Funding Opportunities
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Health Innovation Network Funding Newsletter
Explore available funding opportunities below.
If you are an innovator looking for support and assistance with your funding application, please get in touch – [email protected]
Value: £100,000 – £1,000,000 per project
Closing date: 23/10/2024
Overview: The Innovate UK Smart grant has focused scope and eligibility criteria to support micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their partners in developing genuinely new innovations with significant potential for rapid economic return to the UK.
The application process reflects the importance of obtaining economic benefits from public funding, and the potential for successful commercialisation, growth, and exports.
The Innovate UK Smart grant supports micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their partners develop the best game changing and world leading innovative R&D projects. It offers funding where other opportunities are not available or appropriate, and where timing is key to ensure swift and successful commercialisation post project completion.
To be in scope your proposal must demonstrate:
- A ground breaking and innovative idea for brand new products, processes or services
- An idea that is significantly different from already available products, processes or services globally
- An idea that is set for rapid commercialisation following project completion
- Clear potential to positively impact the UK’s position, productivity and competitiveness within the global economy a clear, evidence based business plan to deliver significant economic impact, return on investment (ROI) and growth through commercialisation, as soon as possible after project completion
- Why Smart funding is the right potential funding for your project, and the journey you have already been on to reach the point of application
- A team with the necessary skills and expertise to deliver the project successfully and on time, and to achieve rapid commercialisation awareness of all the main risks the project will face with realistic management, mitigation and impact minimisation plans for each risk sound, practical financial plans and timelines that represent good value for money, including the funding of post project activities
Value: £50,000 – £100,000
Closing date: 23/10/2024
Overview: The NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme is launching another round of FAST – Funding At the Speed of Translation.
FAST will be open to applications from 18 September 2024.
FAST is aimed at innovators in need of a small amount of funding to answer a specific question or to fund a single piece of activity to advance healthcare technologies and interventions for increased patient benefit.
Awards are designed to address an evidence gap and innovations must have demonstrated experimental proof of concept as a minimum.
i4i FAST Call 4 will support the development of innovative healthcare technologies for acquired brain injury (ABI), including the prevention, diagnosis and management of ABI as well as recovery from ABI.
Call 4 provides between £50k to £100k of funding for projects lasting between 6 and 12 months. FAST Awards are designed to have a rapid turnaround, and Awards must start by 01 February 2025.
Value: n/a
Closing date: 30/10/2024
Overview: Under its highlight notice call, “Technology-Enabled Social Care”, the NIHR Research Programme for Social Care (RPSC) is inviting proposals for collaborative research projects that examine the development and utilisation of digital technology in social care. This includes artificial intelligence prev (AI) or digital devices in the provision of social care and/or to support any aspect of the lives of adults or children with social care needs in the UK.
The call offers researchers considerable flexibility to focus on any subject area or topic providing that it falls within the remits of RPSC and the Technology-Enabled Social Care highlight notice. We particularly encourage research proposals into ambitious and novel uses of technology. This includes addressing new concepts and techniques and those with the potential for significant improvement to the lives of people with social care needs and/or economic impact, as well as developmental work potentially leading to such research.
We are keen to encourage collaborations with a range of organisations including small or medium enterprises (SMEs).We welcome ideas from new researchers including those with limited research experience such as early career researchers, but they must be supported by an experienced, strong, and multi-disciplinary team. This call also includes an RPSC Early Career researcher sub stream: please see the RPSC scope below for further information.
Funding decisions are based on assessments of quality, timeliness, potential impact, and value for money. Proposals should be submitted to the RPSC Technology-Enabled Social Care highlight notice.The call is open to both existing and new digital technologies, AI and devices. Applications can include both exploratory and more experiential studies.
The research scope is broad, and therefore includes identification of barriers to the take up and utilisation of digital technology, AI and devices, and strategies to address these barriers. It also includes ways to reduce inequalities in care access using digital technologies, as well as studies looking at AI and devices in new / little used settings.
Value: £800,000
Closing date: 15/11/2024
Overview:
A total of £800k is available to allocate to research projects in the field of Digital Health, with a focus on addressing regional unmet health and care needs, health inequalities, and digital exclusion.
To be eligible for funding, applicants must attend one of the upcoming workshops.
Widening participation in research is a core focus of NortHFutures, with a particular interest in facilitating cross-sector research collaborations involving Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) partners.
The four themes are:
- Developing Digital Surgical Pathways
- Living and Ageing Well with Multiple Long-term Conditions
- Promoting Health and Nutrition for Children and Young People
- Supporting Mental Health and Wellbeing
Value: £1.5 million (80% FEC)
Closing date: 27/11/2024
Overview: Apply for funding to accelerate progress of basic and fundamental engineering and physical sciences research towards application and impact through partnering with clinical and healthcare professionals, and industrial partners.
This opportunity is intended to support the progression of basic and fundamental research towards application and impact within one of the following three challenges:
- Improving population health and prevention of ill health
- Transforming prediction and early diagnosis
- Discovering and accelerating the development of new interventions
Further information on each challenge can be found in the health technologies strategy.
It is a mandatory requirement to partner with clinical and healthcare professionals. It is strongly encouraged to have business partners onboard, who in combination will provide a range of expertise to provide the support and guidance required to navigate the pathways to generating impact in the health sector. All partners will be expected to play an active role in the design and delivery of the project, as well as demonstrating significant direct or in-kind contributions towards the project.
Applicants are required to submit a detailed translation and patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) plan as part of the application, and these will form a key component in the overall assessment of proposals.
Research projects funded through this opportunity are expected to generate a range of outputs alongside possible publications that make significant contributions to delivering impact within our challenge areas.
Value: n/a
Closing date: 27/11/2024
Overview: Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme funds evidence synthesis as well as primary research, into the clinical and cost-effectiveness, and broader impact of healthcare treatments, tests, and other interventions.
The research helps those who plan, provide, or receive care from NHS and social care services.
Research question: Can diagnosis of Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) in older adults be improved based on a combination of clinical factors and rapid testing?
Value: £3 to 7 million per project
Closing date: 02/12/2024
Overview: This call will fund research to evaluate and further develop scalable digital interventions to advance early intervention in depression, anxiety and psychosis.
Teams must include the research expertise required to drive the proposed research, an organisation which can take the intervention to scale (whether a company or not-for-profit) and lived experience experts.
The proposed intervention:
- Should target symptom(s) and/or functional impairments related to anxiety, depression or psychosis to advance early intervention
- Can include (but is not limited to) software, artificial intelligence, web-based programmes, mobile applications, chatbots, extended reality, wearable devices or video games
- Can be standalone or adjunct to other treatments and can be designed for delivery in a range of settings such as healthcare, workplaces, schools, homes or other environments
Proposals should also demonstrate the potential for the developed intervention to be delivered at scale, considering factors such as acceptability, affordability, feasibility and sustainability. We expect that projects will have both a minimum viable product and feasibility data.
Proposals should plan for evaluations of the intervention, employing appropriate comparators.
A range of designs are eligible such as (but not limited to):
- Clinical trials
- Case-control studies
- Quasi-experimental designs
- Real-world evidence generation studies
- Hybrid effectiveness-implementation studies
Value: £3 to 7 million per project
Open date (subject to change): 10/10/2024
Closing date (subject to change): 05/12/2024
Overview: The i4i Product Development Awards (PDA) support collaborative research and development projects of medical devices, in vitro diagnostic devices and high-impact patient-focused digital health technologies for use in the NHS or social care systems.
PDA are researcher-led and aim to de-risk innovations, supporting early product development through to real-world evaluations, to make innovations more attractive for follow-on funding and commercial investment.
The expected focus of a project funded by PDA is one or more of the following:
- Product development required to enable technologies for clinical use or use in social care
- Clinical development of a laboratory-validated technology
- Real-world evaluations to accelerate the development and uptake of innovative products, which already have demonstrated safety and efficacy
- The aim is to achieve benefit to patients and end users, de-risk technologies and make them attractive to follow-on funders, investors and buyers, in particular NHS commissioners and national guidance bodies
Value: up to £250k
Closing date (subject to change): n/a
Overview: Applications through the Research Programme for Social Care should have:
- A clear pathway to social care benefit that could be immediate or over a longer-term
- A strong link with people who need or use social care, carers and organisations which provide social care services or other relevant groups
- An appropriate team, likely consisting of social care researchers, members of the social care workforce, carers, methodologists and people who use social care, reflecting the nature of the application
Value: £50,000 – £350,000
Closing date: 04/11/2024
Overview:
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is seeking to test and evaluate innovative approaches to the delivery of improved services for patients with cardiovascular disease.
By innovative approaches they mean the application of an idea that is not considered to be routine practice elsewhere in the NHS.
They are seeking applications on ideas that have been:
- Identified an unmet need that required further scoping and consensus building around need and potential solutions
- Scoped by an appropriate group of stakeholders and are ready to be tested and evaluated in practice OR
- Tested locally by an appropriate group of stakeholders and are ready for early stage of scaling
Applications must be supported by a regional innovation board such as a Health Innovation Network in England, an Innovation Hub in Scotland, the Cardiac Network Board in Wales and the Cardiology Network in Northern Ireland.
Value: £50,000 – £120,000
Expressions of interest closing date: 30/09/2024
Overview:
This funding will support investigators to undertake further scientific and technical development of an idea that is close to translation in order to establish the scientific and/or commercial potential.
The aim of the funding is to accelerate the transition from discovery research to translational development projects.
Development of academic-industrial collaborations is also encouraged.
Value: TBD
Closing date: TBD
Overview:
The second PACE funding call for innovative early-stage diagnostics projects, will open on 26 September 2024.
Applications must have the potential to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions, provide faster results that indicate which antimicrobial should be used and/or catalyse the move to personalised narrow-spectrum treatments, with projects expected to last up to two years, with total funding of up to £5 million across all funded projects.
Expressions of interest (EOIs) can be submitted from 26 September.
Full details on the call scope and application process will be provided when the call opens.
Value: £200,000
Closing date: 13/11/2024
Overview:
SBRI Healthcare is delighted to announce a new funding competition. Competition 27: ‘Work-related digital innovations for individuals with poor mental health’ invites innovations that focus on three areas:
- Digital interventions targeting work-related risk factors facing working age population (aged 16-64) with mental health problems in employment, that provide rapid support to individuals to help them remain in work
- Digital interventions that specifically tackle barriers to work facing unemployed working age individuals (aged 16-64) with mental health problems, to support individuals to return to work or gain employment
- Digital interventions targeting workplace issues/barriers facing working age population (aged 16-64) from disadvantaged communities with mental health problems, to support individuals attain, remain or return to work
Applicants can apply for up to £200,000 (NET, excluding VAT) per innovation for up to 12 months.
The competition is open to innovations at any stage of development from testing the technical and commercial feasibility to generating evidence in real world settings.
The competition is open to single organisations (contracts are executed with individual legal entities) based in the UK or EU from the private, public and third sectors, including companies (large corporates and small and medium enterprises), charities, universities, and NHS providers, given a strong commercial strategy is provided and clear benefit to the NHS is demonstrated.
Value: £1.3m
Closing date: 09/10/2024
Overview:
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to invest up to £1.3 million in innovation projects.
The aim of this competition is to develop impactful regional activities and events that focus on supporting the growth of the cyber security sector and the development of cyber security skills.
These will be to resolve geographical disparities in the development and growth of the cyber security sector and to reduce the skills gap in the sector.
Your proposal must:
- be delivered in one of the seven specified areas
- demonstrate clear impact in the cyber security sector of the area through the development of strong and innovative cyber security ecosystems or increasing opportunities for activities to reduce the skills gap in the sector
The seven specified areas are:
- Northern Ireland
- North-West England
- South-West England
- Yorkshire & Humber
- Northeast England
- East Midlands
- West Midlands
Value: £100,000 – £2 million
Closing date: 30/10/2024
Overview:
Innovate UK is offering up to £25 million in loans to micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Innovate UK innovation loans are for highly innovative late stage research and development (R&D) projects with the best potential for the future. There must be a clear route to commercialisation and economic impact.
Your project must lead to innovative new products, processes or services that are significantly ahead of others currently available, or propose an innovative use of existing products, processes or services. It can also involve a new or innovative business model.
Your project must focus on one or more of the future economy areas included in the Innovate UK plan for action.
You must be able to show that you:
- Need public funding
- Can cover interest payments
- Will be able to repay the loan on time
The funding available will be allocated across a series of competitions with the next round opening on the day the previous round closes:
- Round 17 will open on 29 August 2024 and will close on 30 October 2024
- Round 18 will open on 31 October 2024 and will close on 8 January 2025
- Round 19 will open on 9 January 2025 and will close on 5 March 2025
Value: £100,000 – £2 million
Open date: 14/10/2024
Closing date: 13/01/2025
Overview:
Launchpad is a part-time, free, four-month bespoke support package that helps passionate people to de-risk, validate and pitch dementia innovation product ideas. Launchpad 2024/25 will kick off in February 2025, with applications opening on the 14th of October 2024. This round is particularly looking for product ideas addressing the challenges around the hospital journey for people living with dementia.
We have a broad focus around hospitalisation that includes ideas to:
- Reduce unnecessary admissions
- Make hospital more dementia friendly
- Support transitions back into the community
- To support the carers and loved one’s of those in hospital
- To address system level challenges with healthcare management and process
Although people living with dementia may not by the primary customer or end user of your product, we will encourage the co-design of all products with those living with dementia to ensure they are dementia friendly.
Value: £400,000 – £1,500,000
Closing date: 12/12/2024
Overview:
This funding opportunity is intended to support the progression of basic and fundamental research towards application and impact within one of the following three challenges:
- Improving population health and prevention of ill health
- Transforming prediction and early diagnosis
- Discovering and accelerating the development of new interventions
UKRI are looking for applications which will advance engineering and physical sciences research towards application and impact in an area of unmet healthcare need during the lifetime of the proposal. Applications will be co-developed and co-delivered with clinical or healthcare professionals, industry partners and public and patient contributors to maximise impact and navigate the translation pathway.
Projects should ensure the research addresses an unmet health need or offers significant added value over current or alternative healthcare solutions.
Research projects funded through this funding opportunity are expected to generate a range of outputs that make significant contributions to delivering impact within our challenge areas.
Value: £400,000 – £1,500,000
Closing date: 07/10/2024
Overview:
The AI Airlock pilot programme is available for medical devices as defined by the UK Medical Devices Regulation 2002, utilising AI. The product manufacturer must be a legal entity and have the rights to market their product in the UK. Candidates will be asked to commit to working with the AI Airlock pilot programme for the duration.
- The product has potential to deliver benefits for patients. Applicants can demonstrate that the product (or prototype) will provide a benefit to patients and public health as a medical device. The patient population that will be impacted by the product should be identified.
- The product or concept application is innovative. The Airlock programme is looking to recruit AI as a Medical Device products that have the potential to be transformative in the healthcare system or are applied as a novel modification of existing technologies or clinical process.
- The product presents a regulatory challenge. The Airlock provides a unique opportunity for products/ prototypes that provide examples of regulatory challenges experienced by Artificial Intelligence as a Medical Device products across the medical device lifecycle
- The proposal is ready to be trialled. Applicants should be able to establish a plan for the Airlock sandbox for their product and commit resource to carrying out such plan. This should include a clear challenge to be addressed, high level objectives and include data access and quality management systems.