Overview

i4i Product Development Awards (PDA) support translational research and development of medical devices, in vitro diagnostics and high-impact patient-focused digital health technologies for ultimate NHS use. The research proposals may address any disease or health area, provided there is a clear unmet clinical need. There is no upper funding limit for Product Development Awards, but costs must be fully justified.

Award Specifications

All proposals must meet the essential requirements of the i4i programme.

• Projects must have already demonstrated proof of concept as a minimum. Applicants are expected to have generated experimental data to support the case for further development and illustrate technical feasibility. Early stage research or discovery science is not fundable.
• A collaboration comprising a minimum of two organisations must be involved from an NHS service provider, a Higher Education Institution (HEI) or a small-to-medium-sized enterprise (SME). Eligible collaborations must consist of at least two organisations from the above list (for example, an NHS service provider with an SME).
• Lead applicants must be based in England.
• Work packages must not include animal or animal tissue studies. If animal or animal tissue studies are required as part of the project, we expect applicants to seek parallel funding to cover such studies, details of which should be provided in the application form.
• Proposals must set out a commercial strategy that takes into account the regulatory pathway, IP management, commercial barriers, health economics and route to market.
• Proposals must present a plan for future adoption of the technology into the NHS. Applicants should be aware of the recently published NHS MedTech Funding Mandate policy (.PDF) which came into effect on 1 April 2021 to help overcome the financial barriers to adopting medical devices, diagnostics and digital products in the NHS.
• Projects can be of a maximum duration of 3 years. There is no upper funding limit, but all costs must be sufficiently justified and proposals must indicate good value for money.

Eligibility

For all i4i awards the lead organisation must be based in England. The lead organisation may be any of the types of eligible organisation listed below. The following types of organisations are eligible for funding:

• SMEs (including start-up or ‘spin-out’ companies);
• NHS service providers (including Trusts, community care providers, and tertiary care centres);
• Universities, research institutes and not-for-profit organisations.

For projects to be eligible they must include a collaboration of at least two organisations. For example, applications which involve partnerships between a university and its associated NHS Trust, or an SME and an NHS service provider, are considered eligible collaborations. If support for a clinical trial is requested, one of the partners must be an NHS organisation which has agreed to be the sponsor of the trial.