A NORTH Yorkshire product development firm has been chosen to help create new technology to treat sick babies.

Knaresborough-based GSPK will be working on a £700,000 project to help develop new technology for treating jaundiced babies.

The firm will be helping to develop BabyLight, an innovative product which will make the treatment of the potentially fatal condition much easier.

Paul Marsh, managing director of GSPK Design, said: “We have had the pleasure of working with some of the consortium partners in the past and we were very excited to be approached by them again to be involved in the BabyLight project.

“This is another great contract for us. We had fantastic growth in 2013 and this project will help to ensure that success continues in 2014 and beyond.”

The GSPK team will be using its design expertise on the electronic hardware and firmware side of the project, scoping and developing the electronic controls and feedback circuitry while also producing the prototype assemblies.The aim will be to create a product which is effective while still being portable and as practical as possible for new parents caring for a sick baby.

The project has been funded by the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, which has given a grant of £700,000 to the organisations involved in developing BabyLight. The work is expected to take around 18 months.

Mr Marsh added: “We are all very proud to be contributing to something which will make such a big difference to so many people’s lives and help improve a situation which can be very difficult and worrying for new parents.”