NIHR – News and Research

NIHR launches £56 million new funding competition for public health research – The NIHR has launched a new funding competition to allocate up to £56 million of funding over 5 years to public health research. The competition will award funding from the Department of Health and Social Care to 14 NIHR Health Protection Research Units (HPRUs) – partnerships between academic institutions and Public Health England (PHE). These new units will act as centres of excellence in multidisciplinary health protection research in England.

We need your help so more can people be part of research – The UK Clinical Trials Gateway makes it possible for anyone to find research studies and get involved. We’re making improvements to the service, but we need your help to make it the best it can be. Through online surveys and face-to-face sessions we want to hear your views as our new website develops. Sign up to take part

Mental health stigma worse in London and south of England – New research from the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre suggests that people living in London and the south of England have more negative attitudes towards mental health problems than those in other areas of the country.

Hold the date: intellectual property webinar for researchers – This webinar will provide an introduction to intellectual property (IP) to help researchers understand how NIHR approaches IP issues when contracting, monitoring and reviewing requests to commercialise the IP.   12-1pm, Wednesday 27 March

Research Professional Updates

Wellcome Trust promises to consult widely on science review – The UK’s largest charitable research funder has pledged to be outward-looking in its review of how it funds science.

Reassurance on no-deal funding ‘too little, too late’ – Researchers have welcomed the government’s promise to not use money from the existing science budget to underwrite European Union research grants in the event of a no-deal Brexit, but the reassurance has not assuaged fears that research will be crippled by the UK crashing out of the EU.

UK exit from European institute sparks outcry – ‘Flawed’ reasoning behind European University Institute departure.  Leading academics have condemned a government decision to give up the UK’s membership of an acclaimed pan-European research institute, questioning the legal need to do so.

Government pledges to increase transparency of clinical research – The UK government and the Health Research Authority, the agency responsible for the governance of clinical trials, are developing a strategy to enhance transparency around such research.

Skidmore: Cash to underwrite EU grants not from science budget – Any funding made available by the UK government to underwrite successful Horizon 2020 bids in the event of a no-deal Brexit will not be from existing departmental budgets, the science minister has confirmed.

Innovate UK – February 2019

Tell us about the Horizon 2020 grants you hold -The Horizon 2020 programme offers UK companies a significant opportunity to access new knowledge, markets, customers and suppliers.  If you are one of the grant recipients we need your details to keep you informed, as we prepare for all possible eventualities with the UK leaving the EU.  Read more

Bionic arm start up secures £4.6 million to go global – More children and young people are set to benefit from 3D printed ‘hero’ arm, which has received support through Innovate UK’s SBRI programme.  This will allow Open Bionics to scale up its bespoke prosthetic arms manufacturing capabilities to serve the UK and overseas markets, including the US.  Read more

Shortlisted Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Areas Announced –  shortlist

Improve cyber security in the Internet of Things: funding available – Connected devices and sensors in our homes and workplaces – known as the Internet of Things (IoT) – offer huge potential for improving how we live and move around.  There is up to £6 million available to support new ideas that can help keep connected devices and applications safe and secure.  Read more

 

 

NIHR Life Sciences Industry

What the NHS National Directive on Commercial Contract Research Studies means for the life sciences sector – The introduction of a National Directive on Commercial Contract Research, jointly developed by NHS England, HRA and NIHR, enables a study-based approach to the costing and contracting elements for speeding up set-up times for commercial contract research. New information has been released outlining what this means for the life sciences sector.  Read more

Digital GP consultations need rigorous evaluation before widespread use – The new NHS 10-year plan launched in January states all patients in England will have access to a “digital first primary care offer”, such as GP online consultations, by 2022/23. Online consultations have the potential to improve patient access and reduce face-to-face contacts, freeing up GP time. But research led by NIHR CLAHRC West and the Centre for Academic Primary Care at the University of Bristol, in collaboration with eConsult, found that unless these systems are carefully implemented, they will not yield the benefits policymakers are hoping for.  Read more.

NIHR Roadshow for Medical/Digital Health Technology SMEs – Are you a medical technology company looking for funding, guidance or collaborators? The NIHR Roadshow for Medical/Digital Health Technology SMEs will be held in Bristol on 4 March and Plymouth on the 27 March. At the roadshow, companies can find out more about:

• the mission, strategic priorities and activities of the NIHR
• opportunities for SMEs via our funding programmes
• how we support SMEs in the conduct of clinical trials
• how we help SMEs to formulate research plans and find collaborators, supporting centres and facilities for R&D

 

AdvanceHE February Update

 

Advance HE awards 10,000th Senior Fellowship -Dr John Eales, Associate Head (Teaching and Learning) in the School of Computing, Electronics and Mathematics at the University of Plymouth is Advance HE’s 10,000th Senior Fellow. In total John has taught across five faculties within the University of Plymouth and has been teaching for over 28 years. To listen to his interview click here

Future Learning Spaces in Higher Education – Future learning spaces in higher education by Dr Sam Elkington brings together a mix of academic, researcher, senior leader and estates personnel, to share examples of excellence in learning space design and practice, providing the opportunity for inter-professional collaboration and development.  To read more click here

Teaching and Learning Conference 2019 – 2 – 4 July 2019.  Book by 2 June to get 15% off

NIHR – Funding alert

The following new funding opportunities are available:

Health Services and Delivery Research Programme
19/13 Support interventions for carers
19/14 Community health and care services to support people with learning disabilities and behaviour that challenges, and their families and carers
For more information and a list of all current funding opportunities, please visit the NIHR website

NESTA -Podcast for the curious minds

Are you curious about what the future holds? The brand new podcast series launches this week, exploring bold ideas to tackle the greatest challenges of our time.

In the first episode of Future Curious, collective intelligence is explored; group thinking that uses technology like artificial intelligence (AI) or web based platforms, to facilitate or complement human knowledge. Could collective intelligence help us tackle the biggest issues facing the world in a smarter way?

Find out what leading experts think and listen to a real-life example of collective intelligence being used in the field of health!  To access click here

Dementia 2020

Roadmap to delivery, 30th April 2019, Royal Society of Medicine, London

Now the most established annual Dementia conference in England – the Govconnect 2020 series now in it’s 4th year has provided the platform for discussion to shape a better policy in order to better deliver the commitments of the Dementia 2020 Implementation Plan.

Dementia 2020 – Roadmap to Delivery follows the strategy into its final year and will provide a recap of progress to date in realising the aims and objectives of the challenge. Following the 2018 review delegates will learn finalised plans from regular series contributors such as the Alzheimer’s Society Department of Health, NHS England & Public Health England amongst other stakeholders.

NIHR News and Research – January 2019

NIHR announces £15 million of new dementia research in partnership with the Economic and Social Research Council – A new project to create an online support network for people with young onset and rare dementias is one of four research projects announced as part of a £15 million research initiative by the NIHR and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to improve the lives of people living with dementia.

NIHR supports research and innovation in the NHS 10-year plan – The NIHR welcomes the Long Term NHS Plan and is committed to working with the NHS to drive medical advances by ensuring research and innovation is an integral part of its future.

NIHR Academy seeking tenders for research focusing on gender inequalities in clinical academic careers -The NIHR Academy, in partnership with five organisations, is inviting research proposals to help understand the factors that influence career progression in academic careers, particularly in relation to gender inequality.

Innovate UK

Open Competitions

SBRI: Police custody welfare, remote screening and monitoring system – Organisations can apply for a share of £150,000, including VAT, to develop an integrated remote monitoring and screening solution for the care of people in custody.

SBRI: Identifying regulatory obligations on businesses: taking stock and building insights – Organisations can apply for a share of £1.25 million, including VAT, to develop a solution identifying regulatory obligations placed on businesses.

Current open and upcoming funding opportunities