Technology

Posted on March 5, 2018 by staff

£6m available for digital health innovations

Technology

Up to £6 million is available for businesses and NHS organisations wanting to test integrated healthcare products and services.

Innovate UK is to invest up to £4.5 million on behalf of the Office for Life Sciences in projects that combine digital and service innovations to significantly improve healthcare.

NHS England is to invest a further £1.5 million specifically in projects that apply digital approaches to supporting people with type 2 diabetes.

The initiative is seeking initial expressions of interest from both businesses with innovative digital projects and NHS organisations in England willing to lead a series of trials.

Successful applicants will be invited to a workshop where they will be able to meet and select partners. Consortia will then be invited to submit a detailed application to apply for funding.

It is part of the NHS test beds programme that aims to help innovators work with the NHS and test innovations in products and process in real-world settings.

Business should have a market-ready digital product that meets safety and regulatory standards and could address a health and care challenge.

Projects will need to meet the priorities set by NHS England in its 5 Year Forward View.

NHS organisations must have a clearly defined health and care challenge and be willing to lead a consortium that will test whether a combination of product and service innovation can address that challenge.

Projects must produce significant health improvements at the same or lower cost.

The deadline for entries is midday on 27 March 2018 and to be eligible for funding businesses can be an NHS England organisation or partnership. NHS organisations from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland cannot lead but can be partners in a consortium.

Businesses of any size can apply but funding is only available to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. The projects are expected to range in size from £500,000 to £1.5 million and to last up to 18 months.

Businesses could receive up to 70 per cent of their costs while NHS organisations will receive 100 per cent.

There will also be a briefing event on 2 March 2018.