Major funding boost for internationally-recognised healthcare research centres

Three interdisciplinary research consortia, including the University of Bristol's SPHERE project, have been allocated more than £11 million to continue healthcare sensing systems research that is revolutionising how we identify and respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases, diagnose and manage lung diseases, and recognise and solve emerging health and wellbeing issues in the home environment.

Science Minister Jo Johnson announced additional funding for the three Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations (IRCs) last week ]Thursday 7 December]. When partner funding is included, almost £14 million is being invested in the three IRCs.

He said: "This additional £11 million investment will enable vital collaborations to continue addressing many of the most pressing health and wellbeing issues, boosting the UK's status as an innovation nation.

"Research and development are central to building a Britain that’s fit for the future. Through our new Industrial Strategy and further investment of £2.3 billion, we are working with industry to remain at the cutting edge of scientific discovery."

EPSRC's IRCs are centres of internationally acknowledged scientific and technological excellence, bringing together researchers, clinicians, industry and other professionals to make a real impact in areas of key future industrial relevance to the UK.

The three IRCs are:

-        i-sense, led by UCL, is engineering a new generation of agile, early-warning sensing systems to identify outbreaks of infectious diseases such as HIV, MRSA and flu much earlier than before, helping people gain faster access to care and protecting populations

-        PROTEUS, led by the University of Edinburgh, is pioneering new fibre optic, sensing, imaging and signal processing approaches to revolutionise how lung diseases such as asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia are diagnosed and managed within the intensive care environment

-        SPHERE (Sensor Platform for HEalthcare in a Residential Environment), led by the University of Bristol, is developing sensors for use in the home in order to spot health and wellbeing problems ranging from depression and obesity to cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases

The next steps funding announced today will provide the IRCs with the support they need to become three self-sustaining centres of excellence in the respective areas of sensing in healthcare.

All three IRCs have made significant progress in their first four years; researchers at PROTEUS developed a camera that can 'see' through the body and have; a team at i-sense has developed mobile phone-connected tests to diagnose infections, including HIV and Ebola, in low resource settings; and SPHERE was named as the winner of the health and technology category at the 2016 World Technology Awards.

EPSRC Chief Executive, Professor Philip Nelson, said: "It is through innovative thinking and collaboration that we will address the biggest health and wellbeing issues facing society, and these three IRCs are the embodiment of that approach.

"They have already achieved a great deal in their first four years, and this additional funding will provide a springboard for them to realise yet more of their great potential and become thriving centres of excellence."

The three IRCs were initially established in 2013 with a £32 million investment by EPSRC. The IRCs Next Steps funding will support activities at the IRCs following the end of their current grants, in September 2018.