Strength in Places Fund: Wave 1 Seedcorn-Funded Proposals
Details of the 23 bids receiving seedcorn-funding from Wave 1 of Strength in Places Fund have been released.
The Strength in Places Fund (SIPF) is a competitive funding scheme led by UK Research and Innovation and takes a place-based approach to research and innovation funding in order to support regional growth. SIPF is a competitive fund for collaborative bids between businesses and research organisations.
SIPF aims to support innovation-led regional growth in supporting R&D strengths that drive clusters of businesses to innovate or adopt new technologies in order to make these clusters nationally and internationally competitive. It aims to enhance local collaborations by building on the regional economic impact role of universities, research institutes, Catapults and other R&D facilities. You can read more about SIPF here.
23 bids have been awarded seedcorn funding in Wave 1 to develop full stage bids which will be submitted to a closed call in September 2019. The Wave 1 consortia are led by either a research organisation or a business and involve local leadership organisations. Many of these bids are operating in the health sector.
Some of these bids are outlined below:
Scotland
The Living Lab: driving economic growth in Glasgow through real world implementation of precision medicine
Lead organisation: University of Glasgow
A consortium of public and private partners has developed an ambitious vision for creating a Precision Medicine- focused “Living Lab” at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. By implementing and evaluating novel Precision Medicine approaches at the campus, industry will be able to stimulate and evidence market demand, thus accelerating Precision Medicine adoption.
North East
North East Cluster for Healthy Ageing and Independent Living (NE-CHAIN)
Lead organisation: Newcastle University
The consortium will comprise Universities, NHS, public and private care providers, educators, local, national and international businesses, and civil groups to  collaborative, applied research and innovation in areas such as skills and inclusion, product design for connectivity and independence, design of buildings and homes, digital data collection and analytics, household goods, nutrition and active living.
North West
AI-Enabled Materials Chemistry across the Mersey Basin
Lead organisation: STFC – Laboratories
Led by STFC’s Hartree Centre, working closely with The University of Liverpool as lead academic partner, this project will deliver AI tools for digital design and processing of real materials for the benefit of industries and their supply chains, so increasing the speed/decreasing the cost of highly complex materials discovery and innovation processes. It will focus on five materials sub-sectors: sustainable solutions in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and packaging, smart coatings and sensors, energy, medicines/biofilms, and advanced manufacturing.
Delivering Integrated Solutions for Human Infections
Lead organisation: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
This consortium in the Liverpool City Region aims to establish the area as a national and international centre for developing and providing industry with access to a progressive repository of methodologies and improved models for product development for infectious disease prevention and treatment. It aims to generate sustainable high value jobs linked to the local science base and increase industrial productivity and profitability.
Yorkshire and the Humber
Medical Technologies in the Leeds City Region: Driving economic growth, improving health and care
Lead organisation: University of Leeds
Focuses on the advancement of knowledge, innovation and the translation of technology to industry, and early stage clinical evaluation and the generation of evidence on novel medical device interventions within the real world health and care system in Leeds.
East Midlands
Growing Rehabilitation Industries Project (GRIP)
Lead organisation: Loughborough University
The ‘Growing Rehabilitation Industries Project’ (GRIP) will create substantial economic growth in the Nottingham/Loughborough/Leicester area. In line with the Government’s Industrial Strategy, rehabilitation and medical technology businesses in the area will benefit from a step change in research and innovation practices, harnessing pioneering research and industrial capability to develop new and innovative projects for local, national and international markets – creating new jobs, high quality skills and driving economic growth.
West Midlands
Med Tech CONNECT West Midlands (COllaborative Network to eNable and Enhance Cross-Sector Transformation)
Lead organisation: University of Birmingham
Med-Tech CONNECT West Midlands will deliver innovation-led regional growth in medical technologies (inclusive of a broad spectrum from advanced therapies and digital technologies through to classical devices and diagnostics) in the West Midlands by leveraging significant academic and NHS partnerships and infrastructure, and connecting businesses to our proven manufacturing and digital tech base to deliver a well-connected regional ecosystem.
You can read about all of the 23 bids which cover various sectors including agri-food, chemistry, manufacturing and transportation across all regions of the UK in full here.
Wave 2 of the Strength in Places Fund is to be launched in the coming months. There will be a series of Wave 2 stakeholder events across the UK hosted by UKRI in May and June 2019 with details on how to register being made public soon.