Wakam and the FondaMental Foundation create the Precision Mind Award to support Franco-British research on biomarkers in psychiatry
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Following the signing of the Franco-British consortium agreement on biomarkers in psychiatry at the French Embassy in London on 27th October 2025, Wakam and the FondaMental Foundation announced the launch of the Precision Mind Award. Its objective: to support Franco-British research projects in developing precision psychiatry through the identification and validation of biomarkers (biological indicators that enrich diagnostic classifications in order to identify, monitor, or predict the progression of mental illness).
These biomarkers will enable a better understanding of the causes of mental illness and allow for earlier and more accurate diagnoses, leading to more effective and personalised treatment strategies.
Supporting the new Franco-British consortium for precision psychiatry
According to the latest data published by the World Health Organisation (WHO), over a billion people worldwide are affected by mental illness. However, this can be avoided. Recent advances (blood biomarkers, brain imaging, and digital tools) are paving the way for precision psychiatry. The challenge now is to greenlight these discoveries and transform them into clinical tools recognised by health authorities.
France and the United Kingdom are pioneers in this field, launching in October 2025 a joint consortium on biomarkers in psychiatry. This will support collaboration between research teams in both countries to accelerate the transition from basic research to clinical practice.
In the same spirit, the Precision Mind Prize will support collaborative research projects, encouraging knowledge sharing and the pooling of data from French and British cohorts.
The Wakam-FondaMental Precision Mind Prize to accelerate research on biomarkers in psychiatry
Major scientific advances are born out of international cooperation. The Global Neurodegeneration Proteomics Consortium (GNPC) demonstrated this spectacularly in July 2025 by achieving the world’s first identification of robust blood signatures for Alzheimer’s disease, paving the way for a radical change in research and diagnosis.
Following this example, Wakam has joined forces with the FondaMental Foundation to create the Precision Mind Award, which aims to support the work of the new Franco-British consortium and promote the development of approved biomarkers in precision psychiatry.
Intended for researchers from both countries, the prize will reward a collaborative research project focussed on the identification and validation of biomarkers in psychiatry. Selected projects must:
- Develop diagnostic, prognostic, and stratification tools;
- Improve the identification of homogeneous clinical forms and understanding of the mechanisms underlying mental illness;
- Lay the foundations for personalised medicine tailored to each patient’s biological profile;
Who can apply?
The project will be open to French and British teams working on a collaborative research project aimed at discovering, validating, and implementing a blood biomarker for stratification and/or prognosis in psychiatry. The first call for projects will be launched in November 2025.
The teams that win the Precision Mind award will receive €250,000 in funding, following selection by a jury of French and British experts. The first Precision Mind award will be presented in spring 2026.
Mental health, a lever for a stronger society
This initiative reflects Wakam’s belief that no society can progress sustainably if it neglects psychological well-being. The Precision Mind Award embodies this responsibility and promise: to act today to accelerate research and lay the foundations for a mentally healthier, more resilient, and more inclusive society.
It also aligns with Wakam’s raison d’être as a mission-driven company, one of whose pillars is the Wakam for Good endowment fund, which supports projects with a strong social and societal impact.
“Economic and social changes – virtual economy, living better and longer, mobility, singleton – are accelerating vulnerabilities. As insurers, we believe that innovation and progress must serve humanity. The choice to support a Franco-British consortium is no coincidence: it reflects our presence, with one company in the United Kingdom and another in continental Europe, and expresses our conviction that cutting-edge research can only be conducted on an international scale. The Precision Mind Award will help accelerate research in precision mental health and pave the way for truly personalized medicine.”
Catherine Charrier-Leflaive, Wakam Group CEO and Chairman of Wakam for Good, Wakam endowment Fund
“Just as pooling international resources enabled the scaling of precision oncology, the Precision Mind Award aims to support the new consortium to drastically accelerate the development of precision psychiatry. Beyond enabling better and more precise care for patients, this research will also help reduce stigma by showing that many mental illnesses are, in fact, physiological conditions.”
Olivier Jaillon, Chairman of the Board - Wakam Group
“We would like to thank Wakam for its decisive commitment to our cause. This award aims to be a real catalyst for Franco-British research in precision psychiatry. It strengthens international scientific cooperation and invites researchers, start-ups, and companies to join forces to transform our understanding of mental illness and accelerate the development of personalised treatments for each patient.”
Marion Leboyer, Executive Director of the FondaMental Foundation
The FondaMental Foundation: innovating to overcome mental illness
Created in 2007 at the initiative of the French Ministry of Research and dedicated to scientific cooperation in the field of severe mental disorders, the FondaMental Foundation has the following missions: to advance cutting-edge research, to innovate in diagnosis and treatment, to contribute to the training of healthcare professionals, to inform the public and to unite the various stakeholders both nationally and internationally.
It focuses its efforts on schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, resistant depression and autism spectrum disorders, to offer promising responses to the scientific and medical community, to patients and their families.
FondaMental is a non-profit foundation which relies on both public and private funding to promote and share French scientific expertise internationally, to achieve significant results quickly thus helping to overcome mental disorders.
About Wakam
Wakam is a B2B2C insurer specialising in designing tailor-made insurance solutions for its distribution partners.
Wakam designs and operates white label insurance products that are integrated directly into its partners› customer journeys. Thanks to open APIs and an advanced Plug & Play® technology platform, Wakam is able to co-create insurance solutions and deploy them across Europe in a short time frame.
Wakam is the European leader in the embedded insurance market. It operates throughout continental Europe, with a subsidiary in the United Kingdom, and will generate nearly €1 billion in revenue in 2023, 70% of which will come from international markets.
Press contacts:
- Fondation FondaMental : Mathilde Couderc – mathilde.couderc@agence-constance.fr – +33 7 57 68 30 62
- Wakam : Antoine Mathot – antoine.mathot@pattern-strategy.fr – +33 6 70 54 19 20
