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Smell Healthcare Technology to Enable Digital Smell Training

Project description

High-tech solution for smell health and care

Temporary or permanent loss of the sense of smell can take a serious toll on a person’s health and even cause mental health disorders. In fact, early olfactory dysfunction is a biomarker for detecting diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The negative effects of smell dysfunctions have also been experienced by a larger global population due to the impact of COVID-19. In this context, the ERC-funded SmellHealth project will design new digital smell healthcare applications for smell training for a highly accurate, efficient, adaptive and affordable smell delivery technology. It will enable the collection of reliable data, the creation of digital data sets based on smell performance, and extend the benefits of personalised electronic healthcare records for monitoring, diagnosis and prevention.

Objective

The aim of this ERC PoC is to enable the design of new digital smell healthcare applications (e.g. smell training) through the development of a highly accurate, efficient, adaptive, and affordable smell-delivery technology (hardware and software components), and demonstrate its use to healthcare professionals.

The human sense of smell is powerful, it makes an important and yet often undervalued contribution to our life and wellbeing with a unique link to emotions and memories. Smell dysfunctions or loss (even temporary) give rise to a range of problems, which can affect personal safety, enjoyment of food, personal hygiene, and can cause serious mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety and social isolation. In Europe and the USA, around 20% of the general adult population has some form of smell dysfunction and this number rises to 75% for people aged between 70–80 years. In 2050, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged 65 years and over. The negative effects of smell dysfunctions have recently been experienced by a larger global population due to the impact of COVID-19. Regardless of a temporary or chronic smell dysfunction, there is an unmet need for digital smell care applications that empower individuals and healthcare professionals to properly care and treat negative effects.

Smell training can make a difference to people’s health, personal and emotional wellbeing in older age. Additionally, reliably recording a person’s smell capabilities can detect dysfunctions that can be an early sign of degenerative conditions (Dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease), even a decade or more before the onset of cognitive or motor symptoms. SmellHealth will not only provide technological innovation for smell delivery and control, but also enable the collection of reliable data, the creation of digital datasets based on smell performance and thus extend the benefits of personalised electronic healthcare records for monitoring, diagnosis, and prevention.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-POC - Proof of Concept Grant

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2020-PoC

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Host institution

OWIDGETS LTD
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 150 000,00
Address
UNIT 1, CAMBRIDGE HOUSE CAMBORO BUSINESS PARK OAKINGTON ROAD
CB3 0QH Cambridge
United Kingdom

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
East of England East Anglia Cambridgeshire CC
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Beneficiaries (1)

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