EMERGENCE – Robotics for Frailty Challenge Funding Call 2

EMERGENCE has announced a second Robotics for Frailty Challenge funding call. They are looking to fund research-driven proposals that engage with the themes which have emerged from the network’s requirement-gathering activities and which will advance the state of the art in robotics towards transforming health and social care, with an emphasis on real-world adoption and deployment. 

The network is looking to fund:

1  large project (up to £50,000 at 80% FEC) and up to 5 smaller focused studies (each between £10,000 and £25,000 at 80% FEC)

Key areas which address gaps in the current research on assistive robotics and frailty:

Up to £50,000 funding projects to explore or develop one of the following:

• Safety for assistive robotics technologies aimed at people with lived experience of frailty (PWLEF), to enable long-term autonomy including areas such as fail-safe design, situation awareness, automated risk assessment and smart sensing

• Accessible Human-Robot Interaction, taking into consideration multi-modal and intuitive interaction to address cognitive, sensory and physical impairments.

£10,000 – £25,000 funding for focused studies to explore or develop:

• Regulatory Frameworks for deployment and integration of assistive robotics

• Benchmarking datasets to support the development of accessible HRI

• Scoping research 

– When does an assistive robot become a medical device?
– What CPD is needed to support future care professionals?
– What are the challenges for enabling human agency in shared decision-making for assistive robotics technology to support PWLEF?

All projects should include a strong component of engagement with people with lived experience of frailty, health and social care professionals and relevant stakeholders.

Following attendance at a co-creation methodology workshop in Hertfordshire on 27th April 2023, participants will be eligible to apply for feasibility funding via the Robotics for Frailty Challenge Call.