Healthcare Technology Translation Partnership Scheme Outline

Scope

This funding opportunity is intended to support the progression of basic and fundamental research towards application and impact within one of the following three challenges:

• improving population health and prevention of ill health
• transforming prediction and early diagnosis
• discovering and accelerating the development of new interventions

Further information on each challenge can be found in the EPSRC health technologies strategy.

We are looking for applications which will advance engineering and physical sciences research towards application and impact in an area of unmet healthcare need during the lifetime of the proposal. Applications will be co-developed and co-delivered with clinical or healthcare professionals, industry partners and public and patient contributors to maximise impact and navigate the translation pathway.

Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) are a way to describe the maturity of a particular technology. For this funding opportunity we are using UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s definitions of TRLs. This funding opportunity will fund projects from TRL 2 and we expect to see acceleration of translation towards TRL 3.5. In practice this means principles should have already been demonstrated through experimentation (TRL 2) and proposals should aim to take research or technology through to proof of concept or validation in a more relevant environment (TRL 3.5). More applied research and collaborative initiatives aimed at advancing technologies closer to practical application and commercialisation at subsequent TRL levels are out of scope for this funding opportunity.

Projects should ensure the research addresses an unmet health need or offers significant added value over current or alternative healthcare solutions.

Research projects funded through this funding opportunity are expected to generate a range of outputs that make significant contributions to delivering impact within our challenge areas.

Funding opportunity objectives

Proposals will:

• ensure a clear route to translation for research outcomes by developing a translation and impact action plan which considers the specific translation context and challenges within the research area and affected community
• engage with a diverse range of relevant partners to ensure research is co-created and co-delivered with users
• embed PPIE throughout the aims, objectives and operations, considering the context of each research area

Translation

You are required to submit a translation plan that must demonstrate clear understanding of and detail an approach to navigating the barriers to translation (for example, further funding, regulatory and ethical frameworks, licensing). The translation plan will form part of the assessment criteria at both assessment stages. Our impact and translation toolkit provides an overview of some of the barriers researchers may face when applying their research to solve challenges in human health and wellbeing.

You will need to demonstrate that funding will be used to significantly accelerate translation and not act as temporary financial support for existing projects.

Partnerships

You will be required to partner with clinical or healthcare professionals and business partners bringing together a range of expertise to provide the support and guidance required to navigate the pathways to generating impact in the UK health sector.

All partners will be expected to play an active role in the design and delivery of the project, as well as demonstrating significant direct or in-kind contributions towards the project.

Clinical or healthcare professional partnership or collaboration is mandatory.

At the time of application, confirmed and named industrial partnerships are not a mandatory requirement. You may use part of the application to detail a well-defined plan in acquiring and developing appropriate industrial partners and partnerships. For those without confirmed industrial partners at application, it is expected those brought on will be meaningfully engaged for some time prior to the conclusion of the project to inform and aid onward translation. Updated engagement plans will be requested from EPSRC to ensure significant progress and contributions have been made in line with the funding opportunity on a regular basis. International industrial partners are permitted so long as the project demonstrates significant benefit for the UK health sector.

Public and patient involvement and engagement (PPIE)

PPIE is a key cross-cutting theme of the new EPSRC health technologies strategy. We expect all projects to integrate PPIE at all stages of the research and innovation process.

To ensure we support high quality research where research outcomes can benefit users, industry and have maximum impact in the UK health sector, we are looking for clear evidence of genuine, substantiative partnerships with co-creation, co-delivery and embedded engagement with patients, people with lived experience and health professionals throughout all projects and activities.

Proposals are required to include a PPIE plan as part of their submission. You may highlight where the PPIE plan and Translational and impact plan overlap.

Clinicians can be costed into the proposal as a project co-lead.

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 48 months.

Funding available

The FEC of your project can be up to £1.88 million.

EPSRC will fund 80% of the FEC. EPSRC’s contribution may be up to £1.5 million.

What we will fund

We will fund:

• equipment (up to £400,000 per item). Quotes for equipment do not need to be included in your outline application, but please retain quotes for equipment costing more than £138,000 as we may ask for these at full application and before releasing funds
• the progression of basic and fundamental research towards application and impact within our three challenge areas
• projects whose engineering and physical sciences principles have already been demonstrated through experimentation and proposals aim to take research or technology through to proof of concept or validation in more relevant environments
• 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

What we will not fund

We will not fund:

• proposals out of remit or scope. 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
• proposals which do not include a substantial element of research or new knowledge in engineering or physical sciences (including information technologies and maths)
• proposals deemed too fundamental. This funding opportunity does not look to support early, fundamental, research. Any application deemed too fundamental will be ineligible. Projects should have already explored new concepts and generated data in support of the approach
• costs for PhD studentships
• applications utilising AI or machine learning (ML) must demonstrate novelty in creation or development of the AI/ML tool itself. Applications applying “off the shelf” tools to, for example, new diseases or datasets are ineligible and will be rejected if this is the only EPS component of the application
• publication costs
• funding to use as a ‘bridge’ between grants
• costs associated with applying for intellectual property protection, for example, patent filing

We do not expect to receive applications from those already associated with current significant EPSRC funding where translation is supported, unless significant added value can be clearly justified above that of the associated award.

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.

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)

UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.

As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.

Further guidance and information about TR&I, including where you can find additional support.