of ageing cells; reducing risk factors and slowing neurodegeneration; and attenuating age-associated inflammation. Applications are open globally and close on 10 December, with judging by Voyager founders and Nature editors who will seek bold ideas in precision medicine. Winners will receive a cash grant and take part in a four-day residential programme that includes training, science communication workshops, and networking opportunities with industry leaders. Winners are scheduled to be announced in May 2025. Further information, including submission and eligibility guidelines, is available on the award homepage.
The Healthspan Accelerator is positioned as part of Nature Awards’ wider portfolio of programmes intended to recognise scientific excellence and amplify the impact of research. The full Nature Awards portfolio and additional details are available online.
Notes to editors specify that applications will be accepted from 12 September until 10 December 2025. Eligibility covers research group leaders, principal investigators or researchers employed by universities, non-profits or government-funded research institutes who aspire to commercialize their research via licensing or the creation of spin-out or spin-off companies, and who are based anywhere in the world except in sanction-sensitive countries.
The judging criteria include the originality and quality of the underpinning science; the presence of a commercially attractive and appropriate solution to a health need; the potential to build an intellectual property portfolio to enable commercialisation; the likelihood that successful market adoption could deliver meaningful human health benefits; and the aspiration and capability to explore translation and commercial potential.
Click here to read the original press release.
