A major £2.5M UKRI-EPSRC Place-based Impact Accelerator Account funding award that will help to translate research into sustainable, digital healthcare products, systems and services, creating jobs, investment and economic growth
It will deliver new medical diagnostic products and improve health service delivery technology that will strengthen industry, patient-care accessibility, and reduce health inequalities.
It builds upon a successful and dynamic ecosystem that has already seen the development of portable defibrillators and AI powered electrocardiogram (ECG) diagnosis platforms.
The Digital Health Technologies Accelerator(DHTA) is a Northern Ireland based consortium led by Ulster University with partners at Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast City Council, HIRANI, Belfast Health & Social Care Trust and 14 MedTech companies in the Belfast area.
This collaboration brings together a highly experienced team which spans research, development and innovation to position the DHTA at the forefront of sustainable, regional, digital health solutions. It will supercharge the region’s technological readiness through research in areas such as medical diagnostics, seeking to embed the ecosystem and infrastructure to enable NI to adopt new digital technologies for applications in MedTech, ranging from photonic sensing (using light to detect physical factors such as temperature and pressure) to machine learning algorithms, at a more rapid pace.
The impact of DHTA’s work will improve outcomes for patients in Northern Ireland and reduce the strain on the healthcare system from an ageing population. One area of research that the DHTA will address is around heart failure devices and enabling diagnostic and disease management products for those suffering with heart disease, one of Northern Ireland’s biggest killers.
Ulster is already closely linked with NI companies like PulseAI which is utilising AI to rapidly assess ECG signals via algorithms to automatically detect, with high accuracy, heart conditions. Together we are currently focused on improving the quality of ECG monitoring via wearables such as watches or chest patches.
The £2.5m UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Place-based Impact Accelerator Account funding will translate world class research from universities into the clinically relevant innovative healthcare products, systems and services to aid commercialisation. The four-year project will also create jobs, investment opportunities and produce regional economic growth.
Joann Rhodes, CEO Health & Innovation Research Alliance Northern Ireland-HIRANI commented: “Life and Health sciences is the fastest growing sector in Northern Ireland, and we are outpacing the rest of the UK. This important announcement underpins the growing pipeline of innovation from our region that is reaching the market. We are a prime location, with access to a unique combination of talented people, world-class research and strong links between industry academia and clinicians, to unlock the commercialisation of patient-centred solutions”.
The DHTA will deliver impactful solutions within a recognised digital healthcare cluster which is coalescing around the emerging £43M Belfast Regional City Deal Centre for Digital Healthcare Technology (CDHT) and embraces a rapidly developing eco-system boosted by the new £11M EPSRC-funded Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital Health, a partnership between UCL and Ulster University which was announced earlier this year.
The DHTA will focus on catalysing and leveraging the development of a cluster in health diagnostics expertise derived from research excellence. The cluster will strengthen R&D&I within the region by building partnerships with civic bodies, connecting SME’s and people, co-developing ideas, attracting investment, driving growth and creating a virtuous cycle of economic acceleration.
The DHTA will adopt a best practice approach to foster a sense of community-type trusting collaboration, a new diverse R&I culture that embraces the principles of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and Patient and Public Involvement (PPI), as well as growth and capacity building based on the consortiums’ strengths. Strategic Activities through accelerated R&D&I, will be developed by addressing; gaps, bottlenecks, improved methods of collaboration and methods of accelerating investment and innovation. A sustainable world class ecosystem will be established to enhance the current skills and knowledge-base, to attract staff, up-skill industry via fellowships/placements, improve knowledge-transfer, entrepreneurship and create a world-class eco system to attract leaders, investment (Angel and Venture Capital) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Professor Liam Maguire, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research, said; “This is a significant and exciting announcement, that will underpin the strong and longstanding world-leading MedTech research and innovation at Ulster. This timely and strategically significant funding will accelerate important City Deal investments in CDHT, our recent joint EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training that will recruit over 70 PhD students in digital health, thus boosting impact and translation into our important MedTech industry.”
Prof Jim McLaughlin, Director of the Nanotechnology and Integrated Bioengineering Centre at Ulster University said: “This prestigious award will build on a successful and dynamic ecosystem, now supported by over £150m in Health-related capital-based City Deals, that has already seen huge product successes such as the development of portable defibrillators, diagnostic platforms, pathology image processing systems, medical electrodes etc. In Northern Ireland, the L&HS Sector provides £1.3 billion in GVA, a 25% increase since 2008, and directly employs 27,300 people including those working within 300+ SMEs. The DHTA will support the CDHT, iREACH Health and Momentum One Zero Belfast Region City Deal projects which collectively are expected to add 3,000 extra jobs directly to the Northern Ireland economy. We are committed to working with all our public and private partners, to further build our international reputation for research and innovation.”
Prof Adele Marshall, Professor of Statistics Queen’s University Belfast added: “This funding provides a great opportunity for the acceleration of sustainable economic growth and job creation. With enhanced collaborations between academic researchers in Queen’s and Ulster, business and civic partners throughout the region as well as potential FDI, this EPSRC PBIAA funding is critical to the eco system development.”
Councillor Ryan Murphy, Chair of Belfast City Council’s Strategic Policy and Resources Committee commented: “Collaborative innovation with our universities is at the core of the Council’s Smart Belfast programme, so we welcome the opportunity to be part of this project. Research in digital healthcare technologies is really important for our city. We look forward to working with Ulster University and project partners to unlock direct benefits of the project for our communities and our innovation economy.”
Prof Ganesh Manoharan, Clinical Director, Regional Cardiac Centre, Belfast Trust said: “With the development of the CDHT Clinical Living Lab at the Belfast Trust we welcome this UKRI investment as it will accelerate MedTech product research & development that will in turn help address the clinical unmet needs and patient benefits”.
Professor Ian Young, the Department of Health’s Chief Scientific Advisor said: “Advances in digital and other technologies provide important support for new approaches to addressing health and social care needs and reducing health inequalities. In this context, I welcome this funding award and the opportunities which it will bring.”
EPSRC Executive Chair, Professor Charlotte Deane, said: “The projects announced today will harness regional research and innovation strengths to unleash the potential of emerging and existing innovation clusters across the UK.
“Our investment will strengthen partnerships between UK universities, civic bodies and local businesses to create new jobs, improve skills and boost regional economic growth that will benefit places and communities directly.”
