Apply for funding to develop novel tools and technologies for patient-specific prediction, early and accurate diagnosis of physical and mental health conditions for use in the community.
Projects should engage relevant partners to ensure the research is co-created and co-delivered. Projects should contribute to tackling health inequalities and embed equitable, diverse, and inclusive patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE).
The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £2.5 million. EPSRC will fund 80% of the FEC (up to £2 million).
Projects can be up to 36 months.
Who can apply?
Before applying for funding, check the Eligibility of your organisation.
EPSRC standard eligibility rules apply. For full details, visit EPSRC’s eligibility page.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new UKRI Funding Service.
For full details, visit Eligibility as an individual.
Under the UKRI and Research Council of Norway Money Follows Cooperation agreement a project co-lead (international) (previously co-investigator) can be based in a Norwegian institution.
Resubmissions
We will not accept uninvited resubmissions of projects that have been submitted to UKRI or any other funder.
Find out more about EPSRC’s resubmissions policy.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.
We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:
- career breaks
- support for people with caring responsibilities
- flexible working
- alternative working patterns
Find out more about equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI.
Scope
We are seeking high quality multidisciplinary proposals for engineering and physical sciences research that focus on developing novel tools and technologies for accurate, patient-specific predication and early diagnosis of mental and physical health conditions for use in the community. To maximise the likelihood of longer-term impact, projects should ensure the people expected to benefit from the research inform the research questions and the project.
Prediction and earlier diagnosis of physical and mental health conditions can have significant benefits and lead to better outcomes from a patient perspective. Earlier and accurate diagnosis can mean an increased range of treatment options that are more effective, can help people make better informed decisions about their health, and overall can help improve quality of life.
One of the key priorities outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan is shifting more care out of hospitals and into the community. The focus of this funding opportunity is geared towards the development of new technologies that enable prediction and early diagnosis of health conditions in accessible community settings. For example, these tools and technologies could be used in GP surgeries, pharmacies, community diagnostic hubs, mobile units, or home environments.
Transforming prediction and early diagnosis is a key challenge area identified in the EPSRC health technologies strategy.
Research projects should address one or more of the following priority areas:
- new approaches for prediction and early diagnosis of disease for use in primary care and community settings
- self-management tools to enable individuals to track their own health and inform diagnostic decisions (for example, monitoring technologies that will make it easier for patients to interact with healthcare professionals and provide updates on their medical conditions)
- tools for earlier and more reliable diagnosis of mental health conditions
Reducing health inequalities and public and patient involvement and engagement (PPIE)
Reducing health inequalities is a key area of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Health, Ageing and Wellbeing strategic theme and a cross cutting theme of EPSRC’s health technologies strategy. All projects should address how their research will help tackle health inequalities.
This funding opportunity uses the term health inequalities to include varying definitions and interpretations of inequality and inequity, including the unfair and avoidable differences in health across different population groups. Read more:
- NHS England – What are health inequalities?
- The King’s Fund – Health inequalities
- Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On
While life expectancy continues to improve for the most affluent 10 per cent of the UK population, it has either stalled or fallen for the most deprived 10 per cent.
All projects should consider health equity in their research and embed equitable, diverse, and inclusive patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE).
To ensure we support high quality research where research outcomes can benefit users, have maximum impact in the health sector, and tackle health inequalities, we are looking for clear evidence of genuine co-creation, co-delivery, and embedded engagement with patients, people with lived experience, and health professionals from the outset and throughout the research and innovation process. We are looking for engagement with people from different and diverse backgrounds, including those from deprived, under-served, or underrepresented populations. Diverse and creative routes should be taken to engage relevant partners.
Proposals will be required to provide a ‘health inequalities and PPIE’ plan as part of their outline submission.
Funding opportunity objectives
Proposals should address the following objectives:
- deliver high quality engineering and physical sciences research (up to proof-of-concept) addressing one or more of the priority areas highlighted in the ‘What we are looking for’ section
- deliver tools and technologies that address a clear unmet health need and demonstrate how the research will provide added value and impact in the healthcare system
- deliver tools and technologies for use in the community
- deliver multidisciplinary projects utilising expertise across disciplines that could cover multiple research areas including for example novel sensors, medical imaging, and artificial intelligence
- engagement with relevant partners and diverse users of research, patients, people with lived experience and health professionals to ensure research is co-created and co-delivered
- consider health equity in the research and embed equitable, diverse, and inclusive PPIE in projects
For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, go to the ‘Additional information’ section.
Duration
The duration of this award is up to 36 months.
Funding available
The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £2.5 million.
EPSRC will fund 80% of the FEC. Our contribution may be up to £2 million.
What we will fund
We will fund:
- equipment (up to £400,000)
All equipment should be fully justified and essential to the mission of the investment. Quotes for equipment do not need to be included in your application, but please retain quotes for equipment costing more than £138,000 as we may ask for these at post-panel stage before releasing funds.
What we will not fund
We will not fund the following:
- proposals must lie primarily within the remit of EPSRC and be within the scope of this funding opportunity. Any proposals that we deem out of remit or out of scope may be rejected without reference to peer review
- while we do not fund clinical trials, that is studies that involve large numbers of animals or patients, costs may be requested for proof of concept (PoC) studies where initial data from a small number of tests is being gathered to validate and inform the continual development of the technology developed as part of the project. Read about PoC studies in healthcare.
International collaboration
If your application includes international applicants, project partners or collaborators, visit UKRI’s trusted research and innovation for more information on effective international collaboration.
Find out about getting funding for international collaboration.
Visit funding web page
(https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/transforming-prediction-and-early-diagnosis-in-the-community/)
