Lifebit Launches Impact Fund to Support Lower-Income Countries in Research

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, October 8, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- Lifebit, a leading provider of secure biomedical data platforms and Trusted Research Environments (TREs), has launched an Impact Fund aimed at helping lower-income countries and research organizations overcome the challenges of securing research funding. The fund seeks to address a significant gap in the global research landscape, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where genomic studies and clinical trials remain concentrated in high-income countries and predominantly among people of European ancestry.

The fund, which is designed to support organizations in building secure computing environments and well-organized data infrastructure, follows a new Lancet Oncology Commission that calls for data from LMICs to be integrated into genomic research. According to Dr. Maria Dunford, CEO and co-founder of Lifebit, securing funding for health research often presents a "chicken-and-egg problem," especially in lower-income countries.

The Lifebit Impact Fund offers free access to the company's Trusted Research Environment for three to twelve months. This platform allows approved researchers to analyze sensitive health data while ensuring that the data remains in the organization's own cloud environment. Recipients also receive expert support to standardize their data, build analytical workflows, and connect research sites. When the fund ends, organizations retain the results, the harmonized data, and the workflows, with no obligation to continue using Lifebit's platform.

The fund is open for applications until 31 December 2026. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, with decisions made within 14 business days.

The release highlights that only 2% of nearly 48,000 registered biomarker-based cancer trial locations worldwide between 1999 and 2025 were in LMICs, compared with 81% in high-income countries. This disparity in genomic reference data skews towards European ancestry, leaving patients of other ancestries more likely to receive genetic results of uncertain significance and less likely to receive results that point to a treatment. The Lifebit Impact Fund aims to close this gap by enabling under-represented regions to leverage their existing data.

The fund represents a significant step in addressing the funding challenges faced by lower-income countries and research organizations, potentially paving the way for more inclusive and representative genomic research.