UK government announces £32m investment for healthtech projects

The UK government has announced funding worth £32 million across six projects aimed to help transform NHS healthcare delivery.

As part of a keynote speech on research and development at London Tech Week 2020, the Science Minister Amanda Solloway has announced the projects aimed at developing revolutionary technological approaches that aim to transform care and treatments in the NHS by 2050, helping to improve people’s quality of life as they age.

InlightenUs, led by the University of Edinburgh, will receive £5.4 million to use a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and infra-red lasers to produce high resolution 3D medical images.

Working with the universities of Nottingham and Southampton, the new research will initially be developed for use on hospital wards and GP surgeries, and by 2050 aims to scale up to walk through airport style X-Ray scanners, which will be able to pick up detailed images of structures often hidden within the human body that can reveal tumours.

Another of the six projects, emPOWER, will be led by researchers at the University of Bristol, and will receive £6 million to develop artificial robotic muscular assistance to help restore strength in people who have lost muscle capability. This could include patients who have suffered a stroke or are living with degenerative diseases such as sarcopenia and muscular dystrophy.

The funding is being delivered through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, through the Transformative Healthcare Technologies for 2050 call.

Other projects that are receiving funding include:

Non-invasive single neuron electrical monitoring (NISNEM)

Led by Imperial College London, it will receive £5.5 million to develop a non-invasive single neuron electrical monitoring technology, which when combined with AI will allow researchers to monitor the brain in a way never achieved before. This will help scientists gain a better understanding of neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

COG-MHEAR: Towards cognitively inspired 5G-internet of things enabled, multi-modal hearing aids

Led by Edinburgh Napier University, it will receive £3.2 million, to develop hearing aids designed to autonomously adapt to the nature and quality of their surroundings. Currently only 40% of people who could benefit from hearing aids have them, while most current devices make only limited use of speech enhancement. These hearing aids would be able to adapt to the nature and quality of the visual and acoustic environment around them.

Quantum imaging for monitoring of wellbeing and disease in communities

Led by the University of Glasgow, it will receive £5.5 million to develop a project which aims to create a home of the future, providing homeowners with feedback on their health and wellbeing. Bringing clinically approved sensors into the living environment will enable individuals, carers or healthcare professional to monitor blood flow, heart rate and even brain function, in the home.

U-care

Led by Heriot-Watt University, in partnership with the universities of Bath and Edinburgh, it will receive £6.1 million to exploit new laser, optical fibre and imaging technologies, delivering therapy for bacterial diseases and viruses in confined regions of the body such as the lungs, catheters inserted into the body for prolonged periods and areas of the body that have been subject to surgical procedures. The platform will be able to cut out single cells leaving the cells around it undamaged in cancer surgery, aiming to offer a cure for currently unresectable tumours.

Janita Good, co-head of life sciences at FieldFisher, said: “News by the UK's science minister Amanda Solloway that the government on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will invest £32 million into healthtech innovation is a real positive for our tech and life sciences sectors combined. This news will be a huge relief to those operating in this sector, helping to put the UK on the map. The COVID-19 pandemic showed the strength of UK innovation and also the need to focus more efforts in this area.

“Investment from the government to a certain industry or sector is a very positive and clear signal of potential. This financial backing is sure to be met with venture capital investment, which will help pave out the way for the UK's healthtech industry, helping to expand the products and services the UK offers and better compete on the international market and also make the UK an attractive market for international life sciences companies.”