Research led by The University of Birmingham has been awarded the 50th European Industrial Doctorate grant of €1.5m.

The European Commission has awarded its 50th European Industrial Doctorate (EID) grant of €1.5 million (£1.3m) for research into new antibodies that will destroy a tumour's blood vessels and eradicate the tumour.

The VAMPIRE project ('Vascular Antibody-Mediated Pharmaceutically Induced tumour Resection') is led by the University of Birmingham and SomantiX, a Dutch biotech company based in Utrecht.

The research is supported by associated European universities, companies and research centres including Swiss science and technology university ETH Zurich and the charity Cancer Research UK.

The EID scheme is targeted at projects which bring together business and academic partners in two countries.