Two technologies tackling brain injury awarded £3m NIHR funding
- 10 July 2025
- Two medical technologies tackling brain injury have received a share of £3 million in funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)
- The two projects are from Addenbrooke's Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- They are among 35 projects are being funded through the Invention for Innovation (i4i) Funding At the Speed of Translation (FAST) 4 Awards
Two medical technologies tackling brain injury from Addenbrooke’s Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, have received a share of £3 million in funding.
They are among 35 projects National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is funding through the Invention for Innovation (i4i) Funding At the Speed of Translation (FAST) 4 Awards.
The awards support healthcare technologies to prevent, diagnose and manage acquired brain injuries (ABI) and recovery from ABI caused by traumatic brain injury, stroke, tumours and infections.
One of the projects is ‘Integration of interactive and passive movement assessments into an app for mild traumatic brain injury (I am brain aware – Movemed)’ from Dr Virginia Newcombe, a Royal College of Emergency Medicine professor and academic consultant in neurosciences and trauma intensive care medicine and emergency medicine at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
Newcombe, said: “I’m delighted that this funding will enable us to expand the app I’m developing as part of my NIHR Rosetrees Trust Advanced Fellowship to include assessment of movement and coordination.
“Psychomotor slowing is a key issue following traumatic brain injury, and this development will help us better understand and monitor patients’ recovery.”
Psychomotor slowing refers to a noticeable slowing down of mental and physical activity which can manifest as slowness in speech, thinking, and body movements.
Another winner is Dr Laura Watson, a metabolic physiologist based in the NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility at Addenbrooke’s, whose project is called: “Predicting energy requirements in traumatic brain injury using 3D body shape app and indirect calorimetry.”
The funding opportunity was developed in partnership with NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Brain Injury based at Addenbrooke’s and the Defence Medical Services.
Professor Peter Hutchinson, director of the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Brain Injury, said: “We are delighted to partner with the NIHR i4i Programme on this competitive FAST themed call, and have been impressed by the number of high-quality applications received.
“This significant investment will make a real difference for patients and their families, unlocking the opportunity to further develop novel HealthTech and generating evidence to support the uptake of these innovations. Congratulations to all 35 awardees.”
FAST is aimed at innovators in need of a small amount of funding to answer a specific question, or to fund a single piece of activity to advance healthcare technologies and interventions.
Meanwhile, in April 2025, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust integrated a clinical video management service with its Epic electronic patient record system.
The vCreate service was deployed on 1 April 2025 for the management of clinical videos, images and supporting data.
It allows patients and clinicians to upload, share and store unlimited videos and images, with the aim of enabling rapid precision diagnostics and more efficient clinical decision-making.
