Our biggest ever research grant – our Big Beat Challenge

In 2019, we opened applications for the largest and most ambitious research programme in our 60-year history – the Big Beat Challenge. The Big Beat Challenge is a global competition for a single award of up to £30m. It is designed to spur the international research community to identify an opportunity for game-changing innovation in heart and circulatory science or medicine, that wouldn’t be possible without funding on this scale.

Experts from around the globe - spanning academia and industry - came together to form multinational world-leading teams to submit proposals. We received 75 applications, involving nearly 1400 team members across 40 countries.

Our Patient and Public Panel assessed the applications based on their potential to transform the prevention or treatment of heart and circulatory disease, and whether they demonstrated clear patient relevance. A panel of independent researchers and medical professionals then scrutinised the scientific rigour of the proposals. The decision on which applications to take forward was then made by our International Advisory Panel, made up of leading international figures from the world of science and medicine, in universities and industry, chaired by Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's Chief Scientific Adviser.

In January 2020, we announced four shortlisted teams, who are now competing for the opportunity to win up to £30m to transform an area of heart and circulatory disease research.

1. Hybrid Heart. A team led by Professor Jolanda Kluin (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) hope to create a soft robotic heart that could replace a failing heart. Their vision is that this could remove the need for human heart transplants and give hope to those around the world who are desperately waiting for a donated organ.
2. iMAP. A team led by BHF Professor Ziad Mallat (University of Cambridge, UK) plans to build a detailed “map” of the fatty plaques that develop in arteries. By mapping these plaques in great detail, down to individual molecules, the aim is to reveal new ways to combat atherosclerosis, which is the process that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. This could lead to a new wave of medicines and even vaccines that can prevent heart attacks and strokes.
3. ECHOES. A team led by Professor Frank Rademakers (KU Leuven, Belgium) aims to develop wearable technology that can be used in daily life to capture a huge range of data, from symptoms and heart function to what exercise you’re doing and the air pollution you’re breathing in. All this information could be used alongside your genetic and healthcare data to transform the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of heart and circulatory diseases in a more personalised way than has ever been possible before.
4. CureHeart. A team led by BHF Professor Hugh Watkins (University of Oxford, UK) is aiming to develop a treatment that targets and “silences” the faulty genes responsible for cardiomyopathies. These are diseases of the heart muscle, which in some cases can cause sudden death or heart failure at an early age. Their aim is to stop the progression of the damage caused by genetic heart muscle diseases, and even stop the damage before it starts.

These four shortlisted teams are submitting detailed applications in June 2021, which will be assessed by external expert reviewers and the Patient and Public Panel before a final decision is made by the Independent Advisory Panel. We hope to announce the winner of the challenge by Spring 2022.

We believe the shortlisted projects all have the potential to save or improve the lives of people with heart and circulatory diseases, on a scale that wouldn’t be possible through traditional levels of funding.

First published 5 July 2021