News
Fellowships funding call for AI challenges
13 November 2023
Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex is participating in a fellowships funding call for the Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) Programme funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Within healthcare, gender bias is a growing problem, leading to decreased health equity and poorer outcomes for women. AI tech has the capacity to amplify or address this problem and we are committed to ensuring better outcomes are achieved.
In this context, Health Innovation KSS has set two challenges for BRAID which individuals who are (or can be) associated with a research organisation, may apply to. 100% of the salary cost for these individuals is covered and there is no cap.
The two challenges are:
- How can NHS England and the Office of Life Sciences be supported to ensure that the deployment of AI technology works to reduce health inequalities and is managed responsibly and in a way that addresses the gender bias in AI tech? (challenge-code HI-C1)
- How can we accelerate women’s full and effective leadership in digital and AI across the whole health system, particularly at mid-career reaching up to C-level, and in the fields of procurement, technology/IT/analytics, and across all clinical professions? We invite research proposals that seek to identify barriers and biases that hinder women’s career progression in digital and AI roles in healthcare and propose strategies for overcoming them. (challenge-code HI-C2)
We invite research proposals that:
- Align with Health Innovation KSS Women’s Health Strategy, outlining a vision, “to reduce health inequalities for women, by ensuring all women have access to the best quality health and care.” Strategic priorities include: gender equity in health policy and commissioning, including applying a health equity framework for women’s health; women’s health innovation; health inequalities and women; and gender inequalities at work;
- Draw on expert knowledge of the health system and health policy in the UK and engages with arts and humanities research in fields like gender studies;
- Are directed towards reducing health inequalities as a key objective and take on a human-centred approach;
- Call for regular contact and engagement with Health Innovation KSS and NHS England;
- Consider involvement of the various stakeholders – including healthcare professionals, innovators and related educational and training providers; and
- Consider development of practical tools, guidelines and specifications, and how the project might also feed into ongoing work with our partner NHS England in terms of developing educational resources.
Working Arrangements
As a BRAID fellow you will be hosted by a team within Health Innovation KSS, working with our partners. You will also be steered to liaise with relevant teams within the NHS, NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, charities, trade bodies, regulators, industry partners and academia.
How it will work
- If the application is successful, Health Innovation KSS will work with the fellow to refine the project plan and agree on shared goals and outcomes.
- Health Innovation KSS will support the fellow in terms of onboarding, providing a research contact and main collaborator, and engaging in regular meetings.
- Health Innovation KSS is set up for remote or hybrid working with offices in Crawley/Gatwick, Brighton and Guildford.
- Fellows are not required to attend the Health Innovation KSS offices in person, unless it is their preference, in which case office space can be provided.
- 100% of the salary cost is covered and there is no cap. The salary grade is a matter for the applicant and their research organisation who will be employing them to work on the fellowship.
- Fellows are asked to factor into their budget proposal any travel, accommodation and subsistence costs and any specific research costs they envision.
- We ask that applicants specify any reliance on accessing specific NHS resources (for example, data) or specific settings, and that they include considerations for seeking related approvals for using these resources.
Expressions of interest close soon on 20 November 2023 – find out more about who can apply here and submit the expression of interest form here.