Cancer Research UK, GB and other funders: Early detection innovation sandpit and award

02/09/2021

21/09/2021

Cancer Research UK, Pancreatic Cancer UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council invite applications for their early detection innovation sandpit and award. This aims to catalyse new multidisciplinary collaborations to drive forward earlier detection and diagnosis technologies for primary care triage. Applicants must attend a three-day sandpit workshop, to be held from 7 to 10 November 2021, where they will have the opportunity to network and form new collaborations spanning diverse research areas and organisations, work in broad multidisciplinary teams to generate new and innovative ideas, and pitch projects for seed funding to test the feasibility of their ideas. The theme for the workshop is applying novel technological approaches for the early detection of pancreatic cancer. Applicants receive accommodation, meals and travel costs for the workshop. Teams who successfully pitch proposals at the workshop receive seed-funding worth £230,000 over 18 months to cover the costs of pilot or feasibility studies.

The research ideas that the applicants develop at the workshop should investigate some or a combination of the following challenges: •development of new sensor devices including innovation in sensor technology to detect cancer biomarkers in for example blood, breath and urine; •development of new computational approaches such as new analytics and algorithms to identify high-risk groups symptomatic patients presenting to primary care through the integration of multiple datasets, including electronic health record data, family history, and routine blood tests, and identify sensitive and specific biomarkers and other signatures through large datasets; •development of new integrative modalities of cancer diagnostic tools or decision-making tools leveraging from electronic health records and other health care data such as diagnostic imaging datasets and multi-omics datasets.

Researchers from all career stages and sectors may apply. They must be based in the UK. Applications are welcome from a wide range of disciplines, including from those working in the fields of cancer biology, healthcare professionals, computer scientists, mathematicians and statisticians, engineers, physical scientists, and those working in the digital and technology space.