Danielle Miles, Technology Innovation Manager at Grow MedTech, investigates how medical engineering plays a role across many aspects of medtech development and the ways in which it is being applied at some of our partner universities.
Over the last few months, the importance of medtech engineering has been brought into the public consciousness as never before. Engineering companies – from Formula 1 teams to Dyson – have stepped forward to increase the production of ventilators and protective equipment, to help the NHS deal with the coronavirus.
While it will be medical science, through vaccines, tests and treatments that provides an eventual route out of the crisis, engineering has proved critical to the immediate response.
The range of engineering companies involved has emphasized the multidisciplinary nature of medtech engineering. It draws on nearly all facets of engineering – chemical, electrical, mechanical, materials and more. But it must also work in tandem with medical expertise, to ensure that the engineering solutions proposed properly meet clinical needs.
At the University of Bradford, we’ve helped to build such a multidisciplinary team, bringing together three academics from different parts of the University to work together on developing synthetic vascular implants.
The aim is to enable surgeons to avoid taking blood vessels from other parts of the body for use in bypass surgery. Dr Farshid Sefat from the School of Engineering, Dr Jacobo Elies from Pharmacy and Medical Sciences and Dr Kirsten Riches-Suman from Chemistry and Biosciences have teamed up with two clinicians from Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust to take their project forward.
They are using a Grow MedTech Proof of Market grant to look at the commercial and market opportunities in this highly competitive field. Their aim is to develop an implant into which the body’s own cells will migrate, to help it work as effectively as blood vessels taken from the patient.
Engineering has always been part of the solution for healthcare and is becoming more important with the huge challenges now faced by our healthcare systems: rising costs, pressure on quality and safety, an aging population and growing numbers with chronic conditions, to name but a few.
MedTech engineering is helping us to tackle the broad challenges that affect us all, but it is also being brought to bear on more specific challenges where, although fewer stand to benefit, the potential impacts are life-changing.
At the University of York, for example, researchers are developing tissue engineering and biomaterials approaches to help treat hypospadias, a common genetic condition where boys are born with their urine hole in an abnormal position on the penis.
Surgery to correct the condition has mixed results, due to the lack of native tissue at the repair site. Professor Jennifer Southgate, in collaboration with colleagues from Leeds, has developed a means of removing cells from pig bladders to create a material with similar properties to the natural tissue for use in such surgical reconstructions.
With the help of Grow MedTech, she is now working with NHS Blood and Transplant to adapt the technique for donor human bladders. This will avoid some of the regulatory hurdles associated with the use of animal tissue to enable this material to reach the clinic much faster.
The UK has a rich heritage in medical technologies. The use of nuclear magnetic resonance for imaging and diagnostics was pioneered in the UK – and many millions now benefit from MRI scans across the world.
The UK was a pioneer too in orthopaedics, particularly joint replacements, and in the use of ultrasound. Initially, a technology used only for diagnosis and observation, especially pre-natal, ultrasound is now used for treating disease – as well as for many non-healthcare applications.
One such application developed by researchers at the University of Leeds involved using ultrasound to monitor nuclear waste. Now a team led by Dr James McLaughlan is being supported by Grow MedTech to use his expertise in this field for the treatment of cancer.
His work uses high-intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU. HIFU focuses ultrasound beams to a tiny area, the size of a grain of rice, which heats and so kills cancerous tissue.
Dr McLaughlan aims to develop a device that a surgeon could use both to identify and treat head and neck cancers without damaging any health tissue.
Grow MedTech funding will enable Dr McLaughlan to build and test a prototype device, engage with patients and map out the regulatory and market pathway for the technology.
The UK’s medical technology sector – in which medtech engineering plays a central role – accounts for six percent of the sector globally. And the Leeds and Sheffield City Regions have a concentration of medical technology companies and university research in this field, which Grow MedTech is helping to leverage.
All our partner universities have strengths in medical engineering, particularly the largest institution in the consortium, the University of Leeds. Healthcare technologies make up almost 20 percent of Leeds’ research portfolio, with particular expertise in medical and surgical engineering, wearable devices, bioelectronics, imaging and robotics.
It is surely no coincidence that the University has such a large Faculty of Engineering. Also important are Leeds’ close links to the teaching hospitals in the city, which help ensure clinical input on all medical engineering research.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals, for example, runs one of the largest in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinics in the UK, and its clinical director, Professor Adam Balen is a partner in a project at the University of Leeds to develop new methods to maintain the viability of human embryos during IVF.
Dr Virginia Pensabene in collaboration with Prof Helen Picton is developing a device for use in IVF that provides a safe, closed and precisely regulated microenvironment, more closely resembling an embryo’s natural growing conditions. This will provide an alternative to the current system, which sees embryos grown in open plastic dishes, overlaid with a potentially toxic mineral oil.
Grow MedTech funding is enabling the project team to assess the safety and toxicity of different materials for their device and validate the most promising. Key to the project is user engagement: with patients, the public as well as embryologists at other IVF clinics.
Our healthcare system pledges to care for us from cradle to grave and healthcare and medical engineering plays a role at every stage: from the pre-natal care to supporting the elderly; from diagnostics to improving public health.
The current crisis has brought the role of medtech engineering, usually invisible to the majority of patients, suddenly into full view. Once the crisis is behind us, hopefully, that visibility will remain.
Versus Arthritis and the Medical Technologies Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC) are offering Proof of Concept funding to progress research ideas with commercial potential.
The Proof of Concept awards provide support and up to £100,000 to accelerate exciting innovations that help the lives of people with musculoskeletal conditions.
Proposals are accepted from scientists, clinicians and allied healthcare professionals at eligible UK institutions, and collaborations with industry are encouraged.
Applications will be judged on the clinical need, potential market opportunity and industry confidence to progress the technology to market.
Versus Arthritis is the biggest funder of research into the cause, treatment and cure of all forms of arthritis in the UK. The long-standing partnership with the Medical Technologies IKC provides access to expertise in product development, speeding up route to market and reducing the risk of late-stage failure.
The revised deadline for applications is Tuesday 30 June 2020.
Further information is available from the Versus Arthritis website (opens in a new tab).
If you are interested in finding out more, contact Dr Graeme Howling (G.Howling@leeds.ac.uk) or Mandy Wilks (Research@versusarthritis.org).
As part of its Invention for Innovation (i4i) programme, the NIHR has recently launched the 20th round of its Product Development Awards (PDAs) in order to de-risk early-stage projects with strong potential for commercialisation and acceptance for use in the NHS, making them attractive to follow-on funders and investors.
Research proposals are invited from applicants based within the NHS Trust, a higher education institution or small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SME), but proposals must include applicants from at least two of these organisation types.
There is no upper funding limit for PDAs, but costs must be fully justified. Projects can be up to three years in duration.
The PDAs funding stream will support:
To learn more about the call, and for guidance on how to submit an application, visit the NIHR website here.
With support from Grow MedTech, Professor Grigoris Antoniou (pictured above) is working with the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis in adults.
It has been estimated that 1.5 million UK adults have ADHD, leading to a wide range of difficulties, jeopardising careers and relationships. Treatments are available, but diagnosis by the hard-pressed NHS can be slow.
Now, Professor Grigoris Antoniou at the University of Huddersfield has harnessed AI to speed up the process.
ADHD in adults has emotional symptoms that include extreme irritability, low self-esteem and sense of insecurity, trouble staying motivated and hypersensitivity to criticism.
These issues can result in poor organisational skills, trouble starting and finishing projects and chronic lateness. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has also said that people with the disorder were more likely to be involved in criminal behaviour or become suicidal.
Professor Antoniou is a globally-acknowledged expert in AI and has already helped to develop its potential to predict suicide risk in mental health patients.
He has now continued his research collaboration with the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SWYPFT) in order to show how the technology can be used to help diagnose ADHD in adults and whether further treatment is warranted.
“There are long and growing waiting lists and as people wait to be diagnosed and treated and this can result in adverse effects on their work, their social life and their family life,” said Professor Antoniou, adding that a reason for the lengthening waiting time is that there are few specialist clinicians able to do a full diagnosis.
“So, we set out to use AI to provide help with decisions. The idea is that the AI technology will be able to identify the clear-cut cases. In many cases, the data itself more or less tells us whether it is a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ for further treatment.
“The technology is fully embedded in a clinical pathway which ensures there will always be a clinician who can over-ride what the AI says,” continued Professor Antoniou.
The procedure is that the data routinely collected prior to ADHD diagnosis is fed into an AI algorithm. Three outcomes are the result: yes or no to further treatment or an unclear result that requires further assessment of the patient.
Professor Antoniou explained that two AI technologies had been harnessed for the project.
“One is machine learning-based. We took data from previous cases and trained a prediction model. The second method is knowledge-based. We worked with clinical experts and asked what their diagnosis would be if they are faced with this data. We then encoded this knowledge.”
The AI solution to diagnosis has been co-developed by Professor Antoniou with his collaborator Professor Marios Adamou, consultant psychiatrist at the South West Yorkshire NHS Trust and Visiting Professor at the University of Huddersfield.
“It is the close interplay of AI and medical expertise that has made this development possible,” Professor Antoniou said, “and it is important to have such interdisciplinary collaborations between computer science and health science at Huddersfield.”
This news item was written by the University of Huddersfield, click here to view the original article.
Translate MedTech were proud supporters of the MedTech Foundation’s recent COVID-19 Innovation Response Virtual Hackathon, which ran between Friday 3 April and Sunday 5 April and sought to address critical health-related issues resulting from COVID-19.
123 potential innovators (64 academics, 38 medical students, 12 industry representatives and 9 NHS doctors) gathered to address challenge topics ranging from hospital care and public health to health education and digital training.
Participants were split into multi-disciplinary teams, connected via online messaging, teleconferencing and file sharing platforms, and asked to each submit a project proposal and business canvass by the end of weekend.
The project teams successfully generated 12 unique solution concepts by the end of the virtual hackathon.
In the 11 days since, the following has been achieved:
William Bolton, NHS Doctor and MedTech Foundation Co-Founder said “This was the first hackathon we have run virtually, and I was unsure if it would work. I am pleased to report it went better than expected. The teams really took to it and there was so much interdisciplinary collaboration contributing to the fight against COVID-19.
It’s a timely reminder that working with different disciplines is essential in medtech, and now we know that we can do this virtually, it opens up a whole new direction for the MedTech Foundation.
Our work isn’t possible without the continued support of our long-term partners. A huge thank you goes particularly to Translate MedTech and the NIHR Surgical MIC for their support in delivering this hackathon and moving the ideas forward.”
The MedTech Foundation team hope to run more virtual innovation workshops and hackathons in the coming weeks. If you’d like to be involved, follow MedTech Foundation on Facebook or Twitter to be among the first to know when a new activity is launched.
We are continuously updating our website with opportunities for medtech innovators to provide support for frontline healthcare workers, click here to learn more.
Patrick Trotter, Head of Innovation and Commercialisation at Medilink North of England and contributor to our Opportunity Management Panel, highlights four immensely important aspects of innovation management that can be conducted during the lockdown to help ensure that future product development is de-risked.
Visit the Medilink North of England website to learn more about the support they offer.
Whilst the primary concern of everyone in the country at the minute, and rightly so, is to save lives, we need to ensure that we are protecting our economy.
We can do this by using our time effectively to make sure our medical device and in vitro diagnostics companies survive and indeed come out stronger, more resilient and able to grow in the new world.
The current lockdown and restrictions on movement are a worry to senior managers who are responsible for launching new products to market, maintaining market position (for existing products) and ensuring that they are maintaining full regulatory compliance.
This is potentiated by the knowledge that competitors, are in all probability, using the ‘lull’ as a means to orchestrate competitive advantage.
By default the lockdown is making us step back from our everyday lives of jumping from project to project, attending meeting after meeting and responding to an endless amount of emails and phone calls.
Our hectic lifestyles make us reactive rather than proactive, focusing on the urgent rather than the important.
In this post I highlight four immensely important aspects of innovation management that can be conducted during the lock down and help us focus on value and ensuring that future product development is de-risked and that future revenue and profitability is maximised.
Have you ever sat back and asked; “Where is my company going? What is our ambition? Where and what do we want to be?” A company vision articulates what your organisation aspires to be. A mission statement describes how you are going to get there and might also include your values and ethics.
Company vision and mission statements essentially help define the company’s innovation strategy and are a great way to communicate to those both inside and outside your organisation and are not only powerful drivers of growth but can help make sure that all are pulling in the right direction.
This is not a ‘large company thing’ or a ‘nice to have’. If you don’t have one or feel it’s not fit for purpose, now is the time to get this right and it determines your entire strategy and ability to grow.
One key fact is that all products or services have a life cycle and will eventually become obsolete, outdated or simply the competition will overtake us and do it better or cheaper. These changes in the market can creep up on us and can be a threat to the very existence of our organisations.
To grow and even to remain still we need be constantly evaluating our portfolio and ensuring that we have the right product mix. This relates not only to products or services that we have on the market but also to those we have in development.
Luckily there are a number of great innovation and management tools and techniques we can use to evaluate our existing portfolio, current R&D projects and to determine a road map for future projects.
Tools like the Boston matrix, Risk-Reward Bubble Diagrams and Multi-Generation Product Plans are immensely powerful can help ensure our organisations can weather any storm and enhance future profitability. If you are not using such tools now is the time to take action to enhance the value of your future product pipeline.
You now know your strategy and have identified gaps in your future portfolio, but how do you convert these into growth opportunities?
The first thing is to understand the market you wish to sell into. Key questions include what is the size and structure of the market? Who are the competitors? How are existing products regulated and reimbursed? What are the product indications and claims? What kind of evidence typically supports these? Does it fit in with an existing patient pathway or is pathway redesign necessary?
This information can be captured in a market report that will help you understand the opportunities, benefits, challenges and risks and importantly provide the right data and information that is critical when making the Go/No Go decision as to whether you wish to invest in a new R&D project.
This one activity is probably the most important part of new product development, but that companies often neglect. In essence, it kills bad project early and validates, as well as de-risk good projects enhancing the probability of commercial success.
If you don’t have market reports for products that are in development, now it is time to initiate these.
The Medical Device Regulations (MDR) and the In Vitro Diagnostics Regulations (IVDR) are undoubtedly a challenge with more documentation, a greater emphasis on identifying benefits and risk and the expectation of more clinical evidence to support product indications and claims.
If you have existing technical files, this is the time to improve them, or if you are developing new products this is the opportunity to get ahead of the game. Whether it’s a gap analysis of existing files, support with populating risk-benefit matrices, respond to feedback from a notified body, the need to commission a clinical evaluation report or performance evaluation report – now is the time to act.
The innovation and commercialisation team at Medilink North of England have the expertise and routinely work with companies to provide support in all these areas, so please contact us now and we can help you plan how to move forward.
This article was first published on the Medilink UK website – click here to view the original article.
This post was written by Viadynamics, the team that delivered Translate MedTech‘s recent Business Case Planning and Pitching training course. They wrote about their experience of adapting their course for virtual delivery on short notice.
We wanted to share this with our community as we feel it’s important to showcase examples of people successfully adapting to the current challenging circumstances in order to deliver innovation support within the region.
We are currently working with our delivery partners to understand whether upcoming Translate MedTech courses can also be delivered virtually. If you would be interested in taking part, you can still browse the courses on our website and register your interest.
Like organisations the world over, the Viadynamics team is now working virtually to safeguard our people – and to continue our mission to make innovation and enterprise happen. We have all located to our various home-offices, adapting to the ‘new normal’ – and finding new ways of working creatively and productively.
We hope you are all well and safe, and that you too are managing your way through the lockdown, both personally and professionally.
Over the last few years we have been delivering a range of enterprise training courses and seminars to academics and students. For the most part these have been face-to-face events, where delegates bring their own projects, and work on them throughout.
We believe in ‘learning by doing’ – building enterprise capability while accelerating and de-risking opportunities. We use a variety of frameworks, relevant examples and group work – and it’s a formula that works, with consistently positive feedback.
We recently ran our first full-day virtual enterprise workshop using an online video collaboration platform with a cohort of academics from six Universities in the Leeds and Sheffield City Regions.
Leveraging features including virtual break-out rooms and other online tools, we were able to come really close to achieving the interactive face-to-face workshops that we love to run.
We judged it a success, as did our client Translate MedTech. We would particularly like to thank Mohua Siddique and Danielle Miles for taking the leap of faith with us and sticking to the plan for delivering the course as scheduled, as well as the delegates for participating so actively in this ‘experiment’.
Here are some examples of delegates’ take on the day:
‘The use of [virtual conferencing platform] worked well and the breakout room function was great’
‘It was a really good event and glad you still delivered it – keep up the good work!’
‘Extremely useful guidelines and tools to assess a potential business opportunity….useful for academics to get exposed to the business side’.
We are keen to do more! To chat through how we might be able to support your Institution – or indeed if you are planning to run an interactive training event and would like us to share some top tips, please do contact us.
We can set up a videoconference, demonstrate some of the features we have found particularly useful, and explore how we might be able to support you in this ‘new normal’.
Viadynamics has over twenty-one years’ experience of helping global businesses, start-ups, universities, GOs and NGOs to address innovation opportunities, challenges and dilemmas.
They design and deliver training courses, seminars and accelerator programmes to up-skill people and accelerate opportunities. They also provide mentorship, market specialists and domain experts to new and growing ventures.
You can learn more about them on their website here.
The UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL), have made their full library of 19 measurement-focused e-Learning courses free to access until 30 June 2020.
To help and to ensure students and those working in academia across the UK are able to continue to develop industry applicable skills, NPL – the UK’s National Measurement Institute – is making its full suite of online training available at no charge.
The complete online catalogue of e-Learning content, including courses which may have cost up to £700, covers a variety of different content – including metrology, dimensional measurement and a range of specialised application areas.
We encourage any medtech innovators within our community that could potentially benefit from upskilling in this area to browse the available courses.
The courses allow you to work at your own pace, and full certificates and qualifications are provided on completion.
The NPL team welcome emails from anyone that has questions about the courses – click here to get in touch with their team.
Proposals are invited for short-term projects addressing and mitigating the health, social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.
UKRI will support excellent proposals of 12-18 months duration which meet at least one of the following:
If a grant is awarded, UKRI will provide funding at 80% of the full economic cost (fEC).
Proposals will be accepted from anyone who is normally eligible to apply for UKRI funding. You will need to show that you can start work within 4 weeks of the funding being confirmed.
Researchers holding existing UKRI standard grants can apply to switch their funding to address the objectives of this call.
Only one active bid can be under submission from a researcher or business at any time.
To apply you need to:
We know that many in our medtech community are eager to provide support for frontline healthcare workers in light of the challenges that they are currently experiencing.
To make it easier to find opportunities to contribute, we’ll continually update this page* with relevant calls posted by our partners so that you have them all in one place.
*Page last updated on Friday 17 July 2020.
The awards will provide travel and subsistence funding to appropriately qualified public health professionals, clinicians and academics who wish to offer science and technical advice to support the immediate response to COVID-19 in low and middle-income countries.
The awards are open to applicants who have a substantive position at a UK higher education institution or research organisation.
Applications are open until further notice, on a rolling basis. Applications should ideally be submitted at least 2 weeks before planned travel.
Click here for more details.
Up to £210 million is available in continuity loans to SMEs and third sector organisations that have a challenge in continuing a live project for which they are have an award from Innovate UK.
Loans are for organisations that that find themselves facing a sudden shortage or even unavailability of funds resulting directly from the COVID-19 pandemic.
This innovation continuity loan may be suitable if you need funding of between £250,000 and £1,600,000.
This continuity loan funding will be open until all the funds are allocated or until 31st December 2020, whichever is sooner.
For more details of the funding available, click here.
Merck are offering a grant comprising up to 500,000 €/year for 3 years, with the option of extension.
Proposals will be considered that leverage technological solutions to be more prepared for pandemic outbreaks or solutions that could help to fight emerging viral infections.
There is no fixed deadline for the Pandemic Preparedness funding, since applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Click here to learn more.
The Future Fund scheme is offering loans ranging from £125,000 to £5 million to innovative UK companies with good potential, that typically rely on equity investment and are currently affected by COVID-19.
The scheme, designed by government and delivered by the British Business Bank, aims to help these companies through the current period of economic disruption and the recovery, so they are able to continue their growth trajectory and reach their full economic potential.
Amounts of Future Fund loans must be at least matched by co-investment from investors.
Application deadline: 30 September 2020
Click here to learn more about the scheme and how to apply.
Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £55 million to fund single and collaborative research and development projects as part of the Sustainable Innovation Fund.
Proposed projects must have a total eligible costs between £100,000 and £500,000. Each organisation working alone or in a collaboration can claim a maximum of £175,000.
The aim of this competition is to help all sectors of the UK rebuild after the effects of Covid-19.
All projects must be led by a business and include at least one SME. Proposals can either be from a single business or a collaboration.
Proposals must show evidence of key challenges as a direct consequence of COVID-19, and how your project can help solve them.
An online briefing event which provides additional information about this call was held on 3 July 2020, and a link to the recording can be found here.
Deadline for applications: 29 July 2020.
Click here to learn more about the call and how to apply.
Proposals are invited for short-term projects addressing and mitigating the health, social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak in Low and Middle-Income Countries.
This call is funded through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and the Newton Fund which seeks to address global challenges through disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, and strengthen capability for research and innovation within both the UK and developing countries.
There is no specific budget for this call, instead the funders are interested in supporting research of any scale that can demonstrate it will deliver impact during the lifetime of the project.
ViiV Healthcare has announced a Request for Research Proposals for Investigator Sponsored Studies (ISS).
This call supports basic and clinical research studies within specific areas of interest, with the goal of improving understanding and management of the COVID-19 pandemic in people living with HIV.
A call for research proposals on the risk factors, transmission and prevalence of COVID-19 has been launched by UKRI and the NIHR.
The research funded will help inform policy decisions during the pandemic, including possible decisions about infection prevention strategies and relaxation of existing containment measures.
Learn more about the call here.
A new initiative, led by Wellcome and UKRI, will allow UK scientists to access protein reagents needed for critical research relating to SARS-CoV-2 free of charge from a consortium of leading protein production laboratories.
The COVID-19 Protein Portal contains a searchable database of reagents, including viral proteins, human proteins and antibodies relevant for SARS-CoV-2 biology. Each reagent is annotated with key information, including sequence, origin, and SDS-page results.
To access the reagents, researchers select the proteins they require from the database and submit their request with a short research proposal. All requests will be subject to rapid peer review, to enable the coordination and prioritisation of reagent allocation based on scientific merit and the urgency of the request.
Once approved, a request will be allocated to one of the CPPC’s expert protein production laboratories, all of whom are committed to providing high-quality reagents as quickly as possible.
The NIHR-BHF Cardiovascular Partnership are now welcoming proposals from the cardiovascular research community for COVID-19 flagship projects.
The flagship projects selected through this framework will be put forward for national approval and the NIHR-BHF team will look to leaders of infrastructure to support the research that is approved within their centres.
Click here to learn about the opportunity and how to submit a proposal.
There is emerging evidence of an association between ethnicity and COVID-19 incidence and adverse health outcomes. There are also concerns that healthcare and other key workers who belong to black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups may be particularly at risk.
To further understand this correlation, UKRI and NIHR welcome research proposals in two areas:
Research could include:
This highlight notice will be supported through the joint UKRI-NIHR COVID-19 rapid response rolling call. Details of this call, including eligibility and how to apply, are available on the NIHR website.
This is a rolling call so there is no set deadline for applications.
Diamond is offering researchers access to their instruments in an effort to support research which brings us closer to an effective vaccine or treatment for COVID-19.
Based on the number and nature of requests for priority rapid access, Diamond will make every effort to satisfy research priorities.
Submit a proposal for COVID-19 related research using the rapid access form here.
A new web platform has been set up by the Department of Health and Social Care, the UK Bioindustry Association, British In Vitro Diagnostics Association and the Royal College of Pathologists to support the drive to achieve 100,000 coronavirus tests per day by the end of April.
In addition to scaling up existing technologies and channels, the government is looking for innovative solutions in specific areas. Solutions, ideas and comments can be uploaded to the platform, focusing on four key challenges:
Learn more about the call here.
Building on the initial calls of their Initiative, DHSC, through the NIHR, and UKRI are jointly launching a rolling call for proposals for rapid research into COVID-19.
This call is to support UK-led academic, SME and wider industry research that will address a wide range of COVID-19 knowledge gaps/needs, and which will lead to a benefit in UK, and potentially international, public health within 12 months.
Eligibility
Academic Principal Investigators applying for this call must be hosted by a UK institution which is eligible for UKRI funding.
Applications from SMEs (including start-up or ‘spin-out’ companies), government arms-length bodies, and NHS organisations (including NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts), and equivalent UK authorities are also encouraged in alignment with NIHR funding policies, where these organisations are the lead applicant.
Awards to UK-based, non-SME commercial entities will be also considered.
Click here for all details about the call, and to apply.
The Royal Academy of Engineering is keen to help identify potential solutions and facilitate useful contacts across its national and international engineering networks that could help our governments solve problems and assist the public health response.
There is an immediate need for ventilator manufacture, but they want to encourage innovation and ideas across all areas, including healthcare systems, critical infrastructure, business management and supply chain.
If you don’t feel able to respond to the specific requests below, there are still ways that you as an engineering professional can help with the effort to address the coronavirus, you can get in touch with the UK’s Royal Society via their online form.
The Defense and Security Accelerator (DASA) is currently seeking any idea or novel approach that could boost the Ministry of Defence’s capabilities in support of the national effort against Coronavirus (Covid-19).
Proposals should be clear as to whether they seek to address the current COVID-19 threat or future similar scenarios. Proposals addressing the current pandemic must have the ability or relevant permissions to successfully deliver the project despite current working restrictions.
Proposals for products or services that are already available on the market to solve challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic will not be considered.
No funding limit is specified, however, proposals must demonstrate value for money. In addition, proposals for work completed on or before 31 March 2021 are in scope, but those that offer faster delivery are preferred.
Click here to learn more.
The US Department of Defense, under its peer-reviewed medical research programme, invites applications for its investigator-initiated research award for emerging viral diseases and respiratory health.
This supports studies that will make an important contribution toward research or patient care in the areas of emerging viral diseases and respiratory health. Research must address at least one of the emerging viral diseases or respiratory health focus areas related to COVID-19 and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Projects may focus on any phase of research from basic laboratory research through to translational research but must have the potential to yield highly impactful data that could lead to critical discoveries or major advancements.
Independent investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor based at any organisation anywhere in the world may apply.
Click here to learn more.
The National Library of Medicine invites applications for its notice of special interest – administrative supplements for research on COVID-19 funding opportunity.
Research is expected to focus on informatics and data science methods to help address the COVID-19 pandemic and should address one of the following areas of interest:
UK institutions are eligible to apply, but must already hold an active parent award.
Click here to learn more.
COVID-19 Urgent Public Health Research is being prioritised to gather the necessary clinical and epidemiological evidence that will inform national policy and enable new diagnostic tests, treatments and vaccines to be developed and tested for COVID-19.
Government support is available to prioritise, coordinate and deliver these studies, regardless of sponsorship and funding source. This support includes expedited identification of sites to ensure appropriate geographical distribution of Urgent Public Health Research to maximise recruitment and minimise over-commitment of resource.
Learn more about this support opportunity here.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) are inviting proposals for short-term projects addressing and mitigating the health, social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.
UKRI will support excellent proposals of 12-18 months duration which meet at least one of the following:
Applications can be submitted at any time, see the UKRI website for full details.
In this rapidly evolving situation, Parliament needs quick access to researchers who can provide expert insights relating to both Coronavirus and its impacts.
Parliament and Parliamentarians use these insights to help carry out their function effectively; that is to say, to represent the people, scrutinise the Government, debate important and pressing issues and pass legislation.
To speed up the process of Parliament accessing relevant research expertise, Parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit (KEU) are creating a COVID-19 Outbreak Expert Database.
If you feel you have any expertise relating to the COVID-19 outbreak or its impacts, the KEU would be very grateful if you would sign up to the database.
Signing up does not commit you to contribute in any way, it’s simply so that Parliament has your details to hand and can contact you very rapidly; if they contact you and you aren’t able to respond, they will fully understand.
You can find the link to the sign-up form here here.
The Surgical MIC has just launched its PPE Challenge to protect front line workers from COVID-19 and keep health services functioning.
They have a team of clinicians and academics on standby to receive your challenges and solutions. Once they receive your entries, this team will prioritise those challenges and solutions in an effort to get them to the frontline during this pandemic.
They will be updating their website with the challenges they receive. If you work within the NHS and would like to lead on any of the ideas presented, then please contact them by emailing surgicalmic@leeds.ac.uk.
*the application deadline for this opportunity has now passed.
Mental health research is critical to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological, psychiatric and social functioning, and how to effectively mitigate this impact.
This highlight notice by UKRI is to call for research proposals with potential for significant public mental health impact within 12 months and encourage proposals focussing on preventative approaches/interventions.
The aim is to reduce the emergence of new, and exacerbation of existing, mental health problems, and to improve outcomes for those whose mental health has already been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deadline for applications: Monday 22 June 2020
Click here to learn more about the call and how to apply.
*the application deadline for this opportunity has now passed.
Welsh Government have announced a new funding competition for digital solutions to help fight Covid-19. The competition is being supported by Digital Health Ecosystem Wales and funding is available for between five and eight projects to rapidly pilot products and solutions.
The competition is open to any UK business who has a digital solution to fight COVID-19. The solution must be developed and ready for testing during the application process. All solutions must tackle one of four themed areas:
The deadline for applications is Monday 8 June 2020 at 9 am. Click here to learn more.
*the application deadline for this opportunity has now passed.
Elrha is launching an urgent funding call for research proposals to support the COVID-19 response in humanitarian settings.
The call aims to fund public health research that will produce robust findings that will contribute to the effectiveness of the current humanitarian response and increase the evidence base for future responses to similar infectious disease outbreaks.
Proposals must demonstrate how findings will directly inform the response to the current COVID-19 outbreak in humanitarian settings such as refugee camps or conflict-affected countries (e.g. in Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia etc.).
Applications will be reviewed in rounds with deadlines as follows:
*the application deadline for this opportunity has now passed.
Invention for Innovation (i4i) Product Development Awards (PDA) support innovations at any stage of the translational research and development pathway, including the clinical development of laboratory-validated technologies or interventions.
The i4i funding programme is participating in the 2020 NIHR Themed Call: ‘Injuries, accidents and urgent and emergency care’. For more information please see the specification document on the themed calls NIHR website.
This funding stream is researcher-led and does not specify topics for research. Research proposals must include applicants from two organisation types: an NHS Trust, higher education institution or small-to-medium-sized enterprise (SME). There is no upper funding limit for Product Development Awards, but costs must be fully justified. Projects can be up to three years in duration.
The deadline for applications is 3 June 2020. Click here to learn more.
*the application deadline for this opportunity has now passed.
Microsoft is accepting requests for the AI for Health programme for COVID-19 grant proposals from non-profits, academia, and governments. A focused effort for COVID-19 grant requests only, Microsoft will accept grants until 15 June 2020.
This grant programme provides Azure cloud and High-Performance Computing capabilities, as well as Microsoft’s team of AI for Health data science experts, whose mission is to improve the health of people and communities worldwide for collaborations with COVID-19 researchers as they tackle this critical challenge.
Click here to learn more about the grant and to submit an application.
*the application deadline for this opportunity has now passed.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust (LTHT) is at the forefront of the national agenda in undertaking strategic research to:
In the coming weeks and months LTHT anticipate that they will be asked to send out a number of Patient Involvement Opportunities (PIO) relating to COVID -19.
This is likely to include surveys, patient information sheets to read and give feedback on, proposals for research studies to review etc. The timescales for feedback will most likely differ with what they would usually ask due to the speed that they are currently trying to establish new studies.
If you would like to hear about opportunities to get involved with PIO, complete the Patient and Public Involvement in COVID-19 Research details at the very bottom of this page on their website, and submit your details by Wednesday 22nd April.
*the application deadline for this opportunity has now passed.
Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will invest up to £20 million in innovation projects.
The aim of this competition is to support UK businesses to focus on emerging or increasing needs of society and industries during and following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Applications must demonstrate both realistic and significant benefits for society (including communities, families and individuals) or an industry that has been severely impacted and/or permanently disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
You must have the ability to deliver the project during the working restrictions of COVID-19 pandemic. As part of this grant, you can claim 100% of project costs up to the maximum of £50,000. These will be paid in advance of the project start date.
Projects will be monitored and evaluated by Innovate UK during implementation with a view to providing follow-on funding and support for those with the most potential for impact.
To learn more about the call, and for detailed guidance on how to submit an application, visit the funding page by clicking here.
The competition closes at midday 12 noon, 17 April 2020.