The U.K. government plans to offer 50 million pounds (56.3 million euros) to create six centers of excellence in digital pathology and radiology to investigate the use of digital technologies to diagnose disease earlier and select the most precise treatments.
The project is part of the larger "data to early diagnosis and precision medicine" Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF). Investment challenge is available to hospitals throughout the U.K., as well as to facilities run by the U.K. National Health Service (NHS) and other research and industry organizations. The U.K. Research Councils, Innovate U.K., and Research England have teamed up as a single entity, known as U.K. Research and Innovation, to deliver this fund.
The government believes the project will enable companies to "rapidly develop, test, and implement products and tools ... [such as] the use of artificial intelligence to highlight potential disease in a chest x-ray."
Winners of the funding competition will also have access to the associated Digital Innovation Hub program, which consists of various controlled environments that support research of clinical, genomic, and biological data.
The online application will be open until 1 August, with funds scheduled for delivery before the end of December 2018.
