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EME Funding Committee Minutes October 2021

Contents

Published: 29 November 2021

Version: Version V1.0

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MRC-NIHR funding collaboration

Meeting

EME Programme - Funding Committee Meeting

Date

Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th October 2021

Place

Virtual Meeting

Present - Day 1

Professor Danny McAuley (Programme Director - does not vote)
Professor John Norrie (Programme Chair - does not vote)
Professor John Petrie (Deputy Chair)
Professor Victoria Allgar
Dr Tessa Cacciottolo
Professor Janet Dunn
Professor Daniel Freeman
Professor Jonathan Grigg - (available until 4.45pm)
Mrs Hayley Hall (public contributor)
Professor Alastair Hay - (not available until 1pm)
Mr Allen Knight (public contributor)
Professor Gregory Lip
Professor Iain McInnes
Dr Ronan McMullan
Dr Puja Mehta
Professor Michael Nicholson - (not available until 3.30pm)
Dr Richard Peck
Professor Ruth Plummer - (not available until the afternoon)
Dr Manu Shankar-Hari
Professor John Simpson
Professor Deborah Stocken
Professor Stuart Taylor
Professor Chris Weir - (not available between 2-5pm)

Secretariat

Dr Dani Preedy
Dr Andrew Cook
Dr Juliana Callaghan
Ms Helen Munday
Dr Elena Harden
Dr Esther Sweeney
Ms Caitlin van Abeelen
Mrs Sue White

Apologies

Professor Arri Coomarasamy
Professor Rustam Salman

Observers/in attendance

Penny Morton - MRC
Charles Wallace (member of REALMS team)
Jane Fearnside, RDS
Professor Dave Jones - (New  Committee member)
Ms Noirin O'Neill - (new PPI Committee member)

Stage 2 Proposals

20/143 EME Researcher Led

NIHR134140 Lotery
Photodynamic laser therapy with verteporfin versus placebo for chronic central serous chorioretinopathy: the Paint RCT
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting:
Ronan McMullan, Danny McAuley and Andrew Cook
Decision: Recommended to Programme Director to consider fund with changes

NIHR134367 Lois
“Predicting Responses to anti-VEGFs in peoplE with Diabetic macular Oedema Using Induced pluripotent stem Cell (iPSc) Technology (PREDICT)”
Chair: Dr Andrew Cook
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Ronan McMullan, Danny McAuley and John Norrie
Decision: Declined - invited to resubmit

NIHR134096 Price
Genicular Artery Embolisation for the symptomatic treatment of knee osteoarthritis refractory to conservative management (GEKO)
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Janet Dunn, Deborah Stocken, Stuart Taylor and Chris Weir
Decision: Declined - invited to resubmit

NIHR134182 Muirhead
Phase II trial investigating stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) for Patient benefit In locally Recurrent Inoperable recTal cancer (SPIRIT)
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Iain McInnes, Deborah Stocken and Chris Weir (not present)
Decision: Declined

20/86 EME Researcher Led

NIHR133517 Jha
Vaginal Laser treatment for Genitourinary Syndrome of the Menopause (GSM) following Breast Cancer: Initial feasibility trial followed by double blinded, parallel group, placebo controlled randomised trial of Efficacy.
Chair: Professor John Petrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Janet Dunn and John Norrie
Decision: Declined

20/58 Interventions in Paediatric Care

NIHR132820 Oni
An efficient phase 3, randomised controlled trial to evaluate immunosuppressive treatments for IgAV-N with integrated scientific evaluation (The PINPOINT Study)
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Gregory Lip, Michael Nicholson, John Simpson, Stuart Taylor and Chris Weir (not present)
Decision: Declined

21/44 EME Prehabilitation: Living with and beyond cancer

NIHR134017 Sultan
STrengthening Exercise Prehabilitation during Treatment of OEsophageal cancer (STEPTOE study) - a multicentre randomised trial investigating the impact of resistance training prehabilitation on physical performance and outcomes during treatment for oesophageal cancer.
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Andrew Cook
Decision: Declined

21/62 EME Fast Track October 2021

NIHR135321 Evans
A Precision Medicine Umbrella Study to Improve Physical Health for Long Covid Utilising the PHOSP-COVID study (PHOSP-COVID Umbrella Study - PHOCUS)
Chair: Dr Andrew Cook
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Iain McInnes, John Petrie, Stuart Taylor, Chris Weir (not present), John Norrie and Richard Peck
Decision: Declined

20/139 Mechanisms of Action of Health Interventions (pilot call of expanded remit)

NIHR134567 Taggart
Is the mechanism of action of hypertonic saline and/or carbocisteine in the treatment of patients with acute respiratory failure due to an increase in mucus hydration?
Chair: Professor John Petrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Ronan McMullan, Chris Weir (not present), Danny McAuley, John Simpson, Manu Shankar-Hari and John Norrie
Decision: Recommended to Programme Director to consider fund with changes

NIHR134720 Jayne
Transcriptomic deconvolution to dissect the immunological mechanism of B cell depletion therapy in ANCA associated vasculitis.
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Tessa Cacciottolo, Michael Nicholson and Richard Peck
Decision: Recommended to Programme Director to consider fund with changes

NIHR134187 Burton
Mechanisms of exercise-induced cardiovascular remodelling in haemodialysis patients: the role of microRNAs in skeletal-cardiac muscle cross-talk
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: None
Decision: Declined

Present - Day 2

Professor Danny McAuley (Programme Director - does not vote)
Professor John Norrie (Programme Chair - does not vote)
Professor John Petrie (Deputy Chair)
Professor Victoria Allgar
Dr Tessa Cacciottolo
Professor Janet Dunn
Professor Daniel Freeman
Professor Jonathan Grigg
Mrs Hayley Hall (public contributor)
Professor Alastair Hay
Professor Dave Jones
Mr Allen Knight (public contributor)
Professor Gregory Lip (not available 11.30am - 12.30pm)
Dr Ronan McMullan
Dr Puja Mehta
Professor Michael Nicholson
Dr Richard Peck (not available 9.30am - 11.00am)
Professor Ruth Plummer (not available until 10.00am)
Professor Manu Shankar-Hari
Professor John Simpson
Professor Deborah Stocken (not available after 11.00am)
Professor Stuart Taylor
Professor Chris Weir

Secretariat

Dr Dani Preedy
Dr Andrew Cook
Dr Juliana Callaghan
Ms Helen Munday
Dr Elena Harden
Dr Esther Sweeney
Ms Caitlin van Abeelen
Mrs Sue White

Apologies

Professor Arri Coomarasamy
Professor Rustam Salman
Professor Iain McInnes

Observers/in attendance

Penny Morton, MRC
Sharon Caunt, RDS
Ms Noirin O'Neill (new PPI Committee member)

Stage 1 Proposals

21/513 Building clinical trials experience: Applications to lead an EME-funded clinical efficacy study as part of an NIHR Advanced Fellowship

NIHR150076 Pavlides
Evaluation of non-contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging and standard of care ultrasound as screening tests for hepatocellular cancer in patients with liver cirrhosis
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Dave Jones and Iain McInnes (not present)
Decision: Declined

21/508 NIHR NICE Rolling Call

NIHR150009 Veldtman
EFFECTS OF SGLT2 INHIBITION ON QUALITY OF LIFE AND EXERCISE CAPACITY IN ADULTS WITH SYMPTOMATIC HEART FAILURE ASSOCIATED WITH CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE AND A SYSTEMIC RIGHT VENTRICLE: A CROSS-OVER TRIAL WITH 12 -WEEK TREATMENT PERIODS
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Gregory Lip, Iain McInnes (not present), John Petrie and Dave Jones
Decision: Shortlisted

NIHR150215 Malik
OLIGO-1: Phase II/III randomised controlled trial to compare stereotactic radiation or surgical therapy versus standard care on survival in oligometastases in oesophagogastric, pancreatic, colorectal, neuroendocrine, and primary hepatobiliary cancers
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Andrew Cook, Iain McInnes (not present) and Stuart Taylor
Decision:
Declined

21/507 EME Dementia

NIHR150357 Marshall
BEAT-AD: Blood biomarkers for equitable, accurate and timely Alzheimer's diagnosis
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Jonathan Grigg
Decision:
Declined

NIHR150496 Mallucci
Suppressing the Unfolded Protein Response to treat Alzheimer’s Disease Using Remote Assessment and Monitoring - SUPER-DREAM
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: None
Decision: Declined - invited to resubmit

NIHR150066 Velayudhan
A Randomized, Double Blind, Placebo-controlled Study of CANnabidiol for Psychosis in Alzheimer’s Dementia (CAN-ADP)
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Manu Shankar-Hari
Decision: Declined

21/506 EME Researcher Led

NIHR150008 Thabit
Targeting Insomnia to Improve Glucose Control in Type 1 Diabetes: a Randomised Controlled Trial and Mechanistic Study
Chair: Professor Danny McAuley
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Daniel Freeman and John Norrie
Decision:
Declined

NIHR150193 Morgan
MORE-KARE: A multi-centre investigation of increasing abstinence with ketamine assisted psychological therapy in severe alcohol use disorder
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Daniel Freeman 
Decision:
Shortlisted

NIHR150502 O'Flynn
Diagnostic yield study to determine whether an abbreviated form of breast magnetic resonance imaging (FAST MRI) can detect breast cancers missed by screening mammography for women at population risk of breast cancer with average mammographic density following their initial screening mammogram.
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Janet Dunn
Decision: Shortlisted

NIHR150375 Wilson
Weight Reduction in Asthma Programme with Semaglutide (WRAP-S): clinical efficacy, mechanisms of action and costs
Chair: Professor Danny McAuley
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Chris Weir, John Simpson and John Norrie
Decision: Shortlisted

NIHR150402 Field
Restoration of effective coagulation in aortic surgery: a comparison of autolous platelet rich plasma, fibrinogen concentrate and prothrombin complex concentrate to conventional allogenic blood product transfusion The RESTORE Study
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Chris Weir and Gregory Lip
Decision: Declined

NIHR150098 Turner
STABILISE: a multicentre, open-label, randomised, parallel group, superiority trial to investigate the use of BCG vaccine In altering immune response and exacerbation in airways disease
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Arri Coomarasamy (not present)
Decision: Shortlisted

NIHR150537 Kassam
HIPSTER - HIP Surgical Techniques to Enhance Rehabilitation
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: None
DDecision: Shortlisted

21/515 EME Mechanisms of Action of Interventions for COVID-19

NIHR150393 Wilkinson
Exploring and grouping COVID-19 pharmaceutical interventions to determine mechanisms of action and endotypes of response
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Andrew Cook
Decision: Shortlisted

21/516 EME Mechanisms of Action of Health Interventions (pilot call of expanded remit)

NIHR150272 McDonnell
Mechanistic insight into development and progression of early knee arthritis following Meniscal Allograft Transplantation, using MRI and synovial fluid analysis. (Patients from the MeTeOR2 HTA funded RCT)
Chair: Professor John Norrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Janet Dunn and Michael Nicholson
Decision: Declined

NIHR150308 Egerton
Mechanisms of action of clozapine in schizophrenia
Chair: Professor John Petrie
Declared a conflict and left the meeting: Chris Weir, Daniel Freeman, John Norrie and Manu Shankar-Hari
Decision: Shortlisted