Cleveland startup accelerator BioMotiv is partnering with the specialty life sciences investment firm Torrey Pines to co-fund early-stage, innovative ideas from academia that hold promise for new medicines.

The partnership aims to help startups and academics traverse the so-called “valley of death” they often encounter when seeking funding to develop their ideas to a stage that will validate its commercial potential. Torrey Pines will commit up to $20 million to the partnership over the next seven years.

Under their agreement, San Diego-based Torrey Pines and BioMotiv will jointly invest in promising academic ideas to accelerate their path to proof-of-concept. The partners plan to look globally for technologies across multiple therapeutic areas and disease targets, taking advantage of each other’s networks, resources, and expertise.

“Torrey Pines Investment is committed to new models of efficient therapeutic development and thus is an aligned investment partner for BioMotiv,” says Baiju Shah, CEO of BioMotiv. “In addition, their network provides BioMotiv access to new technology sources and experienced development capabilities.”

BioMotiv is the for-profit drug development arm of the Harrington Project for Drug Discovery and Development, a unique $250 million national initiative created in 2012 to support the discovery and development of breakthrough discoveries by physician-scientists.

On its website, BioMotiv says its business model bridges the early-stage development gap and “serves as the formerly ‘missing middle portal’ between the upstream academic medical centers and the downstream biopharmaceutical companies and venture firms.”

Its business model is to build a portfolio of innovative compounds in-licensed from academic medical centers and advance the discoveries to a stage where they can be out-licensed to pharmaceutical companies or venture capitalists. It has already raised $46 million of a planned $100 million in funding.

Torrey Pines Investment, founded in 2002, has helped create life sciences incubators. Its portfolio includes Russia’s ChemRar high-tech center, which was established with the mission of developing and launching innovative medicines in Russia.