A North East company has won Government backing to develop a new piece of equipment that can detect coronavirus in the air.
Sedgefield firm Kromek has been awarded £1.25m to adapt its existing technology to detect the Covid-19 virus in the air. If successful the devices will be installed in busy areas such as hospitals, shopping centres, and entertainment venues to help open them up to the public.
Kromek specialises in making detection devices that are used by medical, security, and nuclear markets. Its products have been used to detect dirty bombs and were used to protect President Donald Trump during a visit to Europe.
Once developed its new product will be capable of identifying a large number of viruses but will initially be used to test for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The test will run automatically and will not require trained specialists to work. The £1.25m funding has been provided by Innovate UK.
Dr Arnab Basu, CEO of Kromek, said: “We are very pleased to have received backing from UKRI and Innovate UK to progress the deployment of our solution for the detection of airborne Covid-19.
“Our system can augment the government’s test and trace system by enabling early identification of potential exposure to the virus while supporting the safe return of visitors to public spaces like mass transport, retail outlets and entertainment venues.
“We also believe that the continuous monitoring with our system, which can test for a wide spectrum of viruses as well as mutations of Covid-19, has significant potential for protecting against the outbreak of pandemics in the future.”
The funding has been granted to Kromek through an 18-month programme of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which is a public body sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It brings together the UK’s seven research councils, Innovate UK and Research England.
The programme is aiming to help develop solutions that can address the health, social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Kromek intends to begin piltoing the new technology by the end of its financial year on April 31, 2021. It will then look to deploy the devices fully during 2021/22.
