A ground-breaking wristband which uses artificial intelligence to help diagnose ADHD is one of a number of new local projects to share more than £2m in innovation funding.

Addhere Technologies at Sci-Tech Daresbury has been awarded £99,000 to develop the bracelets, which its designers claim can detect sleep patterns and movements associated with ADHD, recording the data which can then be fed into an artificial intelligence (AI) app. The information can then be used to aid diagnosis.

The new investment comes from the latest round of Innovate UK’s launchpad programme, which saw £2.1m distributed to 13 projects across the Liverpool City Region (LCR).

The bracelet is the brainchild of Brazilian inventor Daniel Melo who came up with the idea after seeing how his nephew's undiagnosed ADHD affected his sister’s family.

He said the devices will make pre-diagnosis around 90 per cent reliable - offering GP’s greater confidence when referring children to the NHS for full diagnosis.

He said: "One of the key advantages of the UK Innovation ecosystem for nurturing global start-ups is this amazing network, capable of leveraging the companies from the early-stage to scale-ups."

Around one in 20 children are thought to be affected by ADHD but more than 80 per cent remain undiagnosed into adulthood. Families can wait between three and five years for a diagnosis through the NHS.

The firm said the AI model underpinning the platform is based on 10 years' of studies that evaluated, tracked and treated more than 1,500 children in a middle-income country, diagnosed with ADHD, as defined by psychologists and neuropsychologists.

The bracelets will be piloted at a city region school in the coming months and a further 15 UK schools have so far expressed an interest in the bracelets. The pilot will start with adults, before being tested on children, with a target age group of between six and 12-years-old.

Another company based at Daresbury, Evove Ltd, has also been awarded £496,297 to develop and manufacture products to make water filtration less energy intensive. Membrane filtration is used for desalination (removing salt from sea water) and other purposes and the global market is worth £25bn. The project aims to bring high value manufacturing jobs and export opportunities to the city region.

The city region was one of only two areas chosen to pilot Innovate UK's Launchpad programme which has distributed  £7.5m of grants to 37 locally based projects.

Launched in September last year, the programme focusses on developing innovations to transform the city region’s advanced manufacturing cluster, with an emphasis on digital technologies and net zero outcomes.

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: "We’re using this second round of investment to our advantage by providing some of the most pioneering local projects with ambitious funding to take their business to the next level and provide secure, well-paid jobs.

"We might already be home to a thriving innovation economy - but I’m not content with resting on our laurels. If we want to become the UK’s next science and innovation superpower, then we need to think bigger and better than the rest."