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 prediction 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% of the UK population, it has either stalled or fallen for the most deprived 10%.

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

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.

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)

UK Research and Innovation (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.

See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.

We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.

The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.

Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.

To apply

Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.

1. Confirm you are the project lead.
2. Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email support@funding-service.ukri.org
   Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service. We strongly suggest that if you are asking UKRI to add your organisation to the Funding Service to enable you to apply to this opportunity, you also create an organisation Administration Account. This will be needed to allow the acceptance and management of any grant that might be offered to you.
3. Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page.
4. Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
5. Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
6. Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.

Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. You should:

• use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
• insert each new image onto a new line
• provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
• ensure files are smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format

Watch our research office webinars about the new Funding Service.

For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:

• how applicants use the Funding Service
• how research offices use the Funding Service
• how reviewers use the Funding Service

References

Applications should be self-contained, and hyperlinks should only be used to provide links directly to reference information. To ensure the information’s integrity is maintained, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers should be used. Assessors are not required to access links to carry out assessment or recommend a funding decision. Applicants should use their discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.

References should be included in the appropriate question section of the application and be easily identifiable by the assessors, for example (Smith, Research Paper, 2019).

You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.

Deadline

EPSRC must receive your application by 4:00pm UK time on 30 October 2024.

You will not be able to apply after this time.

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.

Following the submission of your application to the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected. If an application is withdrawn prior to peer review or office rejected due to substantive errors in the application, it cannot be resubmitted to the opportunity.

Personal data

Processing personal data

EPSRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.

We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.

Publication of outcomes

EPSRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at a Tableau tool web page.

If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.

Summary

Word limit: 550

In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.

We usually make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, therefore do not include any confidential or sensitive information. Make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:

• opinion-formers
• policymakers
• the public
• the wider research community

Guidance for writing a summary

Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of:

• context
• the challenge the project addresses
• aims and objectives
• potential applications and benefits

Core team

List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:

• project lead (PL)
• project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
• project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
• specialist
• grant manager
• professional enabling staff
• research and innovation associate
• technician
• visiting researcher
• researcher co-lead (RcL)

Only list one individual as project lead.

Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.

Application questions

Vision and Approach

Create a document that includes your responses to all criteria. The document should not be more than 6.5 sides of A4, single spaced in paper in 11-point Arial (or equivalent sans serif font) with margins of at least 2cm. You may include images, graphs, tables. References may be included but should not exceed the six and a half pages for the vision and approach in your document. You can have an additional page for a diagrammatic work plan.

For the file name, use the unique Funding Service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Vision and Approach’.

Save this document as a single PDF file, no bigger than 8MB. Unless specifically requested, do not include any sensitive data within the attachment.

If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the application will be rejected.

The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.

What are you hoping to achieve with and how will you deliver your proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

For the Vision, explain how your proposed work:

• is of excellent quality and importance within or beyond the field(s) or area(s)
• has the potential to advance current understanding, and generate new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area,
• is timely given current trends, context and needs
• impacts world-leading research, society, the economy or the environment

Within the Vision section we also expect you to show how the proposed programme aligns to and delivers against the aims and objectives of the funding opportunity, in particular:

• how the research focus aligns to the scope of the opportunity
• the potential direct or indirect benefits of the research and who the beneficiaries might be
• how the project will deliver high quality engineering and physical sciences research (up to proof-of-concept) addressing one or more of the opportunity priority areas
• how the project will address a clear unmet health need and how the research will provide added value and impact in the healthcare system
• how the anticipated technology or tool is beneficial and suitable for use in an accessible community setting

For the Approach, explain how you have designed your work so that it:

• is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives
• is feasible, and comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how they will be managed
• if applicable, uses a clear and transparent methodology
• if applicable, summarises the previous work and describes how this will be built upon and progressed
• will maximise translation of outputs into outcomes and impacts
• describes how your, and if applicable your team’s, research environment (in terms of the place, and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work

Within the Approach section we also expect you to:

• demonstrate access to the appropriate services, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the proposed work
• provide a project plan including milestones and timelines in the form of a Gantt chart or similar (additional one-page A4)

References may be included within this section.

Applicant and team capability to deliver

Word limit: 1,650

Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:

• the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work
• the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work
• the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
• contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in theI Funding Service.

The word count for this section is 1,650 words; 1,150 words to be used for R4RI modules (including references) and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.

Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you and, if relevant, your team (project and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.

Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed. Use each heading once and include a response for the whole team, see the UKRI guidance on R4RI. You should consider how to balance your answer, and emphasise where appropriate the key skills each team member brings:

• contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge
• the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships
• contributions to the wider research and innovation community
• contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences and towards wider societal benefit

Additions

Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences, or outputs, but you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).

Complete this as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.

References may be included within this section.

UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new Funding Service. For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.

Project partners

Add details about any project partners’ contributions. If there are no project partners, you can indicate this on the Funding Service.

A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities.

Add the following project partner details:

• the organisation name and address (searchable via a drop-down list or enter the organisation’s details manually, as applicable)
• the project partner contact name and email address
• the type of contribution (direct or indirect) and its monetary value

If a detail is entered incorrectly and you have saved the entry, remove the specific project partner record and re-add it with the correct information.

For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.

Project partners: letters (or emails) of support

Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the Project partners section. These should be uploaded in English or Welsh only.

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box, or if you do not have any project partners enter ‘N/A’. Each letter or email you provide should:

• confirm the partner’s commitment to the project
• clearly explain the value, relevance, and possible benefits of the work to them
• describe any additional value that they bring to the project

The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply. If you do not have any project partners, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.

Ensure you have prior agreement from project partners so that, if you are offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the contributions template.

For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.

Do not provide letters of support from host and project co-leads’ research organisations.

Facilities

Word limit: 250

Does your proposed research require the support and use of a facility?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

If you will need to use a facility, follow your proposed facility’s normal access request procedures. Ensure you have prior agreement so that if you are offered funding, they will support the use of their facility on your project.

For each requested facility you will need to provide the:

• name of facility, copied and pasted from the facility information list (DOCX, 35KB)
• proposed usage or costs, or costs per unit where indicated on the facility information list
• confirmation you have their agreement where required

Facilities should only be named if they are on the facility information list above. If you will not need to use a facility, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.

Resources and cost justification

Word limit: 1,500

What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Justify the application’s more costly resources, in particular:

• project staff
• significant travel for field work or collaboration (but not regular travel between collaborating organisations or to conferences)
• any equipment that will cost more than £10,000
• any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
• all facilities and infrastructure costs
• all resources that have been costed as ‘Exceptions’

Assessors are not looking for detailed costs or a line-by-line breakdown of all project resources. Overall, they want you to demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work:

• are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
• represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
• maximise potential outcomes and impacts

Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)

Word limit: 500

What are the ethical or RRI implications and issues relating to the proposed work? If you do not think that the proposed work raises any ethical or RRI issues, explain why.

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated:

• the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations
• how you will manage these considerations

If you are collecting or using data, identify:

• any legal and ethical considerations of collecting, releasing or storing the data including consent, confidentiality, anonymisation, security and other ethical considerations and, in particular, strategies to not preclude further re-use of data
• formal information standards with which your study will comply

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

Additional sub-questions (to be answered only if appropriate) will be included in the Funding Service. These will ask about numbers, species or strain, and justification about:

• genetic and biological risk
• research involving the use of animals
• conducting research with animal overseas
• research involving human participation
• research involving human tissues or biological samples

Reducing Health Inequalities and Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Plan

Word count: 1,500

Provide details about:

• how your project has been developed to help tackle health inequalities
• your plans to embed patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) throughout the project

What the assessors are looking for in your response

• who your research may impact and how the research will help tackle health inequalities
• how future translation may impact on health inequalities
• details of your plan for engaging with users of the research, health professionals and patients or those with lived experience throughout the research project
• how co-creation, co-delivery and embedded engagement with partners will be undertaken
• how PPIE will be appropriately integrated at all stages of the research and innovation process
• how equitable, diverse and inclusive PPIE will be embedded in the project

Assessment process

Applicants who were successful at outline stage (stage one) will have been invited by email to submit a full proposal. Only applications based on successful outlines will be accepted for stage two.

In stage two we will assess your application using the following process.

Peer review

We will invite experts to review your application independently, against the specified criteria for this funding opportunity.

You will not be able to nominate reviewers for applications on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. Research councils will continue to select expert reviewers.

We are monitoring the requirement for applicant-nominated reviewers as we review policies and processes as part of the continued development of the Funding Service.

You will have the opportunity to respond to reviewer comments prior to the panel.

Panel

Following peer review, we will invite peers to use the evidence provided by reviewers and your applicant response to assess the quality of your application and rank it alongside other applications after which the panel will make a funding recommendation.

Feedback

Feedback at this stage will be provided in the form of reviewer comments.

Principles of assessment

We support the San Francisco declaration on research assessment and recognise the relationship between research assessment and research integrity.

Find out about the UKRI principles of assessment and decision making.

We reserve the right to modify the assessment process as needed.

Assessment areas

The criteria we will assess your application against are:

• vision
• approach
• reducing health inequalities and PPIE
• applicant and team capability to deliver
• ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)
• resources and costs

Find details of assessment questions and criteria under the ‘Application questions’ heading in the ‘How to apply’ section.

Get help with your application

If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page

Important note: The helpdesk is committed to helping users of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service as effectively and as quickly as possible. In order to manage cases at peak volume times, the helpdesk will triage and prioritise those queries with an imminent opportunity deadline or a technical issue. Enquiries raised where information is available on the Funding Finder opportunity page and should be understood early in the application process (for example, regarding eligibility, content or remit of a funding opportunity) will not constitute a priority case and will be addressed as soon as possible.

Contact details

For help and advice on costings and writing your proposal please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

For questions related to this specific funding opportunity please contact healthcare@epsrc.ukri.org

Any queries regarding the system or the submission of applications through the Funding Service should be directed to the helpdesk.

Email: support@funding-service.ukri.org
Phone: 01793 547490

Our phone lines are open:

• Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm
• Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

To help us process queries quicker, we request that users highlight the council and opportunity name in the subject title of their email query, include the application reference number, and refrain from contacting more than one mailbox at a time.

Find information on submitting an application.

Sensitive information

If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, please contact tfschangeepsrc@epsrc.ukri.org

Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number].

Typical examples of confidential information include:

• individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave)
• declaration of interest
• additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section
• conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection
• the application is an invited resubmission

For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read UKRI’s privacy notice.

Background

Transforming early prediction and diagnosis is a key challenge area in the EPSRC health technologies strategy.

Early diagnosis, prompt detection of acute and chronic disease recurrence, and treatment monitoring are among the key foundations of any healthcare system.

Addressing all aspects of health from physical, mental, and environmental, the Prediction and Diagnosis challenge focuses on the need for novel techniques that optimise patient-specific illness prediction, and early accurate diagnosis.

The aim includes reducing the incidence of disease, intervening before full symptoms develop, as well as reducing the impacts of multiple long-term illness and strengthening the ability to take exactly the right steps to combat disease at precisely the right time.

Scientific, mathematical, and other techniques, from biomarker identification, research into medical imaging and risk stratification to predictive modelling and real-time, evidence-based decision-making, will all play a role.

Additional disability and accessibility adjustments

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process if required.

Research disruption due to COVID-19

We recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major interruptions and disruptions across our communities. We are committed to ensuring that individual applicants and their wider team, including partners and networks, are not penalised for any disruption to their career, such as:

• breaks and delays
• disruptive working patterns and conditions
• the loss of ongoing work
• role changes that may have been caused by the pandemic

Reviewers and panel members will be advised to consider the unequal impacts that COVID-19 related disruption might have had on the capability to deliver and career development of those individuals included in the application. They will be asked to consider the capability of the applicant and their wider team to deliver the research they are proposing.

Where disruptions have occurred, you can highlight this within your application if you wish, but there is no requirement to detail the specific circumstances that caused the disruption.

Supporting documents

Transforming prediction and early diagnosis in the community outline stage guidance (PDF, 295KB)