LiverAI
An AI-assisted ultrasound decision-support project focused on strengthening liver cancer screening and referral workflows.
TRANSPIRE Project
Transforming prototypes into real-world enterprises
TRANSPIRE is MRCU's flagship innovation translation platform. It supports selected innovators, researchers and partners to move health ideas from problem definition to secure intellectual property, prototype development, validation, implementation evidence and responsible adoption.
2Public-facing innovation projects
3Translation stages: Identify, Invent, Implement
AIDigital health and decision-support focus
SecureConfidential pipeline governance by design
Why it matters
A bridge between applied research, product development and public health adoption
Uganda has strong scientific talent and many practical health system problems, yet promising prototypes often struggle to reach validation, regulatory readiness, financing and adoption. TRANSPIRE closes that gap by providing a structured venture-building pathway within a trusted health research institution.
The model combines MRCU's clinical research experience, longitudinal health data, laboratory capability, ethics infrastructure and partner network with business discipline, quality management and implementation science. The result is a pipeline of solutions designed for real users and real African health system constraints.
From evidence to enterpriseIdeas are assessed for health value, feasibility, ethics, IP position, validation needs and adoption potential.
Public innovation focus
Selected AI-enabled health innovations
For public communication, TRANSPIRE currently highlights two active digital-health projects. Other concepts remain under internal review and are disclosed only after appropriate confidentiality, IP, ethics and partnership clearances.
AI NutriCare
A digital nutrition assessment concept using computer vision and structured clinical logic to improve malnutrition screening for children under five.
Active public portfolio
Projects currently profiled on the public website
Each public portfolio item is treated as a translation project: a defined health problem, a technical concept, a validation path, an IP and data-governance plan, and a route toward responsible adoption.
LiverAI
An AI-assisted second-reader tool for liver ultrasound images, developed to support suspicious lesion detection and clinical validation for hepatocellular carcinoma screening.
AI NutriCare
A computer-vision and digital-health concept for improving malnutrition screening in children under five by digitizing growth assessment and supporting frontline decision-making.
Translation pathway
Identify, Invent and Implement
TRANSPIRE uses staged decision gates so promising ideas can mature without losing scientific discipline, ethical safeguards or commercial focus.
1
Identify
Define the user, health-system pain point, evidence gap, value proposition and early IP position before heavy technical development begins.
2
Invent
Build and refine the minimum viable product, establish quality and data controls, estimate costs and prepare validation protocols.
3
Validate
Generate clinical, implementation, usability and health-economic evidence, with ethics approval and regulatory planning where required.
4
Implement
Prepare adoption, partner deployment, controlled communication and continuous product improvement after the relevant governance clearances.
Governance and safeguards
Built for trust, IP protection and regulated health innovation
TRANSPIRE is designed for health settings where patient protection, data confidentiality and institutional accountability matter as much as technical novelty. Ideas are handled through secure intake, documented review, confidentiality discipline, invention disclosure, data stewardship and quality-management thinking.
- Early disclosure and publication controls before public demonstrations
- IP, software, data and AI-model ownership reviewed before scale-up
- Freedom-to-operate, regulatory and quality-system planning for diagnostics and devices
- Ethics, data protection and MUREC-aligned review for human participant and clinical-data work
Partner with TRANSPIRE
Bring a health innovation, validation need or technical partnership into the pipeline
TRANSPIRE welcomes collaboration with clinical teams, universities, health programmes, funders, implementation scientists, regulatory experts, product developers and innovators building practical digital-health solutions for African health systems.
Contact MRCU