A large team from across the Cambridge life sciences, technology and business worlds announces a multi-million-pound, three-year collaboration with Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), the UK Government’s new research funding agency. The new Activation Partners in the agency’s Scalable Neural Interfaces opportunity space aims to rocket-boost progress on a new generation of neuro-technologies designed to treat conditions such as depression, dementia, chronic pain, epilepsy and injuries to the nervous system.
Neurological and mental health disorders will affect four in every five people in their lifetimes, and present a greater overall health burden than cancer and cardiovascular disease combined. For example, twenty-eight million people in the UK are living with chronic pain and one point three million people with traumatic brain injury.
Neuro-technology – where technology is used to control the nervous system - has the potential to deliver revolutionary new treatments for these disorders, in much the same way that heart pacemakers, cochlear implants and spinal implants have transformed medicine in recent decades. These technologies also have the potential to treat autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and type-1 diabetes.
The science of building technology small enough, precise enough and cheap enough to make a global impact requires an environment where the very best minds from across the UK can collaborate, dream up radical, risky ideas and test them without fear of failure.
Cambridge NeuroWorks Launch Event - 18 December, 3.30pm - 6.30pm, Maxwell Centre: See more and book your place
Introducing Cambridge NeuroWorks
The new Cambridge NeuroWorks programme is not just for academics, it is open to creative people from all backgrounds and all locations. The aim is for everyone to be able to access our expertise and resources so that they can turn their ideas into mass produced, affordable and clinic-ready devices and tools to benefit millions of people suffering around the world. One of the principal goals of this research will be to reduce significantly the risks and side-effects that can arise when you implant technology into a patient’s brain.
This partnership will consider supporting any precise neuro-technology with the potential to solve a global health problem. It could be:
- Electronic brain implants that reset abnormal brain activity or help deliver targeted drugs more effectively
- Brain-computer interfaces that control prosthetic limbs
- New gene therapies
- Cutting-edge technologies that train the patient’s own cells to fight disease
Cambridge’s partnership with ARIA will create a home for original thinkers who are struggling to find the funding, space and mentoring needed to stress-test their radical ideas.
The three-year partnership is made up of two programmes:
The Fellowship Programme (up to 18 fellowships)
Blue Sky Fellows - a UK-wide offer - we will search the UK for people from any background, with a radical idea in this field and the plan and personal skills to develop it. The best people will be offered a fellowship with the funding to rapidly test their idea in Cambridge. These Blue Sky Fellows will receive mentorship from our best medical, scientific and business experts and potentially be offered accommodation at a Cambridge college. We will be looking for a very specific type of person to be a Blue Sky Fellow. They must be the kind of character who thinks at the very edge of the possible, who doesn’t fear failure, and whose ideas have the potential to change billions of lives, yet would struggle to find funding from existing sources. Not so much people who think outside the box, more people who don’t see a box at all.
Activator Fellows - a UK-wide offer - those across the country who have already proved that their idea can work, yet need support to turn it into a business, will be invited to become Activator Fellows. They will be offered training in entrepreneurial skills including grant writing, IP management and clinical validation, so that their innovation can be made ready for investment.
The Ecosystem Programme
The Ecosystem Programme is about creating a vibrant, UK-wide neurotechnology community where leaders from business, science, engineering, academia and the NHS can meet, spark ideas and form collaborations. This will involve quarterly events in Cambridge, road trip events across the UK and access to the thriving online Cambridge network, Connect: Health Tech.
Cambridge Activation Partners
- The Babraham Research Campus
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
- Cambridge Network
- Cambridge Neuroscience
- Cambridge University Health Partners
- The University of Cambridge Departments of Engineering and Psychiatry
- The Milner Therapeutics Institute
- The Maxwell Centre
- Vellos
In the News...
- BBC: Could new implants treat depression, dementia and chronic pain?
- Business Weekly: Cambridge on song as ARIA orchestrates brain health revolution
How to get involved - The first networking events will be held in the coming weeks, but the search for ideas starts now. If you would like to hear more about the Bly Sky and Activator Fellowships, contact Enquiries@CambridgeNeuroWorks.com
Image credit: Bioelectronics Laboratory, University of Cambridge