Aim
Research and partnership hubs for a healthy society will deliver a number of large-scale, multidisciplinary research hubs drawing on expertise across the engineering and physical sciences research communities to build and develop strategic research capabilities of importance to healthcare technologies and ultimately enable people to live healthier lives.
Supporting people to live healthier lives and preventing ill health are of key importance for the UK and globally. EPSRC-supported research can have an important role in prevention of disease and population health, from preparing for pandemics and slowing the spread of infectious diseases to diagnosing diseases such as cancer at a much earlier stage. These are current areas of relative underinvestment.
The research and partnership hubs for a healthy society will support partnerships across the wider research and health landscape, bringing together complementary expertise to co-deliver advancement in the priority areas of prevention, early diagnosis and self-management of health.
Scope
Research and partnership hubs for a healthy society will complement and refresh our existing portfolio of hubs from the first round of Research and partnership hubs for health technologies: full stage and must contribute to delivering the EPSRC health technologies strategy.
Given that this is the second round of funding, we will seek to fill strategic gaps in provision remaining from the first round and not duplicate substantial investments already made. Therefore, we have identified priority challenge areas which this funding opportunity will support. Hubs must address at least one of the following challenge areas in their proposal.
Hub challenge areas
The hubs that are funded through this funding opportunity will be critical mass investments that are expected to form connections to the wider health technologies research and innovation ecosystem. They will have a core mission and sets of activities and objectives in one or more of the following areas:
- Prevention and population health
This priority looks to focus on the need for novel techniques that optimise health, prevent, and ultimately help eliminate disease.
- Supporting people to manage their own health
This priority focuses on a shift in services out of hospitals and into the community and home.
- Novel techniques for early diagnosis
Hubs addressing this priority area are expected to develop novel techniques that optimise patient-specific illness prediction and early and accurate diagnosis.
Public and patient involvement and engagement (PPIE) and partnership working
PPIE is a key cross-cutting theme of the new EPSRC health technologies strategy. We expect all hubs to integrate PPIE at all stages of the research and innovation process.
Translation
As leaders in the community, hubs will be expected to develop a clear plan for translation and maximising impacts from the research outputs, products and technologies developed throughout their lifetime.
What is a hub?
A typical hub will include the following:
- a physical or virtual centre, comprising multiple institutions but based around a lead institution
- a hub director (academic) with a proven track record of managing large investments and excellence within their discipline or sector
- a wider leadership team from across relevant disciplines and sectors with a track record of excellence within their field
- a management team including a hub manager and administrative team as required to ensure efficient running of the hub
- a named lead for each of PPIE and partnership working and translation and impact
- research staff distributed across the project. Funding cannot be requested from these grants for PhD studentships or related funding. However, students funded from other sources can be incorporated into the broader project plan, provided that PhD students’ work is not part of the critical path of the hub’s research
- appropriate advisory and governance structures including an independent advisory board
Funding opportunity objectives
The hubs will:
- deliver a programme of high quality, multidisciplinary research of importance to one or more of the challenges outlined in this funding opportunity
- create a critical mass of research capacity in a particular area, driving forward the national research agenda to actively build a wider research and innovation ecosystem
- act as UK leaders in the field on behalf of the wider research landscape. Hubs will be expected to engage with relevant research partners throughout their lifetime
- embed PPIE throughout the hub aims, objectives and operations, considering the context of each hub’s specific research area
- engage with a diverse range of relevant partners to ensure research is co-created and co-delivered with users
- 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 hub’s research area and community
Due to the scale of these awards, significant collaboration and leverage (cash or in-kind) will be expected from project partners (for example, business, public sector, third sector).
