Health Innovation Challenge Fund Joint Funding Panel
The Health Innovation Challenge Fund (HICF) Joint Funding Panel makes funding decisions on HICF proposals.
The Panel considers each application that includes the detailed opinions of experts who have been consulted on the proposal.
The Panel has a pool of independent members and ad hoc members with theme-specific skills and knowledge. The Panel meets twice a year
Members
Mr William Burns
Panel role: Chair
Professor Thomas J Walley
Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Liverpool
Panel role: Independent member
Professor Patrick Maxwell
NIHR Senior Investigator and Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Medicine, University College London
Panel role: Independent member
Professor John O’Brien
NIHR Senior Investigator and Professor of Old Age Psychiatry, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle
Panel role: Independent member
Professor Mervyn Singer
Professor of Intensive Care Medicine and Director of the Bloomsbury Institute of Intensive Care Medicine, University College London
Panel role: Independent member
Professor Richard Hobbs
Head of Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford
Panel role: Independent member
Mr Charles Spicer
Independent Consultant
Panel role: Independent member
Professor Stephen Smye
Director of Research and Development at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals, Deputy Director of the UK Clinical Research Network and Honorary Professor of Medical Physics and Health Research in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health at Leeds University
Panel role: Independent member
Mr Tim Haines
Partner, Abingworth Management
Panel role: Independent member
Dr Joseph Smith
Chief Medical and Science Officer, West Wireless Health Institute, San Diego, California
Panel role: Independent member
Professor Ian A Cree
Yvonne Carter Professor of Pathology, Warwick Medical School/University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire
Panel role: Department of Health member
Dr Tim Knott, Wellcome Trust
Panel role: Wellcome Trust member
Dr Ted Bianco, Wellcome Trust
Panel role: Wellcome Trust observer
Biographies of members
William M Burns has had a long career in the global pharmaceuticals industry, having worked for many years for Roche; most recently as Chief Executive Officer of their Pharmaceuticals Division and as a member of the Roche Group Corporate Executive Committee. He has extensive experience of international pharmaceuticals and of mergers and acquisitions. Among his many achievements during his time with Roche, he had significant involvement in the acquisition and privatisation of Genentech, he led the integration of Boehringer Mannheim Therapeutics and he played a lead role in the negotiations resulting in Roche becoming a majority owner of Chugai in Japan. He retired from Roche in January 2010, but was appointed to be a member of the board of Roche Holdings in 2010, and continueson the board of Chugai Pharmaceuticals. He has been a non-executive Director of Shire plc since March 2010 and is also Chairman of the Board of Biotie;Vestergaard-Frandsen;Okairos)and Masters Pharmaceuticals.
Professor Thomas J Walley MB, BCh, MD, FRCPI, FRCP, CBE, has been Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at Liverpool University since 1994, also working as a Consultant Physician at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. He formerly headed a research group at Liverpool University, focusing on drug prescribing, pharmaceutical policy, and clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. Since 2004, he has been on secondment to the NHS, as Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme (info), and in 2008 his role was expanded to Director of Evaluation, Trials and Studies. He was awarded a CBE in 2008 for services to medicine.Professor Walley's main research interests include prescribing behaviour, pharmaceutical policy, clinical-effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.
Professor Patrick Maxwell, a NIHR Senior Investigator, is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Medicine at University College London.His undergraduate training was at Oxford (1983) and St Thomas's Hospital (MBBS with Distinction 1986). He subsequently trained as a nephrologist, working on the Renal Units at St. Thomas¹ Hospital, the Hammersmith Hospital, Guy¹s Hospital and the Churchill Hospital (Oxford) and completed specialist training in General (Internal) Medicine. He has been an Honorary Consultant since 1996, and was University Lecturer and then Reader in Nephrology at the University of Oxford (from 1996-2002). He was Professor of Nephrology at Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus (2002-08). Professor Maxwell started his research into oxygen sensing in Peter Ratcliffe¹s group in Oxford in 1991. He has worked since on oxygen sensing and has been involved in a number of important discoveries in this field. The most significant contributions concern the transcription factor Hypoxia-Inducible Factor (HIF), particularly the molecular mechanism by which it is inactivated in the presence of oxygen. With collaborators, he showed that genetic activation of the HIF pathway is a hallmark feature of most kidney cancers and identified mutations in different genes in the HIF pathway that cause erythrocytosis.With three other scientists he founded ReOx Ltd in 2003. This spinout company from the University of Oxford aims to develop HIF activators as therapeutic agents for anaemia and hypoxia. Patrick Maxwell is a member of the Wellcome Trust's Clinical Fellowships funding committee, the SAB of the Roche Foundation for Anaemia Research, the MMC Programme Board and the NIHR Advisory Board. He is also Registrar of the Academy of Medical Sciences and Chair of the Wellcome Trust’s Physiology and Pharmacology funding panel. As a Consultant Nephrologist he was closely involved in developing the new West London Renal and Transplant Centre which opened at the Hammersmith Hospital in 2005 and provides all nephrology, dialysis and renal transplantation services for a catchment area of about 3.5 million.
Professor John O’Brien, a NIHR Senior Investigator, is Professor of Old Age Psychiatry in the Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University and Head of the Dementias and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Group. His research interests include the neurobiology of late life depression, the application of neuroimaging to psychiatric disorders in late life and dementia with Lewy bodies. He is interested in improving methods of early diagnosis, particularly in terms of refining diagnostic criteria to try to detect those with different types of dementia at the earliest possible stages. He has lead consultant responsibility for the Newcastle Memory Clinic and he was a member of the UK NICE Dementia Guideline group. He is an IPA and Vas-Cog Board Member and is an editorial panel member for Psychological Medicine and the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. His other roles include Deputy Editor of International Psychogeriatrics, Associate Director for Dementia for the NIHR DeNDRoN research network, Head of the Postgraduate School of Psychiatry in the Northern Deanery and Past President of the International College for Geriatric Psychoneuropharmacology (ICGP). He has published over 250 peer reviewed papers and edited several books.
Professor Mervyn Singer is Professor of Intensive Care Medicine and Director of the Bloomsbury Institute of Intensive Care Medicine, University College London, UK. He qualified from St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, London, in 1981 and subsequently gained a doctoral thesis on haemodynamic monitoring using oesophageal Doppler. He has written numerous papers and reviews on aspects of intensive care and acute medicine, and has co-authored/edited several books, including the Oxford Textbook of Critical Care, Oxford Handbook of Critical Care and the ABC of Intensive Care. His research interests include sepsis, tissue oxygenation, infection and haemodynamic monitoring. He is Principal Investigator of an MRC Sepsis Cooperative based at UCL (the first such awarded to intensive care), and Principal Clinical Investigator of a large randomised multicentre study funded by the Department of Health evaluating pulmonary artery catheter use in UK intensive care.
Professor Richard Hobbs FRCGP, FRCP, FMedSci, was until recently Professor and Head of Primary Care Clinical Sciences at the School of Medicine, University of Birmingham. He is co-Director of the Quality and Outcomes (QOF) Review Panel and Acting Director of the NIHR School for Primary Care Research. He sits on several national and international scientific boards, including chairing the Council for Primary Care of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the Prevention and Care Board of the British Heart Foundation and the European Primary Care Cardiovascular Society. He is also a member of the Council of the British Heart Foundation, the Advisory Council of the Medical Research Council and the Board of the British Primary Care Cardiovascular Society.Professor Hobbs‘ research interests focus on cardiovascular epidemiology, vascular risk and heart failure. His publications include 25 book chapters, nine edited books and more than 270 original papers in peer reviewed journals. His research and expertise has impacted on international health policies for clinical care. Within National Health Service policy, this advice includes National Frameworks for coronary heart disease and for heart failure and several assessments for NICE.He has provided clinical care in inner-city general practice for more than 25 years.
Charles Spicer is an experienced company director, corporate finance adviser and healthcare investor with a particular focus on medical technology. He is currently a director of Stanmore Implants, the custom implant specialist, and an adviser to several other companies in the sector including Asterand, Aircraft Medical, Glide Pharmaceuticals and Imperial Innovations.He was previously chief executive of MDY Healthcare plc, the strategic healthcare investor where he led investments in a number of medtech companies including Medivance, AOI Medical, Cozart and Stanmore Implants.Prior to that, he was head of healthcare corporate finance at both Numis Securities and Nomura International advising clients including Gyrus, Biocompatibles, Axis-Shield, Abcam, Ark Therapeutics, Intercare, Biotrace, Protherics and Biofocus.He is also a member of the techMARK Advisory Group at the London Stock Exchange, the deputy chair of governors at Marion Richardson School and a governor and director of Gresham's Schools. He has an MA in history from Cambridge University.
Professor Stephen Smye is Director of Research and Development at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals, Deputy Director of the UK Clinical Research Network and Honorary Professor of Medical Physics and Health Research in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health at Leeds University.He has worked in nuclear medicine and bioengineering, and was Head of Medical Physics and Engineering at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals from 1998 until 2008. He was also President of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (2001-2003). His research interests lie in mathematical modelling of physiological processes. He has played a key role in encouraging high quality translational research and innovation, including supporting good working relationships between physical scientists and clinicians at both a local and national level. These collaborations currently entail research programmes in a number of areas including; modelling drug transport in tumours (with Dr Roger Philips, University of Bradford, Professor Brian Sleeman, Department of Applied Mathematics and Dr Pam Jones, Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine), electroporation (with Professor Peter Olmsted, Physics Department), the development of a novel in-vivo electroporation technique (with Dr Martin Robinson, University of York and Dr Tony Evans, Division of Medical Physics) and measurement and modelling of the gravid uterus electro-hysterograms (with Professor Arun Holden, Faculty of Biological Sciences and Mr Nigel Simpson Faculty of Medicine and Health). Previous work has included modelling the variation of blood gases in ventilated neonates, optimising the delivery of drug aerosols, the development of electrical techniques for the measurement of hydration status, the development and use of mathematical models to measure dialysis efficiency and clot formation, the use of TeraHertz radiation to measure tissue properties and application of neural networks to clinical datasets. Funders include NIHR, EPSRC, Yorkshire Cancer Research, MRC, Leukaemia Research Fund, SPARKS, NHS R&D. He was co-applicant on a recent successful application to the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) to create a Health Technology Cooperative (Devices for Dignity), led by Professor Wendy Tindale of the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust. He has also been involved in the development of NHS policy for Research and Development, and is a member of the NIHR Advisory board and the MHRA Medical Technology Forum. He is also a member of the Royal College of Physician's Standing Committee on Academic Medicine and was made an honorary Fellow of the College in 2005.
Tim Haines is a Partner with venture capital firm Abingworth Management and has more than 24 years of international management experience in the life sciences industry. Before joining Abingworth in 2005 he was Chief Executive of the Abingworth portfolio company, Astex Therapeutics. Tim was with Astex for more than five years and was instrumental in establishing it as one of the leading UK biotechnology companies. During his time at Astex, the company accessed more than £50 million in venture capital and closed over $1 billion in deal value potential with pharmaceutical companies. Previously, Tim was Chief Executive of two divisions of the publicly-listed medical technology company, Datascope Corp. Prior to Datascope, he held a number of other senior management positions in the US and Europe. Current and past board positions include Astex Therapeutics, Fovea, HBI, IMI, PowderMed (acquired by Pfizer), Stanmore Orthopedic and XCounter (AIM). Tim has a BSc from Exeter University and an MBA from INSEAD. Tim has also served on the Board of the Biotechnology Industry Association (BIA) and currently sits of on the Venture Committee of the BVCA. At Abingworth, he identifies and creates new businesses and provides support for portfolio companies.
Dr Joe Smith MD PhD, is currently Chief Medical and Science Officer of the West Wireless Health Institute in San Diego, California. His background includes an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering (EE) from Johns Hopkins University, a Master's degree in EE from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a PhD in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and an MD from Harvard Medical School. He completed his medical internship and residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and completed his cardiology and clinical electrophysiology training at Brigham and Women's hospital, the Krannert Institute of Cardiology in Indianapolis, and Washington University in St. Louis. From 1991 through 2000, he held academic positions at the School of Medicine (Cardiology) and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and served as Associate Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology at Barnes Hospital. From there, he went on to found the Arrhythmia Institute in Fairfax Virginia, a center of excellence in clinical cardiac electrophysiology and clinical research. From January 2003 through December of 2006 he served as Senior VP and Chief Medical Officer of Guidant /Boston Scientific - Cardiac Rhythm Management, where he provided senior scientific and medical leadership in research and development, new product planning, clinical trial design and conduct, healthcare and reimbursement policy, and medical education. He joined Johnson & Johnson in 2007 as Vice President, Microelectronic Technologies for Cordis Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson company and was later Vice President, Emerging Technologies for Johnson & Johnson in the Corporate Office of Science and Technology. Dr Smith has published in the areas of cardiac electrophysiology with special interest in ICD technology, catheter ablation, atrial fibrillation, and quantitative analytical techniques in biomedical signal processing, has been a consultant to many companies involved in the advancement of innovative medical technologies, and holds a number of patents in the area of signal processing and catheter and defibrillator design.
Ian Cree is the Yvonne Carter Professor of Pathology at Warwick Medical School, and also a Senior Clinical Advisor to the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) programme for the UK National Institute of Health Research Evaluation Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, having been its Director from 2008 - 2012.He also chairs the Inter-speciality Committee on Molecular Pathology for the Royal College of Pathologists and sits on the NICE Diagnostics Advisory Committee.Trained as a general pathologist with a PhD in immunology, Ian's research career has been based on investigating disease mechanisms to improve diagnosis and treatment. This has involved him designing, conducting and leading clinical trials as well as a number of large multicentre studies.Ian's current research interests are mostly cancer-related but previous studies have included infectious disease, asthma, and ophthalmology. He has published over 200 papers, and two books. For the last 20 years, Ian has been involved in developing predictive methods to allow individualised therapy of cancer. Ian is has recently been involved in the implementation within pathology departments of mutation testing services, including external quality assurance schemes, and intra-operative assessment of breast cancer sentinel nodes.