Small Starter Grant Blog
Starter Grant Awardee Shares Research at ESICM 2025: Advancing Understanding of High-Flow Nasal Cannula Therapy
This October, our Small Starter Grant awardee travelled to Munich for the 38th ESICM Annual Congress, a large international event in intensive care. They presented a poster on their project, “CO₂ clearance in high-flow nasal cannula therapy: the roles of flow and respiratory rates,” sharing their early findings with clinicians, scientists, and industry specialists from around the world.
Their poster drew interest from a wide range of attendees. As the awardee explained, “sharing my work with an international community of clinicians, researchers, and industry partners provided valuable feedback that will meaningfully support the next stage of my research.”
These conversations helped point them toward ways to strengthen both the methodological approach and the clinical relevance of the study.
During the conference, they also explored the industry exhibition rooms, meeting representatives from companies developing next-generation respiratory support technologies. They noted that, “I had productive discussions with Fisher & Paykel and Hamilton Medical, both of whom are actively advancing high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) devices.”
These exchanges gave them a deeper understanding of the engineering challenges and innovations shaping HFNC development.
Reflecting on these conversations, they said the discussions “helped me better understand current engineering challenges, upcoming innovations, and how my research findings may contribute to future device optimisation.”
This link between emerging technology and their own research has already begun to influence their thinking about CO₂ clearance and device performance.
The awardee also attended several talks and panel discussions focused on non-invasive respiratory support (NIRS). They described these sessions as particularly valuable, sharing that “I was especially interested in the latest developments in non-invasive respiratory support (NIRS) methods, which offered new insights and broadened my understanding of respiratory monitoring and therapy.”
These sessions sparked ideas about how NIRS approaches might complement their HFNC research, shaping their plans for future work.
Impact of BIOREME Support
Their participation at ESICM was made possible through support from the BIOREME network’s small starter grant scheme.
Overall, the awardee described ESICM 2025 as “an invaluable experience that enhanced both my scientific perspective and professional network, and it will continue to shape the development of my future research.”
The insights gained from expert feedback to industry conversations to new scientific sessions have given them fresh momentum as they move into the next phase of their project on CO₂ clearance in HFNC therapy.
Their work highlights exactly what the Small Starter Grant scheme aims to support: enabling early-career researchers to grow, connect, and contribute to meaningful developments in their field.
If you’re an early-career researcher with a project you’d like to develop, our Small Starter Grant scheme is now open for applications. Whether you’re exploring a new idea, testing a method, or planning to share your work more widely, this funding can help you take that crucial next step. We’re excited to support the next group of emerging researchers and encourage anyone interested to apply. If you have any questions on the criteria, what’s funded, or the application process please Joe.Bass@nottingham.ac.uk.