GW4 Generator Fund Case Study: Fabrication and Testbed Network for Next-Generation Optical Brain Computer Interfacing

Community Leads: Hannah Leese (University of Bath); Daniel Whitcomb (PI) (University of Bristol); Sam Shutts (Cardiff University); Tom Piers (University of Exeter) 

GW4 Building Communities Generator Award enables researchers to collaborate on the development of novel tools for Brain Computer Interfacing 

Brain-computer interfacing (BCI) holds huge potential to transform how humans interact with computer-controlled systems. Applications range from thought-controlled electronics to human-machine decision-making.  

Currently, there are major technological roadblocks that constrain and limit the potential effectiveness of BCI applications.  

To overcome these limitations, Dr Daniel Whitcomb (University of Bristol) led the establishment of the Fabrication and Testbed Network for Next-Generation Optical Brain Computer Interfacing. The network of researchers aimed to was to test new materials that could be used for brain-computer interfacing.  

In 2024, the community were awarded funding as part of GW4’s Building Communities Generator Award. The GW4 Building Communities Generator Fund is an open research call offering up to £20k to support collaborative research and innovation communities across the four GW4 universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter. It supports both the creation of new GW4 communities and the development of the strongest ideas emerging from our existing communities. 

The Network developed an initial concept to kick-start the community, which was further advanced through a GW4 award that facilitated six months of collaborative work enabling researchers to fabricate materials. 

An initial workshop was held to identify key issues, agree approaches and deliverables; and a prototyping study was conducted, establishing a workflow protocol across the research community. Researchers at Cardiff University began work on fabricating novel material assemblies, which were then stress tested at the University of Bath. Meanwhile, at the University of Bristol, assemblies were introduced to acute brain tissue in vitro, and electrophysiological assays of brain cell function were tested; and the University of Exeter, material assemblies were introduced to inducible pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cerebral organoid cultures already established within the lab.  

This achieved an established methodology of BCI tool development, from conceptualisation through to testing and validation, distributed across the community – alongside pilot data. 

The funding was also used to facilitate a half-day meeting to review testing data and agree the implications of the findings for the next steps in development. 

The GW4 Generator Fund enabled the establishment an effective research community which could complete a piece of shared empirical work. This provided a rich dataset that now sits at the heart of the community. The project now has a shared set of objectives, in line with which the researchers will take it forward; and tangible foundational pilot data that will form the basis of further joint exploratory work. 

The funding has also allowed researchers to establish regular online meetings which bring together all community members and allow them to continue to develop their ideas and plan experimental work. 

Dr Daniel Whitcomb (University of Bristol), Principal Investigator of the Fabrication and Testbed Network for Next-Generation Optical Brain Computer Interfacing Community, said: “Our experience of the GW4 Building Communities Generator Fund has been very positive. The funding allowed us to complete experimental work, we felt supported to achieve our objectives and the structured nature of the project monitoring helped us to clearly define our aims. Our research project provided us with a foundation of empirical work that we can take forward to support further funding applications.”

GW4 Building Communities 

The GW4 Building Communities Programme aims to build research and innovation communities of scale and capability, delivering a step change in world-class research that could not be achieved by one of the institutions alone. The Programme has two funding schemes:  

• The annual Generator Fund which awards GW4 communities up to £20K for 6-month projects.   

• The Development Awards which support new, and advance existing, collaborations across GW4 by funding single activities or resources with up to £5K. This is a rolling scheme, with no closing date.  

More details of both schemes, and how to apply, can be found at the links above.