News story: Tackling disease with healthcare innovations: apply for funding

There is up to £12 million to support projects that are developing or testing out new healthcare products, technologies or processes.

This funding is available through the Biomedical Catalyst, a partnership between Innovate UK and the Medical Research Council that supports innovative opportunities in the life sciences.

Quicker, more effective healthcare

Projects in the Biomedical Catalyst could:

• help to prevent or manage chronic conditions
• lead to better detection or diagnosis of disease
• that treat disease or offer potential cures

In this funding round there are 2 competitions.

Late-stage projects

Up to £8 million is available for late-stage projects that test a well-developed concept and demonstrate its suitability in a relevant environment.

A late-stage project can include:

• initial human proof-of-concept studies
• demonstration of clinical utility and effectiveness
• demonstration of safety and efficacy. This includes phase I and II clinical trials
• developing production mechanisms
• prototyping
• market testing
• intellectual property protection

Competition information

• the competition is open, and the deadline for applications is 7 February 2018
• projects must be led by a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), working alone or with other SMEs or research organisations
• we expect projects to range in size from £200,000 to £4 million and to last between 1 and 3 years
• businesses could attract up to 70% of their project costs

Primer awards

A further £4 million is available in primer awards. This is for projects that carry out technical evaluations through to proofs of concept in a model system.

A primer project could include:

• experimental evaluation done at laboratory scale
• initial demonstration using in vitro and in vivo models. It does not include human clinical trials such as safety or efficacy
• exploring potential production mechanisms
• early-stage prototyping
• product development planning
• intellectual property protection

Competition information

• the competition is open, and the deadline for applications is 7 February 2018
• projects must be led by an SME, working alone or with other SMEs or research organisations
• we expect projects to range in size from £200,000 to £1.5 million and to last between 1 and 2 years
• businesses could attract up to 70% of their project costs