News story: Testing new medical technologies in the NHS: apply for funding

Innovate UK and the Office for Life Sciences are working in partnership to invest up to £1.5 million in business projects that support the development of new medical devices, diagnostics and regulated digital technology.

The life sciences sector is one of the most important for the UK economy. It has a £70 billion turnover and employs nearly 235,000.

Most companies in the sector are small and often find it difficult to provide enough real-world evidence to support use of their innovations in the NHS. The funding will help businesses to collect that evidence.

Funding will support either the development or design of plans for collection of data on clinical performance and cost effectiveness or studies that actually collect the data.

It is aimed at small and medium-sized companies that have developed and manufactured innovative healthtech, have gained a CE marking for it and have marketed it in the UK for less than 5 years.

Projects should address NHS priorities

Projects should show how they are working with appropriate organisations such as the NHS and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. They should aim to have a significant impact and address NHS priorities including:

• reducing cancellations or unnecessary appointments
• reducing the burden on accident and emergency
• improving patient safety
• speeding up diagnosis
• enabling earlier diagnosis of cancer
• supporting management of long-term conditions such as diabetes, chronic pain management, cardiovascular disease, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Competition information

• the competition opens on 26 November 2018, and the deadline for applications is at midday on 30 January 2019
• projects must be led by an SME working alone or with others. Only the lead SME can claim funding
• we expect planning and preparation projects to have costs of up to £50,000 and actual studies to have costs of up to £250,000
• we expect projects to last between 3 and 12 months
• businesses could attract up to 50% of their project costs