UKRI are pleased to invite participants to apply to attend a sandpit on Digital technologies for Health and Care which will take place 10-12 November 2020.
The Research Councils within UKRI have been working together to strengthen co-ordination around digital technologies for health and care and to identify opportunities in this area. In 2019, UKRI with input from the community, mapped the digital health portfolio, produced a definition for digital health and highlighted opportunities for the Research Councils to take forward. One of the areas which has been highlighted for strengthening is building coordinated and well-informed research and innovation communities, with the appropriate multidisciplinary and cross-sector skills and expertise in digital health. As a result, UKRI would like to run a sandpit to bring the different communities in this area together.
The theme for this sandpit is novel digital technologies for improved self-monitoring and health management. Successful projects from the sandpit should either have a new approach to self-monitoring of conditions (especially conditions which are harder to manage and where there are fewer tools available for interventions) or that seek to identify novel digital technologies that will ultimately enable the public to better manage their health in their own homes and in the community. These smarter interventions should reduce the time that the public spends engaged with the traditional healthcare delivery system and enable a faster recovery or better management of their health.
It is expected that up to £1.2 million of UKRI funding will be made available to fund research projects arising from this sandpit. Each project funded is expected to be in the region of £400,000.