FAPESP and UKRI Artificial Intelligence for Health

Funding for UK-based researchers and researchers in the state of São Paulo, Brazil for collaborative research projects addressing artificial intelligence for biomedical and health applications relevant to Brazil.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) works in partnership with FAPESP, the Research Council for the State of São Paulo, to strengthen the existing research links between the UK and Brazil, and to help encourage and support proposals that involve international collaborative research teams.

This funding opportunity allows UK-based researchers and researchers in the state of São Paulo, Brazil to jointly apply for funding to support research projects addressing artificial intelligence (AI) for biomedical and health applications that are relevant to Brazil.

Two levels of funding are available:

• Partnership building grants to support new or early stage partnerships over a three-year period. Funding will support pilot studies to strengthen collaborative funding bids through other routes (for example the UKRI-FAPESP Lead Agency Funding Agreement).
• Research grants to support full scale research activities across Brazil and the UK over a three-year period.

Collaborations should leverage the strengths of researchers in both countries to address key areas of biomedical and health research interests, including one or more of the following:

• Using AI to generate new medical research and human health insights that will:
  • Further understanding of disease and determinants of health including socioeconomic factors.
  • Improve disease prediction and diagnosis, thinking beyond incremental optimisation of current systems.
• Application of AI that were:
  • Developed for a different purpose to be applied in a health context.
  • Developed with a focus on a different nation and could now be applied in a Brazilian context to improve health research and health outcomes in Brazil.
• Management and improvement of health data (including addressing limitations of AI when dealing with incomplete or small health data sets and consideration of ethical issues).
• Imputation of data and analyses.
  

Projects must have a duration of three years, starting in February 2025 and be completed by the end of January 2028. The project duration must be the same in both the UK and Brazil.