Digital health technology catalyst round 3: feasibility studies

Overview

Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation, is to invest up to £1 million in feasibility studies that can potentially develop new digital technology solutions to healthcare challenges.

Scope

You can develop solutions for either clinical or non-clinical use.

Projects must be innovative and clearly demonstrate how they will have the potential to improve the health and care system.

There are 3 areas identified as areas of importance:

1. Improving health, and closing the health and wellbeing gap with:

• cancer diagnosis and treatment
• mental health early stage intervention and treatment
• diabetes risk and incidence reduction

2. Transforming care, and closing the care and quality gap with:

• urgent and emergency care provision
• management of primary care workload
• enabling patient choice in elective care

3. Controlling costs, enabling change and closing the finance and efficiency gap. This will be through the use of technology to maintain or improve levels of care with reduced spending.

They are looking to fund a portfolio of projects, across a variety of technologies, markets and healthcare needs.

Specific technologies include (but are not limited to):

• immersive: virtual and augmented reality
• intelligent: artificial intelligence and machine learning
• connected: use of sensors, internet of things (IoT), networks
• data driven: informatics, data analytics and process

The types of digital health projects they will fund include (but are not limited to):

• clinical decision-making support
• technologies that improve access to healthcare or help treatment compliance or provide patient led management
• digital technologies and products which help overcome privacy challenges of managing, sharing and exploiting data
• projects addressing the patient-led experience from prevention, through diagnosis, treatment and recovery, to long-term care
• applications of technology to health challenges where digital solutions offer and can demonstrate significant improvements in quality, speed, cost, outcomes and learning

Eligibility

To be eligible for funding your project must:

• be led by a UK based SME working alone or in collaboration with others
• carry out its project work in the UK

Collaborative project partners can include:

• NHS organisations
• businesses of any size
• universities
• research and technology organisations (RTOs)
• public sector organisations
• charities

Funding Costs

Feasibility studies’ total eligible project costs can be between £50,000 and £75,000.

All projects must start by 1 April 2019 and can last up to 12 months.

For feasibility study projects, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small business
• up to 60% if you are a medium-sized business
• up to 50% if you are a large business

Exclusions

In this competition Innovate UK will not fund projects that:

• do not have digital technology as the main provider of transformation
• discover or develop medicines
• seek only to develop data or record-keeping systems
• do not demonstrate an awareness of the underlying unmet need
• do not have the potential to be game-changing or disruptive innovative ideas leading to new solutions