University of Bradford centre awarded nearly £5 million

Through two flagship research programmes, the Centre for Digital Innovations in Health and Social Care will:

• Create novel technologies that disrupt current practices to improve decision-making and alleviate electronic documentation burden.

• Develop and evaluate technologies that reduce the health and care system’s carbon footprint while improving patient care.

University of Bradford (Image: Newsquest)

The award is part of a £156 million investment by Research England’s Expanding Excellence in England Fund (E3).

The money will be used to invest in ten new staff members over the next five years, as well as PhD positions, and to develop a new Masters programme.

It will also enable the university to further integrate with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Healthtech Strategy and make the city of Bradford a testbed for new health and social care technology.

Rebecca Randell, Professor of Digital Innovations in Healthcare at the University of Bradford. (Image: University of Bradford)

Rebecca Randell, Professor of Digital Innovations in Healthcare, said: “This is a wonderful recognition of the team I work with and it’s great to have validation of the centre’s philosophy, which is about developing a deep understanding of the challenges that health and care providers face in order to design technologies that really support them and lead to better care for patients.

“In addition to being a long-term investment, we will work with digital health companies, offering training and knowledge transfer projects, and working with them to evaluate their products, all of which will mean Bradford will become a testbed for health care related innovation.”

Professor Harris Beider, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Engagement (Image: University of Bradford)

Professor Harris Beider, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Engagement, said: “This grant is hugely prestigious for the University of Bradford in terms of acknowledging the level of expertise we have here.

“The E3 funding will allow us to carry out world-leading research in health informatics while also working with our health and care partners to provide benefit for Bradford and West Yorkshire.

“It will also enable us to support the delivery of West Yorkshire’s Healthtech Strategy, which endeavours to position West Yorkshire as a leading hub for health technology expertise.”

In total, Research England is supporting 18 projects.

Dr Steven Hill, Director of Research at Research England, said: “We have invested in research units in universities right across England. This will diversify the regional spread of research disciplines to support the sustained enhancement of research capacity across England.

“We’re excited to see how these units develop over the next five years.”