SBRI Healthcare, an Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) initiative, in partnership with the Health Innovation Network, has awarded £1 million for the development of 11 innovations that improve infection prevention and control to prevent the spread of antimicrobial resistance.
The NHS identifies antimicrobial resistance as a key priority requiring NHS action on prevention, and reiterates the UK’s 20-year vision for AMR which outlines the aim for a world in which antimicrobial resistance is effectively contained, controlled and mitigated.
Funded by the AAC, SBRI Healthcare 'Competition 25: AMR’ was launched in July 2024 as a Phase 1 development funding competition. The projects will run for up to six months, with the aim to demonstrate technical and commercial feasibility.
Under the overall theme of antimicrobial resistance, the competition sought early-stage innovations in the following four priority areas:
- Point-of-care diagnostics, monitoring, and susceptibility testing
- Prescribing decision support and risk stratification
- Novel care delivery methods
- Infection prevention and control (IPC).
The competition was open to single companies and organisations from the private, public, and third sectors, including large corporates, small and medium enterprises, charities, universities and NHS providers.
Verena Stocker, Director of Innovation, Research, Life Sciences and Strategy, NHS England and Chief Executive Officer, Accelerated Access Collaborative, said: “The Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Healthcare awards help the NHS to develop new technologies and solutions to address some of the most pressing healthcare challenges facing society. These innovations were selected because they have the potential to make a big difference to tackling antimicrobial resistance. By supporting the most promising innovations, the NHS will continue to evolve, helping to meet more patients’ needs and encouraging more innovators to come forward with innovative ideas that benefit all.”
The programme will additionally sponsor awarded projects to undergo the NICE Metatool to help optimise their approach to addressing gaps in development plans and evidence generation, and to identify the potential next steps to bring their product to market.
The SBRI Healthcare 'Competition 25: AMR, Phase 1' awarded projects are:
- Imperial College London - awarded £100,000 - Development and Evaluation of a host Transcript tEst in Children for rapid TrIage of Viral/bacterial illness in Emergency departments (DETECTIVE)
- Vitec Microgenix - awarded £53,409 - Infection Prevention and Control through the Implementation of Novel Antimicrobial Technologies within Healthcare Settings
- iFAST Diagnostics - awarded £99,817 - Direct from Blood Rapid Antimicrobial Susceptibility Test
- CEXAL - awarded £99,999 - Development of a rapid and modular phenotypic test for quantitative Urinary Tract Infection detection and antimicrobial susceptibility in 30 minutes
- Mackwell Health - awarded £99,738 - Infection Prevention using Next Generation UV-C LED Technology
- University of Bristol - awarded £81,286 - A Novel Approach to Preventing Encrustation and Infection in Long-term Indwelling Urinary Catheters
- Presymptom Health - awarded £99,993 - Development of the InfectiClear test onto Near Patient and Point-of-Care NHS
- Seroxo - awarded £99,358 - SAMuRAI-LIT - Slashing AMR with the AI-enabled LIT
- Oxford Simcell - awarded £83,316 - Development of a SimCell vaccine against S. aureus infection
- Microplate Dx - awarded £99,875 - Development of a rapid, cost-effective, point of care antibiotic susceptibility test for urinary tract infections
- ProtonDx - awarded £98,892 - Rapid assessment of aetiology and severity of febrile illness to optimise antibiotic use and clinical care.