10% of firms successful in Innovate UK funding round
By Syndeo / 1st June 2020
Belfast based software company Syndeo has been selected by Innovate UK to help society and industry during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The Syndeo ‘Digital Well-being Coach’, which will be developed in partnership with Oxford Brookes University, will help people adapt to virtual learning in a way that ensures the best possible levels of mental health and wellbeing. In a highly competitive process which saw more than 8,600 applications, the Syndeo project was one of just over 800 selected from across the UK to receive this highly coveted funding.
Syndeo specialises in the application of forward-thinking artificial intelligence (A.I.) enabled customer communication solutions. The Innovate UK award recognises the potential of Syndeo’s innovative and ambitious solution that tackles the new educational needs that are emerging in the wake of the COVID-pandemic.
Leveraging Syndeo’s proprietorial A.I. technology, the solution will guide people through course materials whilst monitoring their emotional reactions and prompting them to utilise goal-setting activities and mindfulness exercises. With integration into Moodle, the world’s most popular learning management system, the Digital Well-being Coach will be fully configurable by the course moderator with health and well-being content tailored to the any particular course requirements. There is no limit on the potential use of the new platform across all levels of the education sector.
Syndeo’s Digital Well-being Coach is being developed in partnership with Oxford Brookes University and the project will incorporate knowledge and insights from experts in Organisation Behaviour at Oxford Brookes. The solution will provide a largely automated and scalable solution whilst at the same time offering a completely personalised, on-line experience for participants to work on their goals whilst maintaining the highest levels of mental wellbeing.
Oliver Lennon, Syndeo’s CEO, commented: “We are proud to have been selected to receive this funding award which recognises the expertise of the Syndeo team and our ability to bring this innovative and unique offering to the market. We are excited to work with Oxford Brookes University, assisting the education sector and indeed commercial organisations in adjusting to the new normal as we emerge from the COVID-19 crisis. The education world has been changed by COVID-19 and it is vital that real time solutions are developed to accommodate the new educational reality.”
Dr Christian Ehrlich, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at Oxford Brookes University commented: “We, here at Oxford Brookes Business School, see the Digital Well-being Coach adding great value to those participating in our Happiness through Goal-Setting training. Beyond the application within this training course the Digital Well-being coach has great potential for a much wider application particularly for those participating in distance learning.”
About Syndeo (www.syndeo.cx)
Syndeo is an innovative technology company pioneering a new cloud platform to offer consumers seamless connections to businesses via digital channels and messaging apps to enable greater customer service. The core ethos of the Syndeo approach is to demystify the use of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) for businesses to facilitate better communication with their customers. Syndeo have built their own proprietary A.I. engine which is specifically designed for customer communication and includes natural language understanding (NLU) with a conversational user experience. The firm, established 3 years ago, currently employs 7 people in Belfast. For more on Syndeo, please visit www.syndeo.cx
About Innovate UK
Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas. It funds business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive business investment into R&D. Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation. For more information visit www.innovateuk.ukri.org.
Details of the Innovate UK funding programme can be found here.
