a. aim(s) of the research: It seems that some children and young people (CYP) remain ill for a long time after infection with COVID virus. They are said to have ‘long COVID’. Something similar can follow a common childhood infection called glandular fever. Doctors don’t know how to diagnose long COVID, how common it is or how long it goes on for. There is no simple test for long COVID. We need to know more about it if we want to treat it. b. background to the research: Little is known about long COVID in adults or CYP. Risk factors for worse COVID in CYP include obesity, pre-existing diseases, learning disabilities, diseases of the brain, mental health problems and coming from an ethnic minority. The CYP likely to be most at risk of long COVID are teenagers who are more at risk of persistent fatigue and mental health problems after other viral infections. c. design and methods used: We will approach 30,000 CYP, half of whom we know had COVID. We expect 6,000 to agree to help us and we will ask them whether they still have physical or mental problems at 3, 6,12 and 24 months afterwards. We can compare the 3,000 responders who had a positive COVID test with the 3,000 responders who didn’t test positive. We can then agree on what is a medical diagnosis of long COVID and how we might treat it. d. patient and public involvement: (PPI): We will have a paid PPI lead who will ensure co-production with carers and CYP. We will also use some funds to encourage busy carers and CYP to give their valuable time to complete the survey s.e. Complete transparency: We will share all our results ASAP for free with anyone who wants to see them, especially the CYP who take part.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Medical imaging has transformed clinical medicine in the last 40 years. Diagnostic imaging provides the means to probe the structure and function of the human body without having to cut open the body to see disease or injury. Imaging is sensitive to changes associated with the early stages of cancer allowing detection of disease at a sufficient early stage to have a major impact on long-term survival. Combining imaging with therapy delivery and surgery enables 3D imaging to be used for guidance, i.e. minimising harm to surrounding tissue and increasing the likelihood of a successful outcome. The UK has consistently been at the forefront of many of these developments. Despite these advances we still do not know the most basic mechanisms and aetiology of many of the most disabling and dangerous diseases. Cancer survival remains stubbornly low for many of the most common cancers such as lung, head and neck, liver, pancreas. Some of the most distressing neurological disorders such as the dementias, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and some of the more common brain cancers, still have woefully poor long term cure rates. Imaging is the primary means of diagnosis and for studying disease progression and response to treatment. To fully achieve its potential imaging needs to be coupled with computational modelling of biological function and its relationship to tissue structure at multiple scales. The advent of powerful computing has opened up exciting opportunities to better understand disease initiation and progression and to guide and assess the effectiveness of therapies. Meanwhile novel imaging methods, such as photoacoustics, and combinations of technologies such as simultaneous PET and MRI, have created entirely new ways of looking at healthy function and disturbances to normal function associated with early and late disease progression. It is becoming increasingly clear that a multi-parameter, multi-scale and multi-sensor approach combining advanced sensor design with advanced computational methods in image formation and biological systems modelling is the way forward. The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Medical Imaging will provide comprehensive and integrative doctoral training in imaging sciences and methods. The programme has a strong focus on new image acquisition technologies, novel data analysis methods and integration with computational modelling. This will be a 4-year PhD programme designed to prepare students for successful careers in academia, industry and the healthcare sector. It comprises an MRes year in which the student will gain core competencies in this rapidly developing field, plus the skills to innovate both with imaging devices and with computational methods. During the PhD (years 2 to 4) the student will undertake an in-depth study of an aspect of medical imaging and its application to healthcare and will seek innovative solutions to challenging problems. Most projects will be strongly multi-disciplinary with a principle supervisor being a computer scientist, physicist, mathematician or engineer, a second supervisor from a clinical or life science background, and an industrial supervisor when required. Each project will lie in the EPSRC's remit. The Centre will comprise 72 students at its peak after 4 years and will be obtaining dedicated space and facilities. The participating departments are strongly supportive of this initiative and will encourage new academic appointees to actively participate in its delivery. The Centre will fill a significant skills gap that has been identified and our graduates will have a major impact in academic research in his area, industrial developments including attracting inward investment and driving forward start-ups, and in advocacy of this important and expanding area of medical engineering.

The Bionics+ NetworkPlus will represent the spectrum of research, clinical and industrial communities across bionic technologies within the EPSRC Grand Challenge theme of Frontiers of Physical Intervention. It will invigorate and support a cohesive, open and active network with the mission of creating a mutually supportive environment. It will lead to the co-creation of user-centred bionic solutions that are fit for purpose. These advances will have a global impact, consolidating the world-leading position of the UK. The founding tranche will focus on ambitious and transformative research, new collaborative and translational activities, and the formulation of a longer-term strategy. Within this context, as a community, we will explore and identify areas of opportunity and value, driven by Bionics users' needs, complementary to existing activity and strengths. The network will instigate and support early-stage research in these priority areas, alongside providing an outward-facing representation and engagement of the UK Bionics community. Further, we aim to contribute in an advisory capacity to public bodies, UK industry and government policy. At the time of the application, we have obtained a positive commitment from circa 70 groups including bionic users, academic partners from universities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and a few international partners; partners in medical devices, orthotics and prosthetics industry, both large corporates and small-medium size companies; and many clinicians, surgeons and aligned health experts from relevant NHS clinics and the private sector.

Over the last decade excellent non-invasive sensing platforms have become available for capturing real-time health and lifestyle data, with the fitbit and Apple Watch being well known examples. However, current 'wearable' sensors all have major limitations: they connect to the body using straps and similar which do not maintain a good connection over long time periods; they have high power consumptions meaning the device must be taken off and recharged, at best, every couple of days; they contribute a significant amount to electronic waste. They are thus far from realising their true potential. This challenge is recognised by the EPSRC, with 'Disruptive technologies for sensing & analysis' being a core part of the 2015 Healthcare Technologies strategy. We propose to tackle this challenge by advancing novel material manufacturing approaches to realise next generation 'conformal' sensor nodes. This will make a disruptive next generation sensor platform for the very long term monitoring of a number of body parameters (motion, electrophysiological and temperature data) which is very different to current bio-sensing approaches. Our novel manufacturing will enable sensors which are: - Mounted on a conformal substrate, attaching directly to the skin without a strap, and maintaining contact for several days at a time. - Manufactured using inkjet printing to allow minimal waste and responsive manufacturing, potentially tailoring each sensor to each person. Graphene nanoparticle based inks will replace current silver nanoparticle inks which, due to the inert nature of graphene, avoids the electronic waste issues associated with silver inks. - Tailored with new ink and substrate formulations so that both the graphene ink and conformal substrate are 'transient'. That is, they work for a period of time and then naturally decompose into safe, inert and easily removed components, enabling easy use and disposal. - 3D in nature by using 'popup' structures manufactured on pre-stressed substrates. This will allow 'actuated antennas', coupling the mechanical and electromagnetic properties of a 3D antenna in order to allow simultaneous sensing and transmission using the antenna component, significantly reducing the device size as conventional instrumentation can be removed. - Ultra low power using a novel switching strategy to allow secure digital transmission over an RFID wireless link without the need for a dedicated, high power, analogue-to-digital converter microchip. - Increased in wireless powering range, by devising reduced size epidermal antennas that exploit magnetically coupled loops in tattoo antennas with under 3 times the surface area of current approaches, reducing ink use for digital fabrication. - Optimized for robustness to motion interference, allowing the collection of high quality signals in real-world, out-of-the-lab situations. - Suitable for scale-up manufacturing with roll-to-roll and/or sheet fed printing of key elements, integrating with pick and place capabilities. - Integrated into initial complete system demonstrators which will be showcased to our partners, covering the use of long term sensor nodes with people who are elderly and with children. Collectively these represent a step change beyond 'wearable' devices available today. Our new sensors will be customisable battery-less RFID tags that can operate more than a metre from a powered reader, stay attached for many days at a time, and with a controlled lifetime set by the transient nature of the manufacturing. At this early stage we do not propose to target any one clinical application area, but rather to make the next generation of technologies for conformal on-body sensor nodes that collect longitudinal information relevant to a number of disease areas. We will work with our partners through pathways to impact activities to maximise the possibility of exposure to relevant end users in healthcare scenarios.