Stress, lack of sleep, physical inactivity, drugs & alcohol, dehydration, heat and cold and many others factors all affect our brain fitness - the state of our mental wellbeing, brain health and cognitive ability that makes us 'fit' for the demands of life and work. Low brain fitness means mistakes are made, accidents happen, productivity declines, costs increase. It costs businesses globally almost $8.5 trillion in lost productivity every year (OECD). Brain fitness is a critical problem for UK construction. 93% of workers have been impacted by mental ill health; the cost of mental health related absenteeism is £2.75 bn every year (On the Tools); 30% of workers are present but not productive (Institute of Occupational Medicine). But there's currently no way to objectively measure brain fitness, so it's impossible to manage. Businesses rely on self-reporting, self-assessment, intermittent surveys and questionnaires to identify and measure risk. FCLabs' wearable neurotech platform empowers individuals and businesses to measure, manage and improve brain fitness in real-time. To unlock better health, wellbeing and longevity and to boost safety, performance and productivity. Our low cost, non-invasive wearable headset uses near-infrared light (functional near-infrared spectroscopy) to measure blood flow and oxygenation levels in the pre-frontal cortex. We use these as well as wrist wearables to create patent-pending algorithms to provide simple, user-friendly insights into fluctuating brain fitness and potential underlying causes. fNIRS is used in clinical and academic research, but there are currently no real-world commercial applications. We have designed our headsets and algorithms from scratch to develop a suitably simple, low cost, operationally practical solution. Using early versions of our headsets we confirmed that we are able to track and analyse hemodynamic data (blood volume and oxygenation levels in the brain), identifying patterns and features (including in heart rate) which correlate with declining productivity and quality. Phase 1 of this Bridge AI project used wrist-worn PPG monitors to collect heart rate data, which we correlated to productivity in a construction manufacturing environment. This next project will involve collecting hemodynamic response data, using the next iteration of our prototype headset in a simulated construction environment. This will allow us to train our algorithms to more accurately track and predict fluctuations in brain fitness and the impact on both productivity and quality (risk of error). This will allow us to run full field trials, with contractors already confirmed for those trials including T1 contractors and SMEs.

According to the Construction Skills Network report, an extra 225k construction workers will be needed by 2027\. However, 55% of UK construction companies say that their productivity is already suffering from a lack of skilled staff. Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that construction output per hour is still at levels that they were in 1980\. There is a necessity not only to recruit more staff but to increase the productivity of those staff. CoreTech will bring that productivity. FCLabs are a wearable neurotech company, developing a worker wellbeing solution (CoreTech), which tracks and predicts fluctuations in cognitive performance and risk of human error, delivering simple, actionable insights in the form of a CoreScore. CoreTech is like a Fitbit for the brain. The CoreScore is an indicator of both fluctuating cognitive performance and an early warning of potential underlying causes such as mental & physical fatigue, lack of sleep, stress & anxiety, drug & alcohol use, dehydration, nutrition, blood sugar levels (diabetes), cold/heat stress, boredom, distraction, illness and poor air quality/toxic gases. The CoreScore supports decisions on appropriate action, intervention or mitigation and encourages long-term behavioural change. From immediate intervention, if it becomes clear that an employee is at greater risk of an accident compared to their usual trends, to the management of shift patterns and duties to ensure more dangerous or vital tasks are only completed when employees are at their peak, construction companies will be able to leverage CoreScore metrics to increase productivity while also saving lives and preventing injuries. This project will facilitate the next step in the evolution of our CoreScore, testing our most recent headsets in real-world construction environments and providing data to increase the accuracy of our algorithm. The companies and employees involved will get the direct benefit of insights on their workforce (anonymised) and suggestions on how to improve productivity. The project will boost our potential to bring these benefits to a large portion of the UK construction industry - and beyond.

FCLabs are a wearable neurotech company, developing a worker wellbeing solution (CoreTech), which tracks and predicts fluctuations in cognitive performance and risk of human error, delivering simple, actionable insights in the form of a CoreScore. CoreTech is like a Fitbit for the brain. Our wearable device measures blood flow and oxygenation/deoxygenation (haemodynamic response) in the pre-frontal cortex area of the brain, which our algorithms then combine with heart rate, heart rate variability and motion data to create what we call a 'CoreScore'. Your CoreScore is an indicator of both fluctuating cognitive performance and an early warning of potential underlying causes, some of which are amongst the most pressing OH concerns today - mental & physical fatigue, lack of sleep, stress & anxiety, drug & alcohol use, dehydration, nutrition, blood sugar levels (diabetes), cold/heat stress, boredom, distraction, illness and poor air quality/toxic gases. We don't attempt to automatically diagnose underlying causes (yet; it is on our roadmap), but provide quantifiable, simple, actionable insights into fluctuations in risk to the individual and/or a supervisor. This awareness supports decisions on appropriate action, intervention or mitigation and encourages long-term behavioural change. Our target audience with CoreTech are large organisations in high-risk sectors; primarily construction, engineering and oil & gas. In developing CoreTech we have identified that it is possible to derive a CoreScore from heart rate, heart rate variability and motion alone. It's not as accurate at tracking and predicting cognitive performance as using the CoreTech device, but we believe still provides a valuable indicator of both risk of error and the potential underlying causes. This gives us the ability to use a smartwatch or activity tracker as the source of data, which many workers already have and are used to wearing. We believe this presents an opportunity to develop a simple, accessible, low-cost new product for self-employed, micro and small-medium enterprises, where actionable data delivered to the individual and (where appropriate) to a supervisor, employer or OHS provider will: * prompt awareness/self-awareness of potential issues * encouraging behavioural change and supporting self-management, reducing the need for OHS intervention; * enabling efficient & effective signposting to appropriate support; * improving uptake of that support; * allow employers and OHS providers to identify areas of need, improve targeting and take-up of services and measure impact. This project involves the development and trial of a proof of concept mobile app for individual users, assessing the feasibility of the solution.

Neurotech start-up FCLabs' first product, CoreTech, is a worker wellbeing solution which predicts and prevents human error, whatever the underlying cause. Insights and alerts delivered to the worker or their supervisor prompt action, investigation or behavioural change which reduces the occurrence of mistakes, accidents, injuries and fatalities in the workplace. They are initially focused on high risk sectors such as construction, engineering, manufacturing, oil & gas and logistics & warehousing. This project allows FCLabs to develop, trial and assess new CoreTech features which enable users to identify and address specific underlying causes of increased risk of error, earlier and more easily. These include a range of issues - sleep deprivation, mental and physical fatigue, boredom, distraction, illness, dehydration, stress, anxiety and depression, amongst others. These new tools will empower workers to take steps to self-manage their mental and physical health and encourage lasting behavioural change. This project focuses on mental wellbeing. With mental health identified as the top reason for time off work in 2021, FCLabs believe it will also be a significant cause of human error. Talking about mental health can be a struggle for many people, especially men, who make up a significant portion of the workforce in CoreTech's target sectors. By gently flagging where mental health may be having an impact on risk of error at work (and potential accident, injury or even fatality resulting), direct to the individual, we hope to break through these barriers, encouraging them to take steps to self-manage and seek support. There are two suicides in the UK construction industry every day. If we can help one person from getting to the point where taking their own life seems the only option, CoreTech, and this project, will have been a success.