April 2023 Newsletter

HISES Hip Fracture SBRI Phase 2 commences

We are happy to announce that Phase 2 of our Hip Fracture SBRI led by Prof. Alasdair MacLullich and Dr Andrew Hall, started on 20th March 2023 and is expected to end on 20th December 2023. The company selected for Phase 2 is Red Star AI. The Red Star project aims to develop a working data visualisation and analysis dashboard that is interoperable with existing clinical IT systems to increase efficiency of clinical team communication and workflow.

Building Healthier Futures – New Usher Building at Edinburgh BioQuarter

Members of the HISES team from Lothian, Borders and Fife attended an exhibition and networking event hosted at the Edinburgh BioQuarter last month. Sam, Joy, and Neil even had the opportunity to get their hard hats, high vis vests and steel toe cap boots on and enjoy a tour of the new Usher building development, currently under construction. Due to open in 2024, the new Usher building will co-locate the Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh with a community of partners from the public, private and third sectors – including SMEs and health and care providers – working on the shared purpose of developing data-enabled solutions to benefit health and wellbeing.

Kindocoin Showcase Event

As we near the end of Phase 2 of the Kindocoin SBRI competition, HISES hosted a stakeholder engagement event on Wednesday, 22nd March 2023. This provided service staff an opportunity to attend a storytelling session at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. Industry partners presented what they have achieved throughout Phase 2 and provided the audience the opportunity to take part in live demonstrations to show how the systems would work in a real-world setting for both clinical teams and volunteers. The companies have been issued with the template for SBRI End Reporting and final reports will be submitted by the end of April 2023.

Reducing Drug Deaths Innovation SBRI Challenge Closing Soon!

The Scottish Health Industry Partnership (SHIP), part of the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office (CSO) has launched a £5m Reducing Drug Deaths SBRI Innovation Challenge, in partnership with the Office for Life Science Addiction Healthcare Mission. Proposals can receive up to £500,000 to support the development of innovative MedTech and Digital Health solutions that focus on detection of, response to, and intervention in potentially fatal drug overdose episodes. Applications close 21st April 2023.

Diabetes – Remote HbA1c Monitoring SBRI Open Innovation Challenge Open for Applications

SHIP are funding a Diabetes – Remote HbA1c SBRI Open Innovation Challenge. The challenge is now open for applications from this link until 11am on Monday 5th June 2023.  The aim of the competition is to develop disruptive innovative solutions that deliver sustainable, accessible, and equitable remote HbA1c self-testing. Applicants can apply for a share of a total challenge fund of £250,000, inclusive of VAT and split across two phases.

Medicines and Dementia SBRI Phase 1 Applications Open

SHIP have launched a new SBRI competition looking at developing disruptive innovative solutions to support those at risk of dementia to manage their medications. Organisations can apply for a share of up to £240,000 inclusive of VAT across both phases. Applications deadline is 11am on 24th May 2023. Projects can focus on one or more of the following:

• identification of people utilising clinical risk factors for example cardiovascular risk factors, family history, diabetes, or hypertension
• adherence to medicines for conditions identified as being linked to development of dementia such as delirium, confusion and other risk factors that may be highlighted by the applicants which will require supporting evidence

DataLoch enhancements

Since the full launch of the DataLoch service in August 2022, support for researchers has further expanded. For example, new demographics and observation tables substantially improve the reliability and coverage of these data and enable more intuitive access to data such as ethnicity, sex, smoking status, and blood pressure. In addition, the new DataLoch Respiratory Registry improves support for respiratory-related research and aligns with existing registries in England and Wales, offering significant opportunities for research across the three nations. The DataLoch team will add further registries in the future, with the next focused on cardiology. Discover the latest DataLoch updates via the below link.

Skin Cancer Detection using Artificial Intelligence Phase 1 SBRI Launches

NHS Forth Valley, on behalf of the AI Dermatology Consortium, NHS Scotland and SHIP are hosting the AI Dermatology Open Innovation Challenge. This challenge will provide an opportunity for companies to enhance or refine existing AI algorithms developed using healthcare data, for testing in redesigned community to hospital referral pathways. This will lead to accelerated detection and diagnosis of skin cancer and better use of constrained healthcare resources. The launch event has been scheduled for Monday 17th April 2023 at 1 pm – 2.30 pm. Register now to secure your place. Watch this video to learn more about the project. Organisations can apply for a share of £500,000 inclusive of VAT, over the 2 phases of the competition. Applications deadline is 11am on 19th May 2023.

Digital Health and Care Master's Funding Available

The Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (DHI) have announced that 19.5 full-time equivalent Master’s Scholarships in digital health and care will be available for students starting their course in the 2023-24 academic year. Funded by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), the scholarships are valued at £7,387 per place and will be awarded on a fee-waiver basis to eligible students. The scholarships are designed to support the development of future talent in the digital health and care sector. To be eligible, students must align their Master’s to one of the DHI Strategic Themes.

Colon Capsule Endoscopy International Conference 2023

Registration is now open for this year’s International Colon Capsule Endoscopy Conference: Optimising Outcomes for Patients. The focus is to bring the clinical and health management community together to share knowledge on the current and future use of colon capsule endoscopy (CCE) in gastrointestinal disease. This free event will take place on 26th April 2023 from 10am-4pm.

Validation of Medical Devices Webinar

The Medical Device Manufacturing Centre (MDMC) are hosting an online event on 25th April from 1pm – 2.15pm The webinar will include discussion of design verification and validation for medical device development within an ISO 13485:2016 framework which will highlight the difference between verification and validation as well as the importance of planning verification and validation activities throughout the entire design cycle. Case studies which will highlight common issues will also be presented.

SofTMech Event – Dialogue with Industry & Healthcare Technologies

SofTMech is a large and established Centre of Mathematics for Healthcare. The Centre consists of multiple academic, clinical, and industrial partners and combines extensive expertise in mathematical, statistical, and computational modelling of cardiac and cancer physiology and disease. For this Dialogue event, experts from healthcare, and relevant industries such as Medical Technologies are invited to join this knowledge sharing opportunity. The aim and motive behind the event is a refreshed insight into the clinical needs and challenges faced, and to facilitate collaborative opportunities. This event will take place 9:30am – 3:30pm on 2nd May in Glasgow.

Digital Transformation 2023 Event

Holyrood Connect’s 10th annual flagship Digital Transformation event for the Scottish public sector is returning for another year. The event will continue to allow delegates to engage with thought leaders and experts and keep informed about the latest digital developments. This full day event will take place on 6th June 2023 at Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh. The agenda features a range of topics from sustainable digitalisation of the public sector to people-centred technology change.

DigitalScotland Summit 2023

DigitalScotland is the largest annual gathering of public sector technology professionals, where global govtech leaders share technology insights and lessons in digital transformation, leadership, skills, cultural change, and data-driven innovation. With 50-plus speakers from a diverse array of backgrounds, DigitalScotland is the leading forum to hear about how digital and data are transforming the way our public services operate and fulfil their mission to be modern, responsive, and designed around the needs of citizens. The full-day conference taking place on 21st November 2023, features a fantastic line-up of globally accredited speakers on topics as diverse as service design, ethics in AI, the internet of things, cybersecurity, 5G and much more.

InnoScot Health Webinar

Join InnoScot Health for the third in their series of informative webinars on Innovation calls and challenges to support NHS Scotland. The session will be a fantastic opportunity to learn about themed calls and SBRI challenges happening both now and in the near future. Register to attend this session 12 – 1pm on 26th April 2023.

Latest funding opportunities

Check out the latest health and care funding opportunities from across the sector on the funding section of our website.