Key Features
The NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme is launching another round of FAST – Funding At the Speed of Translation.
Programme: NIHR
Award: Share of up to £1.5m
Opens: 18th Sep 2024
Closes: 23rd Oct 2024
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, and the deadline for submissions will be 23 October 2024. The available budget is approximately £1.5m.
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.
The i4i FAST programme, in partnership with the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Brain Injury and the Defence Medical Services, invites applications to support the development of innovative healthcare technologies for the prevention and management of as well as the recovery from acquired brain injury (ABI) for the use in health and care settings or within the community where the ABI is incurred. ABI refers to any form of brain injury that has occurred since birth, including traumatic brain injury (TBI) and ABI as a consequence of stroke due to thrombosis/infarction, brain haemorrhage, tumours, infection and inflammation.
Applications are encouraged for solutions covering all forms of ABI, including mild, moderate, and severe TBI from different aetiologies such as road traffic collisions, assault, sports-related concussion and blast injury.
Funding will be provided to answer a specific question that is crucial for the further development of a medical device, in vitro diagnostic device or digital health technology (including AI-supported solutions) for use in health and care. Proposals must describe the benefits of the technology to the wider population, including underserved communities, and the involvement and engagement of patients and the public in the development of the proposal and the innovation is expected and must be clearly articulated.
Technologies addressing one or more of the following areas of interest are in scope:
Technologies may be at any stage of the product development pathway, starting from demonstrated experimental proof-of-concept (TRL 3). It will be essential that you describe how the innovation works and, to the extent available, include experimental data to illustrate technical feasibility, the patient population that will benefit and the pivotal single question being answered to take the innovation to the next level, e.g. to progress research and development and/or to support the case for a funding application or future investment.
Some examples of questions that can be addressed through FAST funding include:
Out of scope:
The lead organisation must be based in the UK and must be one of the eligible organisations listed below:
Collaborators based abroad are allowed, however their participation must be justified and the benefit to the NHS or broader UK health and care system needs to be articulated.
Specialist services or expertise may be brought into the team through consultancy or sub-contract arrangements with appropriate justification. Sub-contractors may be based outside of the UK. The project team must be assembled at the start of the project with appropriate staffing posts in place.
NIHR will cover the costs of specific requests in line with standard NIHR funding guidelines; 100% of costs for SMEs and not-for-profit organisations and 100% of direct research costs for NHS service providers; 80% of full economic costs for HEIs.
Applicants may wish to consider working with existing NIHR-funded infrastructure, which can provide a range of expertise and support for your research.
Each applicant may only submit one application as the lead applicant. Submissions by previous applicants (whether successful or unsuccessful) are allowed.
This funding supports activities associated with the research and development of technologies for use in health and care settings or within the community where the ABI is incurred. All activities must be carried out in the UK (with the exception of specific sub-contracted services). We expect projects to focus on a single aspect of product development.
Proposals must involve one of the following:
For Fast Call 4, digital health technologies that fall under Tier A or Tier B of the NICE Evidence Standards Framework for Digital Health Technologies will also be considered if they specifically address one of the areas of interest that are in scope.
Proposed projects and activities must not overlap with or be incremental extensions of existing funded projects. However, funding may be requested to carry out work alongside an already funded research project in order to strengthen the commercial case or the case for implementation and adoption. This may, for example, include a market or healthcare pathway analysis, development of a regulatory strategy, a health economic analysis or a process evaluation. Reference to prior funding to support the case for development is expected.
The following activities may be supported by an i4i FAST award:
What i4i FAST awards will not fund
For further information, please see guidance notes here
A briefing webinar will be held for interested applicants on 18 September 2024 at 12:30 pm. For more information and to sign up to this event please visit the NIHR i4i FAST Awards Briefing Webinar eventbrite page.
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.
Book an appointment to speak to one of our advisors to discuss your eligibility to apply for this Grant Funding opportunity.
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