Innovation Lab digital innovations for suicide and self-harm prevention Q&A

The Population Mental Health Consortium (the Consortium), part of the UKRI-funded Population Health Improvement UK network, is running a collaborative event focused on digital interventions to reduce suicide and self-harm at population-level on October 13th June in London.

Join this online Q&A facilitated by the Consortium where you can learn more about the Innovation Lab and explore the exciting opportunities to collaborate and contribute to the field.

This 60-minute session will explain:

• The background to the event, including the Population Mental Health Consortium
• The structure and goals of the Innovation Lab
• Examples of the types of projects we are interested in
• Details about who is eligible to participate

There will also be a chance for Q&A to ask any clarifying questions about the event.

The webinar will take place on MS Teams. Webinar joining instructions will be sent to all registered participants nearer the time.

What is the innovation lab event?

The Innovation Lab will be a hands-on workshop and networking event, bringing together researchers, organisations and individuals with community insights to develop research ideas that will reduce suicide and self-harm by looking at the wider determinants of health rather than crisis support services.

The Innovation Lab will provide a space to:

• connect with potential collaborators across sectors
• identify potential areas for future collaboration
• pitch for small pots of funding to get a research collaboration off the ground

Funding

Project ideas that show promise may receive seed funding to support their development. Funding for individual projects will range from £1,000 to £10,000, with a total budget of £40,000 to distribute across the selected projects.

The Innovation Lab will be looking to provide seed-funding to collaborations working on the following themes:

• Online safety and social media interventions
• Precision public health (e.g. use of AI and big data analytics for timely and targeted intervention)
• Evidence-based digital platforms (e.g. for screening, psychoeducation and/or access to support at an early stage)
• Population-level and tailored digital campaigns
• Digital peer support networks
• Digital/‘simulation’ suicide prevention training
• Digital and AI-based tools to monitor and strengthen protective factors (including apps, wearables and environmental sensors, conversational agents and natural language processing)

Who is the Innovation Lab aimed at?

For anyone interested in population mental health, this is a chance to get involved in the future of equitable population mental health research. For early career researchers, the seed funding could be the first step towards a larger grant. For community organisations, this is a chance to unlock larger pots of funding in the future.

We hope that the funded projects will grow into successful collaborations, learning from and enriching the existing Consortium networks, producing a better infrastructure linking up practice, policy, research and community insights.

How to attend

Submit an expression of interest in attending. You will just need to let us know what kind of project you would like to do and what kind of collaboration you would be interested in.

Expenses

Additional funding is available to reimburse participants for expenses directly incurred because of their involvement. This funding is intended to cover costs participants would not otherwise be able to recover through other means. Reimbursements will be subject to availability and ensure equitable allocation across all participants.

What is the population mental health consortium?

The Population Mental Health Consortium (the Consortium) is part of the UKRI-funded Population Health Improvement network. Its mission is to bring together expertise and insight from across research, public health, and communities to improve health and reduce health inequalities through the development and evaluation of long-lasting interventions as well as to advance population mental health research by integrating diverse perspectives, policy, practice, and lived experience.

Part of the Consortium will look at the built environment. If we want to enhance population mental health and reduce inequities, we need to pay closer attention to how our built environment shapes not just the way we live, but the way we feel. For example, safe and stable housing helps reduce chronic stress, while well-connected roads and transport networks can prevent isolation by making it easier to reach work, school, and community activities.