NIHRDataInsights/HRCSData huggingface dataset:
Title: 2013 GPARTS: dr Jennifer Weir
Funder: Health and Social Care Research and Development Division (HSC R&D) of Public Health Agency, Northern Ireland

Abstract: Background. The increasingly high academic achievements by applicants to medical school makes it difficult to discriminate between candidates on the basis of measurements of cognitive skills alone. This has led to the development of methods to assess non-cognitive skills including communication, problem solving, empathy and ethical reasoning. Queens University Belfast (QUB) is one of several UK medical schools to have developed Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs) as a means of testing these attributes and each candidate who fulfils the necessary criteria, based on academic results (GCSE, A-level, primary degree) and UKCAT score is now invited to MMIs. One of the domains in the GMC document from 2009, “Tomorrow’s doctors”1 is concerned with Student Selection. It is clear that the selection process must take account of personal as well as academic qualities and the capacity to achieve the outcomes stated in this document. This study aims to examine the performance of the students selected to study medicine in QUB compared to their performance in the MMI part of the selection process which focuses on ethical, communication and problem solving competencies. The long-term outcome is the ongoing development of a process to select the individuals who will be best able to provide patient care and serve patients’ interests with integrity and respect. Aims of study. As part of an ongoing effort to improve the quality of the admissions process in QUB, this study will seek to examine how well performance in the QUB MMIs can predict performance during progress through medical school.


Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: A Synthesis Programme at Cambridge
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Abstract: The research presented in this proposal, encompasses a broad range of challenging projects. The total syntheses will require the development of existing reactions and the invention of new processes. We will develop new synthetic methods and new tools for molecular synthesis. There is much to commend an integrated programme of science as presented in this document. The desire for more efficient syntheses stimulates the discovery of new reactivities to solve particular problems New reactions can open up areas for total synthesis and analogue generation that were previously inaccessible. These drivers impact on the development of new methods for synthesis. The added value that arises from having a closely coupled programme containing the development of new synthetic methods, new ways of performing reactions and total synthesis is considerable. All these disciplines will drive the creative process. It is undoubtedly a grand challenge, but one we feel is worthy of investment.


Research activity codes: 1.3 CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: UCLIC / FIT Lab PLATFORM: Healthy interactive systems : Resilient, Usable and Appropriate Systems in Healthcare
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Abstract: When faced by complex problems, people turn to tools that improve their performance. Through studying the use of tools in highly demanding circumstances we gain valuable insights into how to design effective systems The design of interactive computer sy


Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Membrane Biophysics Platform
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Abstract: The proposed Platform grant renewal is aimed at giving us the ability to capitalise upon our position as a world leading group in membrane biophysics and self-assembled amphiphilic materials, and to promote and facilitate collaborations within the currently fragmented membrane biophysics community in the UK. To achieve these aims we will form collaborative research networks with groups having complementary expertise, and encourage interconnections between external groups via a combination of 'Ideas Workshops' and IT platforms These networks will focus upon tackling key challenges at the Life Sciences Interface requiring multi-disciplinary approaches. We will support targeted short-term personnel exchange with a view to effecting knowledge transfer, proof-of-concept experiments and research training. Within this framework we will invite key collaborators as academic visitors and to present seminar series within our Department. We also wish to continue to facilitate exploitation of our specialised facilities by the wider research community.In addition to building upon the successes of our original objectives by studying the phase behaviour of novel amphiphiles and complex lipid mixtures, and the development of millisecond and microsceond pressure-jump synchrotron X-ray studies of lyotropic transitions, we also plan to develop the following areas of research within the renewed Platform grant, which we have identified as timely and important challenges at the Life/Physical Sciences interface:i) Understanding Membrane Asymmetry;ii) Protein Control of Lipid Membrane Morphology;iv) Regulation of Lipid Biosynthetic Pathways.iv) Lipid Mesophase Engineering Rules for Biomedical Imaging Applications.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (UNDERPINNING)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: myGrid: A Platform for e-Biology Renewal
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Abstract: SummaryThe myGrid Consortium is a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary, internationally leading research group focusing on the challenges of e Science-the use of computational resources that allows scientists around the world to collaborate to produce and analyse the vast amounts of complex data in disciplines as diverse as biology, chemistry, astronomy, physics, music and social science. This platform grant enables the consortium to sustain an internationally leading team of researchers working on the foundations of e-Science. The consortium delivers e-Laboratory environments in which scientists perform virtual or in silico experiments. The consortium's flagship tools include Taverna, myExperiment and Utopia. Taverna is used to develop the scientific workflows that scientists use to gather and analyse data - these represent the experiments on, for example, the genes and proteins involved in diseases. The myExperiment Virtual Research Environment is social web site software for the social curation and sharing of scientific research objects, including workflows and in silico experiments. UTOPIA is a suite of scientific visualisation and analysis tools that brings together disparate data sources in an easy to use unified interface. Together these enable scientific investigations to be undertaken in a way that enables the scientist to concentrate on the science, a feat that requires basic research in computer science.These E-Science tools are world leaders with 1000, 900 and 2000 users respectively - Taverna is used in some 350 organisations. Producing these tools necessitates foundational e-Science research in four main areas: the management of the knowledge in such environments; the production and management of the metadata, or descriptions, of the experiments and experimental holdings; the design, use and reuse of in silico experiments; and the exploitation of social networks to enhance e-Science. Explicitly engaging with users supports adoption, and it drives challenging, user-relevant research and development based on observed experience and real need. The platform grant enables the consortium to retain key staff that help sustain this world leading effort in e-Science and Open Science - they are experts in scientific workflow management, semantic technologies, intelligent middleware and social computing. Crucially it also supports our participation on the international stage, and it allows pump-priming novel and innovative research projects that are the hallmark of the consortium.


Research activity codes: 1.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (UNDERPINNING)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Advanced ultrasonics platform
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Abstract: Ultrasonics is a powerful and widely used investigative tool which is used for examination and diagnosis across many areas of engineering and in medicine. It is valued because of its power to image and measure, and because it is non-invasive, and non-damaging to the structures, or people, under examination. In this proposal we will extend the use of ultrasonics far beyond its current boundaries, and in two directions: firstly we intend to enable its use in highly complex materials which are close to opaque to ultrasonic measurements, and secondly, to extend the scale at which ultrasonics operates downwards to the nanoscale so that we can bring the power of ultrasonic imaging and measurement to bear on nanomachines and nanomaterials and even inside single living cells. These two directions are strongly linked: many of the advanced materials we aim to tackle derive their overall macroscopic properties from their structure at a tiny scale - right down to the nanoscale - many of the nanoscale systems we wish to study require measurements at this scale within the context of much larger structures - for instance, it may be advantageous to study the internal environment of a living cell whilst it is part of a much larger living organ inside the body.The traditional ultrasonic techniques fail for both complex materials and at the nanoscale. Complex materials return signals that lack any direct relationship between the data acquired and the state of the material, and this makes it difficult to infer the state of the sample from the experimental observations. At the nanoscale a catalogue of basic but fundamental problems mean that the usual ways of performing ultrasonic measurements cannot be used. These range from the fundamental, and massive attenuation of very high frequency ultrasound, to the simple problem of how to attach a wire to a nanometre sized transducer.We will use advanced theory and modelling to design measurement systems to extract data from these complex materials and turn it into information directly related to the state of the sample. At the same time we will use innovative wireless ultrasonic transducers powered by high speed lasers to generate ultrasound at multiple GHz frequencies to probe the samples at the nanoscale.


Research activity codes: 1.3 CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Investigating the Potential Of Polymer-Scaffolded Dynamic Combinatorial Libraries
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Abstract: We propose to develop a new, simple and low-cost method to create wholly synthetic macromolecules which can selectively recognise and bind to target molecules, or catalyse chemical reactions of interest. These macromolecules can be considered as synthetic mimics of proteins, a class of macromolecule found in all living systems which over billions of years have perfected their molecular recognition and catalytic abilities. The proposed approach to developing synthetic protein mimics involves the application of concepts from the emerging field of dynamic combinatorial chemistry, in which building blocks are self-assembled around a template molecule. The special nature of this 'molding' process provides a mechanism for optimising the interactions between the template and receptor, a significant advance over existing methods for designing receptors. The development of an effective method to create 'designer' macromolecules will be of considerable benefit in numerous applications where protein-based technologies are already important. Clinical in vitro diagnostics, for instance, are heavily reliant on sophisticated macromolecular receptors which are often expensive and difficult to produce. Our approach could allow the rapid creation of low-cost synthetic alternatives. Furthermore, our method may be useful in creating new macromolecular catalysts for reactions in which natural or engineered proteins are not efficient or simply not available. Such technology would be immensely important to the pharmaceutical and fine chemicals industries.


Research activity codes: 1.3 CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: LSI Doctoral Training Centres: University of Nottingham
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Abstract: The University of Nottingham seeks funding from the EPSRC to create an international centre of excellence for the training of outstanding graduate students in a multi-disciplinary environment. Matched funding from AstraZeneca has already been agreed in principle to support this proposal. The theme of the Doctoral Training Centre is Targeted Therapeutics; research and training in this area will deliver both scientists and scientific platforms, both of which will be crucial to identifying innovative approaches to patient treatment, and therefore the future of the pharmaceutical industry.


Research activity codes: 5.9 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (TREATMENT DEVELOPMENT)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: LSI Doctoral Training Centres: University of Warwick
Funder: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Abstract: We propose to establish a Doctoral Training Centre for Systems Biology at Warwick. The Centre will be an independent unit within Warwick University providing training in the multi-disciplinary skills required for research into biological systems, with students undertaking a dedicated taught MSc course in the first year followed by a PhD in systems biology during years 2-4. It will be set up in completely refurbished premises and managed by senior academic staff from a mix of life sciences and physical sciences Departments.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (UNDERPINNING)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Bar-Coded Biomaterials - Designing Self-Authenticating Medicines
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Abstract: The emerging field of personalised medicine requires a combination of innovative diagnostics, therapeutics and 'point-of-care' use, in order to offer real advantages to industry, clinician and the patient. Materials for detecting and combating disease need be easily assembled, reach their biological targets and release their signals/payloads in precisely controllable and patient-or disease-specific ways. This proposal aims to develop a new class of biomaterial, where the assembly, release and reporting function is explicitly encoded in its structure. These 'Bar-Coded Biomaterials' will have molecular 'ciphers' that can be customised to release signals and drugs according to disease and patient need, and which can also be used to trace and validate the in vivo fate of the drug and carriers. Successful project completion will lead to a new paradigm in functional materials, with impact in future medicine and beyond.


Research activity codes: 1.3 CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES;5.1 PHARMACEUTICALS
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Processing Nanoparticles in Suspension of High Solid Concentration: On-line Characterisation and Process Modelling
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Abstract: Manufacture of nanometre particulate form products in suspensions is becoming increasingly important to the pharmaceutical, speciality chemical, and functional material industries. For instance, nano-processing is now used as an effective drug-delivery method for solid form hydrophobic pharmaceuticals due to the dramatically increased drug solubility and bioavailability at nano-scale. The biggest challenge to nano-processing under industrial conditions has been highlighted as the difficulty in achieving consistency in product quality as characterised by particle size distribution. The objective of this proposed research is to investigate on-line characterisation and process modelling techniques that can be applied under industrial operational conditions. The research on on-line sensing will focus on photon correlation spectroscopy and acoustic spectroscopy for real-time particle sizing. The work will tackle the key challenge posed by multiple scattering and particle-particle interactions, which are known to be the cause leading to incorrect measurement at high solid concentrations. High solid concentration is not only the economically viable range for commercial manufacture of nanoparticles (a much larger reactor would be required to process the same amount of particles in low concentration), but also technically essential for producing ultra-fine particles for many processes. The on-line real-time measurement will provide invaluable data to the development of process models using population balance equations. The focus will be on quantitatively deriving models for particle breakage and aggregation to be used in the population balance equations, as well as intelligent interpretation of the data to improve the qualitative understanding of the process. The process chosen for investigation is wet nano-milling, a very important operation for processing nanoparticles in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and materials industries.


Research activity codes: 1.3 CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: ESPRIT with Pervasive Sensing (Programme Grant)
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Abstract: Elite athletes walk a fine line between performance success and failure. Although regarded by the public as examples of ultimate fitness, in reality they often exhibit vital signs bordering on clinical pathology. Their physiological parameters challenge our notions of what we consider clinically normal, for, as individuals, athletes represent a unique model of human stress adaptation and often, sadly, mal-adaptation. Understanding this human variance may assist ultimately in understanding aspects of well being in the population at large, in the work place and during healthy exercise, as well as when undergoing lifestyle changes to overcome disease, age-related changes and chronic stress.To maximise the potential of GB athletes and support the quest for gold at future World Championships, Summer and Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the UK's sports governing bodies and the UK sports governing bodies and research councils have identified the opportunity for engineering and physical science disciplines to support and interact with the sports community during training. Not only will this secure competitive advantage for UK athletes, it will also, of more general application, contribute understanding of the biology of athletic performance to gain insights which will improve the health and wellbeing of the population at large.The vision of ESPRIT is to position UK at the forefront of pervasive sensing in elite sports and promote its wider application in public life-long health, wellbeing and healthcare, whilst also addressing the EPSRC's key criteria for UK science and engineering research. The proposed programme represents a unique synergy of leading UK research in body sensor networks (BSN), biosensor design, sports performance monitoring and equipment design. The provision of ubiquitous and pervasive monitoring of physical, physiological, and biochemical parameters in any environment and without activity restriction and behaviour modification is the primary motivation of BSN research. This has become a reality with the recent advances in sensor design, MEMS integration, and ultra-low power micro-processor and wireless technologies. Since its inception, BSN has advanced very rapidly internationally. The proposing team has already contributed to a range of novel, low cost, miniaturised wireless devices and prototypes for sports and healthcare.


Research activity codes: 4.1 DISCOVERY AND PRECLINICAL TESTING OF MARKERS AND TECHNOLOGIES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: CeM-CATS: A Centre for Multi-disciplinary Computer Assisted Tomography at Southampton
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Abstract: The childhood dream of Superman's instant 3D X-ray vision is becoming a substantial reality across a tremendous range of contemporary science and engineering. In particular, the three dimensional imaging of X-ray computed tomography (CT) is reaching far beyond the more widely known medical domain, as generally identified with 'CAT' scanning (after computer assisted, or axial, tomography). The last decade has seen the appearance of technologies for rapid, CT scanning of objects, from rockets to rocks to rodents, with commercial equipment that is now within the reach of individual universities and university departments. Whilst taking high resolution three dimensional images has almost become as fast as taking a polaroid photograph, there is a price for scientists and engineers concerned with using the technique. In particular, few turn out to be ready for the enormous volumes of information that are produced and the extensive analysis required. We propose bringing together teams of scientists and engineers that have immediate need of CT imaging, with a suite of advanced CT capabilities, along with world-leading experts in high performance computing (HPC), and the art of image processing within computers (Computer Vision). Together this will produce a uniquely efficient, multi-disciplinary centre for 3D imaging science, exploiting the latest technologies in cost-effective supercomputing and data handling methods. The centre will further exploit our experience in eScience, unifying and simplifying the interaction between human, instrument and data.Over 40 academics, drawn from almost half of the departments of the University are committed to this initiative. Three core themes are identified in Engineering, Biomedical and Environmental Science, addressing many critical current human needs in areas such as energy, climate change and the origins of lifelong health. When included with facilities already available at Southampton, the centre will provide for the entire imaging process for samples of the order of an ant's head to a car engine; from initial experimental concept & training, through data capture & analysis, to new scientific knowledge.


Research activity codes: 1.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (UNDERPINNING);4.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (DETECTION)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE
Title: Parallel electrophysiological characterization of sodium channels
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Abstract: Ion channel proteins play a pivotal role in a wide variety of physiological processes and (chronic) diseases and are consequently of considerable interest to the pharmaceutical industry. Electrophysiology is the gold standard for investigating the functio


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE