Kidney charity unveils competition for dialysis innovation
11 Sep 2022
Just weeks after a pioneering dialysis technology won a prestigious engineering award, a leading UK charity has launched a new competition to enable dialysis projects to get funding to help them develop their ideas into practical solutions for patients.
In collaboration with IN-PART, creator of the Discover platform for academic-based research, Kidney Research UK is providing six successful entrants with support worth £30,000 to each.
Of the amount, £25,000 will fund the recipients in order to progress their work. In addition, two individuals from each project will be funded for places on the competition’s academy programme, valued at £5,000 and designed to introduce them to the commercialisation process.
The competition is seeking patient-focused innovations in peritoneal or haemodialysis. These can include advancing equipment, monitoring, access to treatments, reducing treatment cost or environmental impacts of treatment. In addition, app and software developers are invited to submit innovations that impact patients.
Kidney dialysis innovation has already featured prominently in scientific and engineering awards this year. In summer, Quanta Dialysis Technologies’ compact dialysis machine scooped the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2022 MacRobert Award for UK Engineering Innovation (pictured) and a £50,000 cash prize.
Kidney Research UK dialysis programme manager Dr Kirsty Frearson said:“Dialysis is a harsh and gruelling treatment that has a significant impact on the lives of the patient and everyone around them. Introduced to the NHS in the 1950s, the principles and limiting nature of the treatment remain largely unchanged.
With the support of engineers, academics, and those at the forefront of technological development, we can bring about meaningful change that will make the differences patients need. These innovations will bring hope to everyone facing dialysis as part of our vision to transform the treatment forever.”
IN-PART estimates that its Discover platform has made available more than £30 million in industry funding since 2018. The software platform identifies new projects and commercialisation opportunities as well as requests for research proposals and claims a network of more than 2,400 universities and institutions. The two organisations partnered previously this year in the MedTech competition.
Deadline for applications is Monday 7th November 2022 and entries must be submitted by a UK-based lead applicant.
