The Cancer Innovation Awards Scheme is delivered by South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Alliance in partnership with Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber (formally the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network (YHAHSN). The awards are designed to support initiatives aligned with the objectives set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, in particular around improved access to diagnostics, reducing health inequalities and personalised care and support.
Individual grants of between £10k and £30k are offered to successful applicants within the region’s health and care services, including voluntary, community and charitable sector organisations. Applications should support the Cancer Alliance in achieving the objectives as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan and which directly support cancer service recovery, aligns to CORE20plus5 and contributes to the achievement of:
- 75% of cancers to be diagnosed at stage I or II
- An additional 55,000 patients each year to survive for five years or more following their cancer diagnosis by 2028.
Applicants are asked to define how their proposals will support one or more of the following key activities, ensuring reducing health inequalities and improved outcomes are key considerations:
- Clinical decision making
- Rule in/out tests for cancer
- Digitally supported triage
- Workflow management
- Risk stratification of patients
- Identify, implement and spread proven innovations that have been developed post Covid or as a result of SYB Cancer Innovation Scheme
- Supporting people to have an improved experience within their cancer journey
Information and updates on previous projects can be found below.
If you would like to find out more about the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Innovation Award Scheme email info@yhahsn.com or k.leivers@nhs.net
The Cancer Innovation Awards Scheme 2024/25
The South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw (SYB) Cancer Alliance, in collaboration with Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber, have now launched their Cancer Innovation Grants programme for 2024-25.
If you have an innovative project or new idea that could lead to an improvement in cancer outcomes across SYB, then the Cancer Alliance is promoting a scheme to support funding of such innovation within the following focus areas:
- Cancer Early Diagnosis
- Treatment
- Recovery / Personalisation
- Improved experience for people living with cancer
- Reduce health inequalities
To find out more about the Grants programme, click here
To access the application pack, click here
The Cancer Innovation Awards Scheme 2023/24
We are currently in the process of shortlisting and awarding funding to successful applicants. More information will be shared in due course.
The Cancer Innovation Awards Scheme 2022/23
Three projects have secured funding through the second round of the Cancer Innovation Award Scheme which aims to promote improvement and innovation in cancer services.
After its success in 2022, Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber (formally the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network) once again supported the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Alliance to deliver this innovative scheme. The awards are designed to support initiatives aligned with the objectives set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, in particular around improved access to diagnostics, reducing health inequalities and personalised care and support.
If you would like to find out more about the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Innovation Award Scheme email info@yhahsn.com
The successful applicants were:
Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust
People with severe mental illness are more likely to not participate in healthcare screening programmes. Some studies suggest that in particular adults with severe mental health problems are more likely to die from cancer under the age of 75 than people without mental health illness. The funding will be used to run coproduction sessions working in collaboration with community organisations and people experiencing mental health problems using a range of assets including arts, lived experience and self-help methodologies. The project will explore the understanding and fear surrounding illness, medical care and screening. It will then develop culturally appropriate tools to increase the uptake of cancer screening at an earlier stage resulting in earlier diagnosis and treatment and reduced morbidity and mortality.
Weston Park Cancer Centre, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Weston Park Cancer Centre at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals is working with patients, their relatives and clinicians to develop a novel web-based assessment tool for patients to support routine care and management and to evaluate outcomes and late effects following pelvic radiotherapy: ePAQ-P-Rx (electronic Personal Assessment Questionnaire – Pelvic Radiotherapy).
Sheffield Children’s Hospital and NIHR Children and Young People MedTech Cooperative
Sheffield Children Hospital is working with NIHR Children and Young People MedTech Cooperative to develop supportive technologies to improve patient healthcare journey and experience. They have identified Xploro as a clinically validated health information platform that already supports young cancer patients through the use of 3D avatars, augmented reality models and games. Funding will help to develop a novel ‘proof of concept’ module for the platform that enables physiotherapists to prescribe personalised exercises to children and young people following a cancer diagnosis.
If you would like to find out more about the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Cancer Innovation Award Scheme email info@yhahsn.com
The Cancer Innovation Awards Scheme 2021/22
Funding awarded by the Cancer Alliance of over £100,000 has helped to progress four innovative projects to improve cancer outcomes for patients in the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw region and inspire colleagues to think differently.
The Cancer Innovation Award Scheme 21/22 was launched on the January 10 2022 by South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw (SYB) Cancer Alliance in conjunction with the Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber (formally the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network (YHAHSN)).
There were 11 applicants bidding for grants of between £10-30k. Seven applications were shortlisted to present to a Dragon’s Den style panel of experts, with four awarded the funding, which totalled £109,574.
The successful applicants were:
Breast Cancer Rapid Diagnosis AI – University of Sheffield
Development of a symptom checker-style app – Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS Trust
Study examining face-to-face vs. remote exercise rehabilitation – Sheffield Hallam University
Applications were received from across the region and from a variety of partners including community organisers, cancer charities, and secondary and tertiary providers. The projects could be at any stage, from yet-to-be-piloted to already established. The Award Scheme was open to both single organisations and collaborative bids from organisations or care settings across Barnsley, Bassetlaw, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.
All applicants were asked to provide detail on how the funding was going to be used to support one or more of the following key activities:
- Improving access to diagnostics
- Managing cancer alongside other Long Term Conditions, including Long Covid
- Reducing health inequalities
- Supporting personalised care
The seven shortlisted applications went on to face a panel of experts, including an SYB GP, a patient representative, the Director of Innovation for SYB and a Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Surgeon. The unsuccessful applicants were provided feedback from the panel and an opportunity to strengthen their application should they wish to re-apply for the next round.
For more information or an update on any of the projects, please click on the relevant link above