£1.3M awarded to South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust for cutting-edge research equipment and technology

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has awarded £1.3 million to South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to pay for new research equipment and technology. The funding will go towards a new Centre for Advanced Neurotherapeutics, a Digital and Virtual Reality Centre and Hub, and retinography equipment. 

This will improve the Trust’s research capacity and capability, in collaboration with King’s College London and wider partners, by expanding its potential for research in specialist areas, as well as providing more opportunities for service users and patients to participate in research. 

With over 6,000 people taking part in studies in 2023-24, South London and Maudsley remains the leading mental health Trust for research participation in England. Participating in research not only drives longer-term advances, but also offers a positive experience for participants. By providing research opportunities to all service users, the Trust can continuously work to improve clinical care and transform our understanding of mental health.  

Professor Fiona Gaughran, Director of Research and Development at the South London and Maudsley; Professor of Physical Health and Clinical Therapeutics, King’s IoPPN, said:

“We are delighted that the NIHR has awarded £1.3million to fund this new, cutting-edge equipment and technology at the Trust. This grant will extend the reach of our research offer to service users and communities locally and across the UK, as well as increasing the choice of high-quality research participation opportunities available. The award will strengthen the Trust’s core strategy of informing and improving clinical care through research and offering research participation opportunities alongside clinical care, so keeping the patient at the centre of all we do.”  

Centre for Advanced Neurotherapeutics (CAN), Maudsley Hospital 

This new Centre will allow the Trust to develop its interdisciplinary translational research in the field of neurotherapeutics, which offers an innovative alternative to existing therapies and medications. 

The equipment will include non-invasive brain stimulation systems (NIBS) and other neurotechnology devices. Neurotherapeutics research shows promising results in the treatment of a range of conditions, such as affective disorders, psychosis, eating and weight disorders, functional neurological disorders (FND), movement disorders, autism and ADHD. 

The Centre will support training in these new interventions, facilitating their future implementation in the NHS. Patients and carers will be involved in setting up and running the Centre, to ensure a patient-centred approach while also reflecting the diversity of the local population. The knowledge from this Centre will improve care for patients locally and across the country, as many of these equipment and therapies are portable or can be delivered at home. 

Professor Ulrike Schmidt, Professor of Eating Disorders and Director of the Centre for Research on Eating and Weight Disorders at King’s IoPPN, Eating Disorders and Obesity Theme lead at the NIHR Maudsley BRC and Consultant Psychiatrist, South London and Maudsley:

“The state-of-the-art equipment and associated Centre will put the Trust, King’s College London and partners at the forefront of personalised neurotherapies across the whole spectrum of psychiatric disorders, nationally and globally. It will also raise much needed public awareness of neurotherapies as important alternatives to usual psychiatric treatment with medications or talking therapies and give hope to the significant number of patients who currently do not fully recover through conventional treatments.” 

Dr Panayiota (Yiota) Michalopoulou, Consultant Psychiatrist, South London and Maudsley, MRC-CARP Fellow and Lead of the Academic-Research Neuromodulation Group at King’s IoPPN, said:

“This funding provides an exciting opportunity to support the development of a world-leading Centre for Advanced Neurotherapeutics, increase translational neurotherapeutic research and accelerate the development, testing and availability of novel and effective neurotherapies. We will have the opportunity to expand our research across psychiatry, neuropsychiatry and neurology in the diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic role of NIBS” 

Dr Paul Shotbolt, Clinical Senior Lecturer, King’s IoPPN and Honorary Consultant Neuropsychiatrist, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust said:

“The funding will provide equipment for world-leading research in novel neurotechnology treatments – from understanding which brain activity patterns lead to symptoms in Parkinson’s Disease to supporting research into how computer-based systems can translate brain signals and treat motor weakness in Functional Neurological Disorder (FND).”  

Digital and Virtual Reality Centre and Hub, Bethlem Royal Hospital 

The funding will also bring together world-leading expertise in virtual reality and immersive therapies research in mental health, and establish a new research delivery hub at Bethlem Royal Hospital in Kent. For clinicians and service users, virtual reality offers the ability to try out experiences that would otherwise be very difficult to replicate in therapy. The Centre will support the extension of research into VR as a therapeutic tool for many mental health conditions, including psychosis, mood disorders and eating disorders, as well as into a range of behaviour-based interventions around discrimination, phobias, stress reduction and physical activity. The Virtual Reality CAVE (cave automatic virtual environments) will allow environments to become an immersive shared experience and also reduces the impact of VR motion sickness. 

Historically, research activity in the Trust has been centered at the Maudsley Hospital site; the new research delivery hub will increase the accessibility of the Trust’s research opportunities, not just to those in the Bethlem and environs, but also across the South of England. The Hub will offer remote options and develop ways to carry out research at different sites, thereby reducing barriers to participation and improving links with underserved communities. 

Carrie-Ann Black, Head of Nursing for Research and Quality, South London and Maudsley NHS, said:

"I am delighted that we can expand our digital and virtual reality offer to the Bethlem Royal Hosptial.  Central to the Trust's Research and Development Strategy is ensuring every patient has the opportunity to be involved in research alongside the care they receive.  Funding the development of innovations like these play a vital role in ensuring equality of access to research opportunities." 

Dr Matteo Cella, Reader in Clinical Psychology at King’s IoPPN and Clinical Psychologist for the South London and Maudsley, said:

“This is an exciting opportunity to increase the use of Extended Reality technology across different conditions and services. This technology is safe, liked by service uses and offers unprecedented opportunities to improve therapy engagement and outcomes.”  

Retinography equipment at the Centre for Mental Health Research and Innovation, Maudsley Hospital 

The recently opened Centre for Mental Health Research and Innovation (CMHRI) will be equipped with new optical coherence tomography (OCT) and electroretinography (ERG) machines to study the potential for using retinal imaging and electrophysiology to identify biomarkers of psychiatric disorders. The funding will enable a detailed assessment of the retina to be integrated into ongoing clinical trials.  

Preliminary research has identified retinal biomarkers associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression. Historically, technology has limited the ability of researchers to measure brain function, but the impressive advances in retinal imaging could provide a method to unlock our understanding of biomarkers of disease and treatment response.  

Dr James Rucker, Consultant Psychiatrist and Lead of the Psychoactive Trials Group, King’s IoPPN, said:

“The retina is the only part of the human brain that is directly visible. Measurements of the retina by OCT and ERG are cheap, quick and very sensitive to change. If we do detect clinically useful biomarkers, they would be easy to translate into the clinic.” 

£30m awarded in total to 36 NHS organisations in England  

The funding is part of a £30m investment from the NIHR to 36 NHS organisations across England to deliver cutting-edge research to improve the prevention, management and treatment of disease. It will also increase NHS capacity to deliver commercial clinical trials, which will bring innovative medicines to patients earlier. 

Photo credit (left): Centre for Research in Eating and Weight Disorders (CREW) at King’s IoPPN.