Multi-million tech fund to build NHS that is ‘match-fit for the future’

The UK Government has announced more than £80m in funding to trial innovative technology with the potential to transform cancer care.

Five new cross-sector partnerships will deploy a raft of new tech-enabled treatments in a bid to speed up cancer diagnosis and improve treatment.

The funding package will play a crucial role in rebuilding and reforming the NHS, ensuring it is “match-fit for the future”, the government said.

Reacting to the multi-million economic push, health secretary Wes Streeting said it would “save lives” and secure the UK’s status as a “powerhouse” for life sciences and medical technology.

Two Scottish universities will receive a share of £118m from UK Research and Innovation, part of which will come from partners, to lead two research hubs.

Glasgow University will lead the ‘MAINSTREAM’ hub, where researchers will work on potential therapies, using adult stem cells, which could help cancer patients regenerate bone marrow after chemotherapy. 

Meanwhile the University of Edinburgh will lead the Microscale Science and Technology to Accelerate Therapeutic Innovation (MicroTex), where a team will work on a new method for clinically trialling new drugs with lung disease patients, which could lead to much faster and cheaper results. 

The Edinburgh institution has also secured part of a £4m fund from Innovate UK. With tech spin-out Eliptica Limited, researchers will develop an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) proteomic, which is the study of sets of proteins, platform to identify, track and predict host response to solid tumour immunotherapies.

Other initiatives to receive a share of government funding include the ‘MANIFEST’ programme led by the Francis Crick Institute and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, which will support the better targeting of immunotherapy as a treatment for cancer, as well as the National Institute for Health and Care Research for its early cancer diagnosis research.

An AI digital pathology data platform will also receive almost £6.5m in government funding.

It is hoped the new raft of technologies will eventually be deployed into the global market and bring significant economic revenue, tech secretary Peter Kyle said.

He added: “The UK’s scientists, researchers and captains of industry have brilliant ideas that aren’t just going to boost our health – they’ll boost our economy too, helping to build a virtuous circle for more investment in both health and research which will ultimately drive up living standards.”

Amongst the new medical technology which could eventually be commercialised are cheaper, more easily usable scanners that will help surgeons detect early signs of cancers and remove tumours with greater success as well as a new AI model capable of streamlining cancer diagnosis via analysing a new cross-NHS data network.

Already contributing £108bn to the UK economy, the life sciences industry drove £800m in foreign direct investment into the UK in 2023 and supports around 300,000 jobs across the country.

Meanwhile, the MedTech sector is also booming, supporting more than 138,000 jobs and exporting more than £5.6bn in products annually.