Biomedical Engineering

Department of Engineering

See the research page for details of the current and past award holders.

The following information is also available as a PDF document

Engineering for Clinical Practice Grants

The Engineering for Clinical Practice initiative brings together engineers and clinicians with the aim of improving clinical tools by the application of engineering research, techniques and innovation to the field of clinical medicine. Engineering for Clinical Practice (ECP) grants are intended to encourage such research, particularly where it represents a new direction which is at too early a stage to attract major funding but might have potential to do so at a later date.

Eligibility

ECP grants are open to academic staff in the Department of Engineering. In order to be eligible for these grants, the proposed research should:

  • have clear relevance to clinical practice and the aims of the ECP initiative as stated above
  • involve collaboration with academic staff at the Clinical School or a clinician employed by the NHS and working at a local hospital

Funds available

Grants are available for up to £10k. There are few restrictions on these funds, but they must not be used for anything which would normally attract university overheads. It is envisaged that grants might be used for:

  • equipment, lab consumables or possibly conference attendance / travel for PhD students, particularly where funding has already been secured for the student themselves but without any source of support funding for their work
  • equipment or other support to promote or enable MEng projects for students in new clinically-related areas
  • Undergraduate Research Opportunities Projects (UROPs) in areas related to this initiative

Application process

Applications should be no more than two sides of A4 and should include the following:

  • a brief description of the proposed research, emphasising what relevance it has, or may eventually have, to clinical practice
  • if you are already engaged in clinically-related research, a summary of how this research differs from, or represents a new angle on, any of your previous clinicially-related work
  • if you are not already engaged in clinically-related research, a summary of what aspects of your non-clinical research that this project will build on
  • a justification for the resources you are requesting, and details of what other sources of funding support (including funding for PhD students) you have secured for this research
  • a brief summary of the work of your clinical collaborator relevant to this area
  • what the research funded by this grant, if successful, might lead to in the future, and how subsequent research might be funded
  • the time scale after which you expect to be able to report on the use of this grant, if successful
Applications should be signed by both the applicant and clinical collaborator and sent by the closing date by email to:

Prof. Graham Treece
E-mail: gmt11@cam.ac.uk

Important dates

Closing date for applications 3rd December 2023
Funding decisions and notification January 2024

Reporting

Successful applicants will be required to write a short paragraph, appropriate for a general audience and ideally including an illustration, emphasising the clinical relevance of their research. This will be included in the research section of this website.

A brief report of no more than one side of A4 will also be required at the end of the project, with a particular emphasis on the likelihood of follow on work or funding. Further funding may be available to assist in the application for major collaborative grants from another source.

ECP grant committee

Funding decisions will be made by the ECP grant committee, consisting of

Graham Treece Professor of Information Engineering, Department of Engineering
Rebecca Fitzgerald Professor of Cancer Prevention, Director of the CRUK Cambridge Centre Early Detection Institute
Peter Thomas-McEwen Research Support Manager, Department of Engineering

or alternate committee members if there are any conflicts of interest with those listed above.