A new round of funding is to make £85 million available for the development of AI models to diagnose and treat cancer and other incurable diseases.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has announced the funding as a joint public-private investment to support British AI firms and researchers, with the Government providing £37.5 million under the Research Ventures Catalyst (RVC) programme and £44.7 million coming from other sources.
DSIT said that inflexible funding has been a barrier to creative research and to innovative businesses looking to scale up. But the RVC programme is delivering novel ways of funding groundbreaking research, such as endowments, which are flexible and reflect the needs of innovators.
One of the three projects to be supported under the RVC programme is to be led by PharosAI and supported with £18.9 million Government funding plus £24.7 million co-investment.
It will involve giving UK researchers access to cutting edge computing resources and the vast pool of NHS and Biobank data and on a unified, secure AI platform to accelerate the development of the next generation of AI models in the effort to deliver new breakthroughs for diagnosing and treating cancer.
Unlocking potential
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “This new funding is another step to unlock the enormous potential of AI for cancer research and drug discovery – ensuring more patients like me experience the highest quality care.
“AI will help us speed up diagnoses, cut waiting times for patients and free up staff, as we deliver our Plan for Change and shift the NHS from analogue to digital.”
Professor Anita Grigoriadis, professor of molecular and digital pathology at King’s College London and CEO of PharosAI, said: “Thanks to the RVC programme, we will build a unique operational approach between King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Barts Health Trust and industry partners. Our innovative collaboration will accelerate scientific breakthroughs and bring vastly improved cancer care to tomorrow's patients."
Another project under the programme will be led by Bind Research, tapping into AI to learn the rules of drugging currently undruggable proteins with the aim of finding cures for diseases that were once thought to be untreatable. It will do this by targeting disordered proteins associated with various diseases that could unlock new avenues for treatment.
The third, led by MEMetic will work on new approaches to water management by combining nature’s highly evolved solutions with polymer chemistry. This will support work on new solutions in a range of fields from lithium recovery in battery recycling to facilitating clean water access.
EuroHPC commitment
DSIT has also announced an expansion of UK involvement in the European High Performance Computing (EuroHPC) joint undertaking by committing £7.8 million to fund UK researchers and businesses’ participation in EuroHPC research.
This will mean British AI and high performance computing researchers can work unobstructed with their peers across Europe. International collaboration and broad access to computational resources will be key to unlocking the benefits AI promises to deliver across society and the economy.
EuroHPC is a partnership that pools EU resources with those of participating states. Businesses and researchers will now be supported to participate in EuroHPC research grants in the development of supercomputers and in their deployment to tackle the most pressing scientific challenges, working in tandem with like-minded partners on the continent.
UK Research and Innovation will work with businesses and researchers to support them to apply for grants where match funding is available.
