Congratulations to everyone who successfully applied to our most recent funding call. We were delighted to receive more than 60 applications, and in total we made awards of more than £274,000 to projects across the region
At the heart of this effort is our aim to develop exciting new collaborations across organisations, whose members can then move towards applying for grants from larger bodies. Every WHP founding partner played a role in enabling these collaborations and also taking the lead.
We spoke to two of the successful applicants.
Dr Harjeet Singh Virk, Consultant Microbiologist and Infectious Diseases Specialist at Portsmouth Hospitals University, led a bid collaborating with colleagues in no less than seven other organisations in the region - Bournemouth University, University Hospitals Dorset, University of Portsmouth, University of Southampton, Hampshire Hospitals, University Hospital Southampton and Health Innovation Wessex. He receives £20,000 to examine the use of data in generating predictive AI models of adverse outcomes in infections and sepsis.
Dr Virk said: “Sepsis kills thousands every year, but what if we could spot those likely to deteriorate or when treatments aren’t working before it’s too late? Our innovative study uses AI to analyse hospital data and flag early signs of treatment failure. By acting faster, we aim to save lives, reduce suffering, and transform sepsis care. This is the future of personalised life-saving innovation.”
Kay Mitchell, Senior Programme Manager at the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, commented: “Sepsis is a common and life-threatening condition that costs society up to £10 billion in the UK every year. We are keen to support this study because it addresses a major global health challenge, supports a wide collaboration and helps develop AI capability to improve health outcomes.”
Dr Humaira Khan, Lecturer in Health Sciences at Health Sciences University (HSU) in Bournemouth, was awarded £16,618 for her work which involves a team across Bournemouth University, Health Sciences University, the University of Portsmouth and University of Southampton. Dr Khan will use the pump-priming to also prepare an application for a larger grant to work with a company to produce the resources. “I am thrilled to have been awarded this grant,” she said. “This will support my project to enhance health literacy in schools, co-producing new resources."
Christine McGrath, Managing Director of Wessex Health Partners, commented: “Dr Khan’s application was a good example of exactly what the funding panel wanted to see – involvement of several WHP organisations. Her work also aligns with the focus on women’s health in our two regional Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), and the need to move from treatment to prevention. The panel felt that there’s a good chance the project will be able to draw down greater funds, leading to more inward investment in our region, accelerating our ability to improve health and meet our local population health needs.”
All successful applicants are asked to send us a progress report every six months for the duration of their project, and to submit a final report at the end. These reports should focus on impacts in terms of larger collaborative applications submitted, or successful follow-on funding awards from external funding sources. In this way, Wessex Health Partners and NIHR WEMN will be meeting shared goals to bring inward investment into the region to help address health inequalities and unmet health needs.