SOLO and Twin Fellowships for Digital Health Innovation: Advance Your Research Career

LEAP is enhancing Digital Health capabilities in the South West of England and Wales through its Leadership Engagement Acceleration & Partnership initiative. The Hub supports a vibrant Digital Health community with a Skills and Knowledge Programme offering targeted training, a Fellowship Programme for developing and connecting leaders, and a Research Programme funding participant-identified opportunities.

The LEAP Hub is offering two unique fellowship opportunities to empower researchers: the SOLO Fellowship and the Twin Fellowship. These programs aim to support early-career researchers, providing them with the resources and networks needed to excel in their fields.

Fellowships typically last for 3 to 12 months, until end of September 2026,  allowing sufficient time for collaborative projects to develop and flourish.

SOLO Fellowship

The SOLO Fellowship is tailored for individual researchers with a specific research vision who already have collaborations with key university and industry/NHS stakeholders which could be enhanced through access to the wider hub network and its resources. This fellowship focuses on fostering innovative research and offers a supportive environment for fellows to advance their work. Key features of the SOLO Fellowship include:

Financial Support: Fellows receive funding ranging from £15,000 to £60,000 to cover research-related expenses, allowing them to focus solely on their projects.

Twin Fellowship

Twin Fellowships are a novel collaborative fellowship for a multidisciplinary pair of fellows, creating breadth of capability for problem solving, opportunities to learn from each other and developing transferable teamwork skills. The applications could be based on existing collaborations or be forged through attendance of one of our research sandpit events. Key features of the Twin Fellowship include:

Collaborative Funding: Financial support ranging from £20,000 to £80,000 is provided to both researchers involved in the project, ensuring that collaboration is seamless and effective.

Benefits for Both Fellowships

• Mentorship: Each fellow is matched with a mentor experienced in their chosen focus area, providing guidance and support throughout the fellowship period.
• Networking Opportunities: Fellows have access to a network of professionals and peers, facilitating collaborations and knowledge exchange.
• Professional Development: The fellowship includes workshops and training sessions to enhance research skills and professional growth.
• Hub Resources: Fellows can utilize the Hub’s resources, including the  Skills and Knowledge programme and the Hub’s team of Researchers in Residence.
• Hub Events: Fellows are invited to Hub events, including Fellowship cohort-based peer networking sessions and training on acquiring follow-on funding.
• Support for Entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurs seeking to de-risk research ideas benefit from support in translating digital technologies into healthcare, including reviews of investment materials, pitch practice, and development of negotiation skills.

Research Themes for SOLO and Twin Fellowships

The LEAP Hub SOLO and Twin Fellowships support research in several key themes:

1. Care Outside of the Hospital:
   • Technology for remote patient monitoring and consultations.
   • Ensuring safe home environments and supporting mobile healthcare workforce.
   • Low cost, portable diagnostics and imaging devices able to operate with limited bandwidth.
   • Decision support tools and AI-assisted diagnostic and imaging tools.
2. Service and Resource Planning:
   • Scheduling and queuing algorithms to help plan/allocate staff time/availability, or the use of resources such as hospital beds and ambulances.
   • Research to improve processes and decision-making, including operations research and optimisation.
3. Frailty, Fall Prediction, and Fall Prevention:
   • Wearable and video analytics for fall risk prediction.
   • Technologies for delivering interventions like physiotherapy, rehabilitation, social care and support..
4. Smartphone and Wearable Technologies:
   • Predicting chronic condition exacerbations.
   • Image and video analytics for conditions such as eye health, hearing loss, cardiovascular health and skin lesions.
   • Facilitating remote interaction between professionals and patients.
   • Evidencing benefits and side-effects of new therapies and interventions, from pharmaceuticals to physiotherapy, to talking therapies and social care support.

Application Process:

Eligibility Criteria for Both Fellowships:

• For administrative reasons, the research project must have a Host Academic from one of the five LEAP university partner institutions. Prospective fellows can be based in academia, NHS or public sector, the digital health industry (any part of the supply chain), or relevant third sector organizations. Find out more about our university partners.
• If you are based in academia or an organization that can directly receive EPSRC funding (including NHS), your contract must last beyond the project part of your Fellowship or be extended to the end date of the project. You must cost a minimum buyout of 5% FTE of your time or pledge this amount as an in-kind contribution.
• For other organizations and private companies, salary would normally be funded by an in-kind contribution from your organization. A secondment arrangement with a qualifying partner is also possible, provided a letter or email from both the Fellow’s organization and the Host organization is supplied.
• The Host Academic must submit a letter agreeing to take on the role, and the Host Institution must confirm the proposal has been costed at 80% FEC.

For more details about eligibility and costing, see here.

Review of Applications:

• All applications will be assessed in a single stage process.
• Applications will be sent for peer review by non-conflicted referees.
• Plain English summaries of proposals will be anonymised and published on the website for open peer review by stakeholders, including patients.
• The open review scores will be considered alongside peer review scores by the panel.
• Proposals will be ranked by score and reviewed by the Hub leadership team.
• Conflicted leadership team members will recuse themselves during the scoring of proposals related to their own institutions.
• The panel may consider secondary factors such as geographical distribution, discipline mix, and partner variety in funding decisions.
• Applications from early-career researchers with leadership potential and those with non-conventional career paths are encouraged.

Assessment Criteria:

The criteria used in the assessment process will include:

• Strength of the argument for how a LEAP Fellowship can support the career development and digital health leadership potential of the prospective Fellow(s).
• Potential of the project to address real, important health needs, and appropriate plans for future funding and impact.
• Likelihood of producing innovation within engineering, physical sciences, computer science, and health and care, along with social science insights or impacts.
• Clarity of the state of the art in the domain and how the project will advance it.
• Fit to at least one of the four Hub Research Themes.
• Realistic and achievable timeline and milestones, including consideration of data management, ethics approval, and resources.
• Appropriate collaborations with in-kind or cash contributions from partners, preferably including those in Wales and the South West.
• Consideration of the downstream impact of the project on health equalities and specific minority groups.
• Involvement of end-users in the creation of the proposal or in the project if funded.

For more information and to apply, visit the LEAP Hub Fellowships page.