Healthy Ageing Challenge – Designed for Ageing

Overview

The UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Healthy Ageing Challenge, will work with Innovate UK, to invest up to £14.4million in innovation projects.

These will be to deliver a clear game-changing service-led innovation to help people as they age, positively, actively, independently and with dignity.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to:

• address the under-provision by markets of services which support people as they age, to remain active, independent and socially connected for longer
• support business-led, near-to-market innovations that have strong potential to scale
• provide support through grant-funding against eligible project costs
• enforce good people-centred design principles
• encourage applications from businesses across the UK, by working closely with devolved government administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

To enforce the aim of good people-centred design principles, your project will be subject to a ‘design stage gate review’ at the six-month point. Your project must pass the ‘design stage gate review’ to continue to receive funding.

The review will ensure that your organisation is better placed to realise optimal market share by working with users and customers, to feed into service development and commercialisation plans.

Your project must:

• deliver a clear game-changing service-led innovation, that has a significant impact on ageing positively in the UK
• help people as they age, allowing them to remain active, productive, independent and socially connected for as long as possible
• narrow the gap between the experience of the richest and poorest
• conduct industrial research to develop new and applied knowledge leading to a solution at high technology and market readiness

Your proposal must:

• be delivered as a 6 months to two-year, business-led project, with a strong emphasis on people-centred design, as tested by the design stage gate review, and an ambition to scale
• identify a solution that must be sufficiently well-defined to be shaped by the initial six-month design stage gate review

The design stage gate review will be informed by your first six months’ people-centred design activity. This must be backed up by a revised commercialisation plan. You must be available at this six-month point for the review, along with your revised business and commercialisation plans.

The five review criteria for the design stage gate, must be evidenced and are based on:

• evidence of user engagement, including the user feedback mechanisms you have deployed
• details of adaptions you have made to your service through deploying people-centred design, including references to any risks identified
• evidence of take-up and acceptance within your user community, which supports the anticipated demand for your service
• evidence from your user community that your solution is scalable, for example, is there now a wider interest in your offering
• evidence that your business and commercialisation plans have been updated to reflect this activity, and that these plans represent a fair view of the market opportunity

We want to fund a portfolio of projects, across a variety of themes and regions including:

• scope, service or regional diversity
• investment with devolved administrations
• targeting inequalities and under-represented groups

Specific Themes

Your project must focus on one or more of the following service-led innovations that:

• enables self-care and new models of care for independent living
• encourages sustaining physical activity for people aged 50 and over, including for instance, active travel
• improves mental health
• addresses the ‘common complaints’ of ageing, for example, incontinence, pain, mobility, hearing and eyesight