The University of Bath to Host Water-based Public Health Initiative
The University of Bath has announced it is to host the newest Research England Centre of Excellence with £13 million to fund a new hub for water-based health monitoring. How will this help to identify outbreaks of diseases?
Its Centre of Excellence in Water-Based Early-Warning Systems for Health Protection, WBE@Bath, will develop a public health surveillance system to detect outbreaks of diseases by testing water systems for traces of pathogens or other biomarkers at a community level.
This could help to prevent further pandemics from spreading by detecting them early and will provide a better understanding of chronic, non-communicable diseases such as diabetes.
The project is helping to increase skills through doctoral training
A £8.4 million investment in the Centre was announced by Research England, part of UK Research and Innovation. The full cost of the project will be £13 million including contributions from the University of Bath and partners.
As well as an ‘Urban Living Lab’, the Centre will host analytical capabilities including a digital water-sensing platform, training base and testing infrastructure designed to provide low-cost and real-time community-wide profiling of population health and the environment.
Through the project, it has been revealed that five prize fellow positions and a doctoral training partnership will be created, increasing the skills and expertise base while focusing on diversifying talent.
Professor Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern, a Co-Director of Bath’s Water Innovation Research Centre and a member of the University’s Institute for Sustainability, will lead the Centre.
On this, she said: “We’re delighted to have received this funding to expand the work of WBE@Bath, as well as our capability to train and bring new talent into the sector.
“Covid-19 demonstrated how the successful management of disease outbreaks is critically dependent on real-time, cost-effective and comprehensive surveillance systems enabling testing of whole communities, irrespective of location.”
Continuing, the Professor added that initiatives like this one are crucial in helping to prevent future outbreaks: “Our previous research has shown the transformative potential of using wastewater-based epidemiology to carry out this testing in locations such as water recycling centres.”
These techniques could give us a crucial tool in detecting future epidemics before they happen.
The Professor then explained the focus of the initiative: “We will build a unique, full-scale urban living lab that will enable testing of new approaches and tools aimed at better understanding of how diseases spread, the risk of exposure to hazardous chemicals and how to develop more effective interventions and management strategies.”
Bath’s position in research, training, and infrastructure will be boosted through the investments
The Centre will be designed with input from Bath’s partners including Wessex Water, the UK Health Security Agency, Arup, the Environment Agency, The London Data Company, AWS, Waters and The Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Trust, and Bath & North-East Somerset Council.
Partner universities of the project include Newcastle, Cardiff, Exeter, Glasgow, Stellenbosch (South Africa), Lagos (Nigeria), and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.
The funding is part of a £156 million investment by Research England’s Expanding Excellence in England (E3) Fund. This is supporting 18 universities across England to expand their research units.
Dr Steven Hill, Director of Research at Research England expressed: “Our investment will also help to reinforce the contribution of HEPs to their region through strategic local partnerships, focusing on sharing resources and infrastructure and generating local impact, backed by robust institutional leadership.”
We’re excited to see how these units develop over the next five years.
Earlier this month, a new Centre of Doctoral Training designed to improve the health of the UK’s rivers and lakes, led by Professor Kasprzyk-Hordern was announced.
The two investments will help to strengthen the University of Bath’s capacity in world-leading research, training and cutting-edge infrastructure.
