Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC): Government against COVID-19 ^{Funding Support}

Entity: Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)

Category: Funding support

Description: The Department of Health and Social Care is a department of Her Majesty's Government, responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England. It is a ministerial department supported by 29 agencies and public bodies. Supports ministers in leading the nation’s health and social care to help people live more independent, healthier lives for longer.

1. Programme Title: Testing Methods Sourcing Platform

Summary: New and novel solutions to help increase Coronavirus testing methods, supplies and capacity across the UK. This platform is a partnership between the Department of Health and Social Care, the UK Bioindustry Association, British In Vitro Diagnostics Association and the Royal College of Pathologists.

The partnership between the Royal College of Pathologists, the Department of Health and Social Care, the UK Bioindustry Association and British In Vitro Diagnostics Association, has setup a sourcing platform to seek new and novel solutions to help deliver 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of April.

2. Programme Title: COVID-19 Rapid Response Rolling Call

Summary: The Department for Health and Social Care, through the National Institute for Health Research and the Medical Research Council, on behalf of UK Research and Innovation, invite applications for the COVID-19 rapid response rolling call.
This supports COVID-19 urgent public health research to gather the necessary clinical and epidemiological evidence that will inform national policy and enable new diagnostic tests, treatments and vaccines to be developed and tested for COVID-19. Studies should build on existing relationships, including relevant commercial, practice or policy partners and relevant data and resource holders. Interdisciplinary proposals are welcomed where appropriate. Proposals must be timely, with rapid activation, to enable early and valuable outcomes to be established and to access time-dependent resources.

This is a rolling call with no fixed end date. Proposals are due to be reviewed within 4 weeks of submission. It is for UK-led academic, SME and wider industry research that will address a wide range of COVID-19 knowledge gaps/needs, and which will lead to a benefit in UK, potentially international, public health within 12 months. Blue Earth Diagnostics' CEO, Jonathan Allis, is Chair of the UK Rapid Test Consortium (UK-RTC) for COVID-19. He has been appointed as Chair by the UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The 'UK Rapid Test Consortium, UK-RTC' also comprises Oxford University, BBI Solutions, Abingdon Health, CIGA Healthcare, Omega Diagnostics and has been launched to design and develop a new antibody test to determine whether people have developed immunity after contracting the virus.

3. Programme Title: COVID-19 UK (COG-UK) Consortium

Summary: Contribution to COVID-19 UK (COG-UK) Consortium £20 million with Wellcome Trust and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

+ Beneficiaries:

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Regional Virus Laboratory
Cardiff University
EMBL-EBI (European Bioinformatics Institute)
Genomics England Limited
Genomics Partnership Wales
Advanced Research Computing at Cardiff
Supercomputing Wales
Public Health Wales NHS Trust
Imperial College London
MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research
Public Health Agency
Public Health England
Public Health Scotland
Public Health Wales NHS Trust
PHW Pathogen Genomics laboratory
Quadram Institute
Queen's University Belfast
The Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance
University College London
University of Birmingham
Queen's University Belfast, Genomics Core Technology Unit
University of Cambridge
Department of Veterinary Medicine
Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Department of Medicine
Division of Virology, Department of Pathology;
Department of Pathology
Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease
Francis Crick Institute
University of Edinburgh
University of Exeter
Northumbria University
University of Nottingham
University of Oxford
Big Data Institute
University of Portsmouth
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
University of Sheffield
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Wellcome Sanger Institute
West of Scotland Specialist Virology Centre
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

4. Programme Title: Novel cell therapy approach to treat lung injury in patients with ARDS caused by COVID-19

Summary: A second clinical trial is testing a novel cell therapy approach whereby cells derived from human tissues are being used to treat lung injury in patients with ARDS caused by COVID-19. It is hoped that this approach will rectify the underlying causes of serious lung damage. Some of the project participants are Danny McAuley and Cecilia O’Kane of the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute For Experimental Medicine. The DHSC is funding the initiative.

5. Programme Title: TechForce19 challenge

Summary: People who may be particularly vulnerable or isolated during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, including new parents, the homeless, unpaid carers, young people and cancer patients, could soon benefit from a range of innovative digital solutions selected as part of the TechForce19 challenge. NHSX, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) have announced 18 innovative digital solutions being awarded up to £25,000 under the TechForce19 challenge. The funding for each project will be used to develop new ways to support vulnerable people who need to stay at home or need other help in the community for extended periods of time.

+ Beneficiaries:

Virti
SureCert
Simply Do Ideas
RIX Research & Media, University of East London
Alcuris
Beam
Vinehealth
Chanua
VideoVisit
Feebris
Aparito
Just Checking
Memo
TeamKinetic
Birdie
Buddi
Peppy
PeopleToo
Ampersand Health