Science
BHF awards £1m to accelerate heart research at UCL
We are boosting the profile of cardiovascular research at University College London (UCL) in the hope of giving more people with heart and circulatory diseases longer and better lives.
We have awarded £1 million to support UCL to develop a new team of scientists to tackle cardiovascular disease by applying advances in computer science to big data.
Professor Metin Avkiran, our Associate Medical Director, said: “Despite the medical advances powered by research, 420 people in the UK still die every day because of heart and circulatory diseases. That’s why we’re continuing to invest in research and supporting our scientists to make new life-saving discoveries.”
From detailed imaging to healthcare data, our Accelerator Award will focus on machine learning to generate the tools and insights needed to better predict, diagnose and treat heart and circulatory conditions.
What will the funding deliver?
Led by Professor Aroon Hingorani, Director of UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science, the funding will benefit a number of digital healthcare projects including a new research centre for artificial intelligence (AI) in partnership with Cisco Systems, collaboration with The Alan Turning Institute to advance AI in healthcare, and UCLH’s electronic patient record system.
Professor Hingorani said: “We are thrilled to be recipients of a £1M 5-year UCL BHF Research Accelerator Award. The UCL Accelerator has been designed with the purpose of fostering multi-disciplinary collaboration across UCL faculties coalescing expertise in cardiovascular and population science, health informatics, computer science, engineering and computational biology through jointly supervised academic posts.”
The funding will be used to strengthen and grow key NHS partnerships beyond UCLH, with the high volume general and specialist cardiovascular services at Barts Heart Centre, as well as at Great Ormond Street (for children’s cardiovascular disease) and Royal Free Hospitals (which include national referral centres for pulmonary hypertension and a number of inherited conditions).
Bringing the best minds together to power research
Our Accelerator Awards empower universities like UCL to attract and nurture the very best young scientists and doctors in cardiovascular medicine and complementary fields – and fuel the exploration of new ideas.
The award will also help UCL and its key clinical and academic partners to make a strong bid for a BHF Research Excellence Award in the future.
Our Accelerator Awards provide £1 million over 5 years to encourage pioneering research of the highest calibre. This flexible funding model means that the most innovative and inspirational research ideas can rapidly get off the ground.