REDEEMA Awarded €345,566 from Eureka Eurostars
RedKnight is delighted to celebrate its 5th birthday with another grant funding success story! A successful application to Eureka Eurostars has secured €345,566 for the South Wales-based Compound Semiconductor Centre Ltd and its partners. The REDEEMA consortium also includes Glasgow-based Amethyst Research Ltd and VTEC Lasers & Sensors, based in Eindhoven.
The project, titled REsonant cavity DEtectors for Environmental Monitoring Applications (REDEEMA), aims to design and develop an inexpensive manufacturable (III-V semiconductor material based) resonant cavity enhanced photodiode (RCE-PD) infrared (IR) sensing array for monitoring greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. A paradigm in high sensitivity mid-IR GHG sensing, the REDEEMA sensor will aid existing analytical instrumentation in the intelligent field deployment of the quantitative analysers and in the determination of gas sources.
Many chemical compounds in the earth’s atmosphere act as GHGs, including water vapour, carbon dioxide, and methane. The percentage of environmentally significant trace gases is rising due to increased human activity. There is a critical need to track these changes to monitor the extent of global changes in the GHG composition of the atmosphere. It is also crucial to actively identify the sources of these emissions so that action can be taken to mitigate and effectively manage the releases.
In this regard, Amethyst's RCE-PD incorporates a unique and revolutionary design, which will be used in the development of next-generation IR detectors capable of meeting the demands of a vast range of applications. The resulting gas-detection system developed through REDEEMA will significantly improve performance over nearest state-of-the-art IR detectors, opening many new opportunities with environmental applications.
Dr. Wyn Meredith, Director at CSC, said of the successful application:
“The Redknight team supported our proposal by taking ownership of the specific requirements of the Eurostars application process, allowing our own staff to focus on the essence of the technical and commercial proposition. This accelerated the development of the bid and ultimately was a key factor in a successful outcome in a highly competitive process.”
Helping companies grow is RedKnight's core mission. For our assistance in putting together a competitive proposal for your business, contact us today.
GeneFirst Awarded €2.8m in Horizon 2020 Grant Funding for Rapid Covid-19 Diagnostic
RedKnight are delighted to have supported GeneFirst with its successful application to Horizon 2020, securing the innovative med-tech start-up and its 4 collaborating partners (two SMEs and two hospitals) over €2.8m in grant funding. In total, 144 applications were submitted to the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) competition, of which 8 projects have been selected for funding (6% success rate). The successful projects represent the most promising advances in therapeutics and diagnostics to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
GeneFirst’s project, entitled RAPID-COVID, aims to clinically validate its innovative multiplex technology in both point of care and high throughput (HTP) settings, which includes testing for SARS-CoV-2. Based in Oxford, GeneFirst provides simple, reliable, and effective molecular solutions to aid the accurate diagnosis of diseases and the improvement of patient management.
As of July 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused over 11 million infections globally, claiming more than 500,000 lives. In response to the current outbreak, a rapid and definitive diagnosis of the specific SARS-CoV-2 is crucial. A recent study has shown that 5.8% of SARS-CoV-2 infected and 18.4% of non-SARS-CoV-2-infected patients had other concurrent pathogen infections. Therefore, single target testing is not optimal; failure to distinguish between different pathogens may lead to unnecessary antimicrobial use, cross-infection of mis-grouped patients, and further spreading of the infection.
Simple, sensitive, and multiplex detection of all respiratory pathogens is technically challenging. In response to the need for faster and better detection of multiple respiratory pathogens, GeneFirst has developed a prototype using its innovative proprietary technology - MPA (Multiplex Probe Amplification). The prototype will simultaneously detect and differentiate SARS-CoV-2 as well as 30 other common respiratory bacteria and viruses.
GeneFirst’s assay will allow for accurate, cost-effective, and comprehensive diagnoses during the current outbreak, as well as future routine diagnosis. In this project, the consortium aims to analytically and clinically validate this assay on both high throughput and point of care platforms. This strategy provides maximum flexibility for screening and triage, allows better and faster care, alleviates pressures on healthcare systems, and improves patient recovery rates.
Dr Winnie Wu, COO at GeneFirst, said of the success,
“We are ecstatic with this outcome and all consortium partners are very excited to start the project. For an SME, securing this funding allows GeneFirst to further its R&D and to deliver these crucial diagnostics at scale and pace in time for the winter season. We have pulled together a great project team for the delivery.
We credit our bid success to the RedKnight team; without their support, we would not have been able to achieve what we did in the short time needed to submit the application. We found RedKnight to be professional and diligent, and it has been a real pleasure working with them. This is our first collaborative opportunity and I am confident that our partnership will continue into the future."
Helping companies grow is RedKnight’s core mission. You can find out more about the types of projects we support here.
Medi2Data Awarded Innovate UK Smart Grant
RedKnight are delighted to have supported South Wales based Medi2Data with a successful application to Innovate UK. The healthcare software company will receive a Smart Grant of £259,100 to further develop its innovative mobile application, ‘eMR Health Passport.’
Using the company’s flagship proprietary software, eMR, Medi2Data develops highly secure applications that make it simple for GP practices and patients to exchange data. The project, titled eMR Health Passport – A patient-centric mobile application to securely hold and transmit medical data, aims to further enhance the technology’s potential by developing a fully interactive app that will securely hold a copy of the patient’s medical record in an easy-to-navigate format.
Crucially, eMR Health Passport provides a digital solution to two of today’s most pressing healthcare challenges: 1) GPs are becoming overwhelmed by GDPR requirements for data handling and requests for patient medical records from third parties, costing primary care an estimated £70m. Medi2Data estimates these costs could be considerably reduced by using eMR technology and interfacing through the health passport with the patient. 2) eMR Health Passport also offers a novel solution to rising levels of mental illness, distress, and low wellbeing among UK Higher Education students. It provides students with the first free patient-centric health wallet with access to real-time data monitoring performance.
The interactive app will allow users to control who sees their medical data, ensuring appropriate consent. Information stored in the app can be pushed back to their GP practice from health organisations outside the NHS, or overseas, and ‘redacted’ records can be created for authorised third parties to receive.
The enhanced application will allow users to access and update their health record from anywhere in the world at any time, improving patient outcomes and the relationship between GP and patient.
Mr Richard Freeman, CEO of Medi2Data said of the success,
“We’re delighted to be receiving this grant from Innovate UK in order to develop and enhance our proprietary technologies. The Smart Grant means we can build on our achievements and test new innovative software and applications that not only gives patients control of their medical data, but has the potential for significant societal impact in how healthcare services are delivered for decades to come.
The support we received from RedKnight was excellent. Their professional approach and knowledge of the process was crucial in helping us secure the funding.”
Helping companies grow is RedKnight's core mission. You can find out more about the types of projects we support here.
Dr Peter Plassmann - CEO - Thermetrix Ltd
RedKnight was instrumental in securing this grant. The company fully understood our technology and the advantages it offers. they contributed extensive background research and insider know-how on the European Commission's expectations and selection process, took us by the hand and drove the application process to its successful completion.
Dr Anthony Turley - Clinical Director - Cardiff & Vale University Health Board
Working with Redknight has been a completely positive experience. It was our first venture into applying for Horizon 2020 funding and we were successful - a combination of a good idea and Redknight’s relentless support in navigating through the various processes and programmes. Their advice and direction was invaluable and we would gladly work with them again.
Prof. Rob Field - Founder & CEO - Iceni Diagnostics
It has been a pleasure working with the Redknight team. At a time of intense set-up in our SME, having reliable and proactive consultants who keep us on top of funding opportunities and who contribute substantially to the preparation and submission of applications has been invaluable
Prof Duncan M. Baird - Chief Technology Officer - TeloNostiX Ltd
It was a pleasure to work with RedKnight, their professionalism and expertise has been hugely beneficial to our company. We had previously made several unsuccessful applications to lnnovateUK, before contacting Red Knight. Their understanding of the requirements for business orientated funding streams has made the all difference, as evidenced by our successful application for a lnnovateUK Investment Accelerator award
Ms Tiiina Heinikainen - Project Coordinator - Kouvola Innovation Ltd
It was our best funding training so far. Clear, efficient and full of detailed information, as well as sharing experiences. We are hoping to collaborate with RedKnight soon.
Mr Ildefonso Martins - Strategy and Marketing - Aveleda, SA
We had already submitted our project 3 times to the SME Instrument before I attended RedKnight' SME Instrument Masterclass, and in the last submission our score was almost there, but not enough. In the Masterclass I heard some helpful tips that our team used in the revision we made for our 4th submission and finally this time we reached the goal: Approval!