Tatton Consulting

innovateUK

Two of Tatton’s Medtech clients featured in an industry ‘ones to watch’ list.

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Big AI projects in medicine to watch in 2020

Significant, transformational grants won for both this year – 2021 should see them rocket in growth 🚀 #grants #innovateuk #disrupt #tattonconsulting #startups #innovation #venturecapital

Artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to touch medicine in many different ways, from making diagnoses to triaging patients. Many AI enterprises will make headlines in 2020:

GlobalData’s medical devices writer Chloe Kent singles out three big projects to watch this year.

Abtrace battles against antimicrobial resistance

Kent says:

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the greatest ongoing threats to global health, estimated to cause 25,000 deaths and 2.5 million extra hospital stays per year in Europe alone.

Leading the fight against antimicrobial resistance in the tech world is Abtrace, an AI platform designed to help clinicians prescribe the most appropriate antibiotic for each individual patient they see in their practice. When around 30% of antibiotic prescriptions are inappropriate, this couldn’t come at a more vital time.

The platform makes its recommendations through a process known as natural language processing (NLP), where a patient’s healthcare notes are processed through Abtrace’s augmented decision-making tool. In seconds, it presents a recommendation for whether or not an antibiotic should be prescribed, and which antibiotic would be appropriate if so.

Abtrace is a European Institute of Technology Health (EIT Health) Wild Card Project, and will receive up to €2m from the organization to help commercialize the product.”

Pexxi genetic testing aims to decode contraception

Kent says:

Many women who choose to use hormonal contraceptives, such as the pill, implant or ring, have to navigate several different options through trial-and-error until they are able to find a medication that works for them.

The side effects associated with hormonal contraceptives, such as acne, weight gain, anxiety and depression, can have a huge effect on a person’s life, and it can take months or even years before a woman is able to settle on one with no or only minimal adverse effects.

Healthtech start-up Pexxi is aiming to end the contraceptive roulette wheel through AI-powered genetic testing. Users give Pexxi a spit sample, which contains enough information about where their progesterone and estrogen levels naturally sit, as well as whether they have any genetic predispositions to the potential side-effects of one type of pill over another. Pexxi then provides a list of the contraceptive pills the person is most likely to tolerate, with plans to eventually expand to include the implant and ring as well. Pexxi is currently in beta-testing stages, with a plan to eventually reach customers through a 23andMe-style model where they’ll pay a fee to use its services.”

Source:

GlobalData

Tatton appointed the official Grants Partner of KQ Labs @ The Francis Crick Institute

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Run once a year by the Crick and supported by LifeArc, ten start-ups with the potential to make an impact on global health outcomes have access to unrivalled support and resources.

KQ Labs helps early-stage data-driven health startup founders to validate their ideas and put their startups on a path to receive investment from business angel investors, venture capital and other sources including non-dilutive funding in the form of grants.

The accelerator is called KQ Labs to represent the ‘Knowledge Quarter’ area around the King’s Cross, Euston and Bloomsbury regions of the city. The KQ Labs accelerator represents a unique opportunity to foster a vibrant ecosystem for data-driven health.

The 16-week programme includes funding (£40k) in the form of a convertible loan, weekly workshops with experts tailored to digital health, training in transferable skills, mentoring by a hand-picked network of experts, and discussions with investors and corporates. In addition, the KQ Labs network facilitates access to data (eg from Health Data Research UK or Genomics England) for start-ups that need to validate their technology further. The programme culminates in a Demo Day, when the startups pitch their propositions to potential investors and partners. All selected startup teams have access to a powerful network of global experts in entrepreneurship, health sector expertise, data science and investment strategies.                                                                           

KQ Labs logo

The KQ Labs accelerator programme

  • Specialised investor introductions
  • Introductions to major corporates, especially pharma
  • Mentoring opportunities with a hand-picked network of experts
  • Tailored and customised weekly workshops covering:
    • Data accessibility and ethics
    • Finance and fundraising
    • Customer and market focus
    • Leadership and team building
    • Communications and pitching practice
    • Regulatory requirements
    • Protecting Intellectual Property
    • Corporate legal aspects
    • Market access (UK and international)
    • Scaling
    • Grant funding and writing

Alumni

Find out more about the previous cohorts of KQ Labs start-ups on our alumni page.

£350k grant for Byotrol and Liverpool University to explore the anti-viral properties of seaweed

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Researchers at Byotrol plc and the University of Liverpool are set to investigate the anti-viral properties of seaweed.

The new project is a collaboration with industrial partner Byotrol plc and will focus on the potential use of anti-viral seaweed compounds in sanitising products, such as hand gels and household cleaners.

The team has been awarded £350K of funding by Innovate UK to carry out the work over the next 16 months.

Easily spread and immune to antibiotics, viruses are very difficult to eradicate and even more expensive to treat, with a limited number of anti-viral solutions. Despite rapid advances in medical and cleaning technology, viruses such as norovirus, influenza and coronavirus continue to pose a major threat to human health and cost the UK billions each year.

AIM-listed hygiene group Byotrol has, for some time, been investigating sustainably sourced anti-virals and has found certain forms of seaweed to have particularly good potential.

The University’s Molecular Virology Research Group will use their expertise to characterise the anti-viral component of the seaweed, evaluate the efficacy of a much broader range of seaweed species and determine its anti-viral mode of action.

Professor James Stewart, who is leading the project at the University of Liverpool, said: “The current COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to develop new anti-viral countermeasures, especially ones that are environmentally sustainable. We are excited to be working with Byotrol on the development of these compounds.”

Dr Trevor Francis, Chief Technology Officer of Byotrol plc, said: “We are delighted that Innovate UK is supporting our research into the anti-viral properties of seaweeds and we are very pleased to be working on this project with Professor James Stewart’s excellent team at the University of Liverpool. It is a very exciting area of development for Byotrol.”/Public Release. The material in this public release comes from the originating organization and may be of a point-in-time nature, edited for clarity, style and length. View in full here.

Grant Opportunities for September and October

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Despite it raining outside and it being the holiday season there are a large number of grant opportunities at the moment. Funding is available to support innovation in Construction, Financial Services, Energy, Quantum Computing, Ageing Technology and Self-Driving Vehicles.

A selection of these can be found below;

Enabling data access in accountancy, insurance and legal services: CR&D
Apply for a share of up to £3.5 million from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, to enable data access and innovation in accountancy, insurance and law.

Opening Date: Monday 14th October 
Closing Date: Wednesday 20th November


Transforming UK construction: demonstrator projects
UK businesses can apply for a share of up to £26 million for practical, demonstrator projects in MMC, digital and whole-life asset performance.

Opening Date: Wednesday 28th August
Closing Date: Wednesday 6th November


Commercialising quantum technology: feasibility and industrial research projects round 1
Funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, UK businesses can apply for a share of up to £6 million for quantum technology innovation projects.

Opening Date: Monday 5th August
Closing Date: Wednesday 30th October


And don’t forget that the Innovate UK Smart Grants: July 2019 is already open! 

This opportunity allows you to apply for a share of up to £25 million to deliver ambitious or disruptive R&D innovations that can make a significant impact on the UK economy.

Closing date: Wednesday 16th October

For further details on any of the above schemes, or if you would like to discuss a potential project please don’t hesitate to give us a call.
 

Partnerships

We are proud to announce Tatton Consulting as the official UK public funding partner of the Greentech Challenge, a Europe-wide business incubator supporting the brightest and best sustainability and green technology start-ups.

Image result for Greentech challenge logo

We will be supporting them at GREENTECH CHALLENGE London 2019  on the 9–12th of September 2019  at Sustainable Workspaces, London. For further details please click here.  

Recent Successes

We love helping businesses apply and secure funding, and have supported our clients in raising over £32m. We’ve recently secured funds for a number of projects including;

  • £190k for an Augmented Reality project,
  • £450k for a Digital health genetics company
  • £260k for an African Agritech company. 

All consultations are done free of charge and we only earn once both parties have identified a suitable opportunity with a good chance of success.  For further details please click here.

Industrial Challenge: Advanced Manufacturing & Materials

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Industrial Challenge: Advanced Manufacturing & Materials
** £19m in funding, 70% grants available**

Innovative projects that boost productivity, result in a new process or material use are encouraged from the following technology areas:

• nanotechnology and nanomaterials
• composite materials
• coatings, thin films and surfaces
• metals and metallurgy
• ceramics
• polymers
• non-metallics
• electronic and sensing materials
• resource efficiency
• assembly and joining
• forming technologies
• chemical and bio process
• surface engineering
• CAD/CAM/CAE/simulation, digital manufacturing
• electronics manufacturing
• sensor and instrument (design and manufacture)
• material recovery and treatment
• additive manufacturing and 3D printing
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Funding details

Innovate UK have allocated up to £19 million to fund innovation projects;

• Projects should focus on technical feasibility, industrial research or experimental development.
• All projects must involve at least one SME and a business must lead the project.
• Projects costing more than £100k must involve a partner.
• The funding ranges from 35% up to 70% of total R&D costs (labour, overheads, materials, IP, subcontractors).
• Projects are expected to last from 6 months to 3 years and to range in size from total costs of £50,000 to £2 million.

*** The closing dates for application is the 31st January 2018 ***

If you would like any further details on the schemes highlighted or to discuss a potential project, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.