Funding & Opportunities

Together with the University of the West of England, we run the Health Tech Accelerator Programme to provide up to 12 hours of free business support to small and medium-sized enterprises in the health and life science sector.

Health Tech Accelerator Programme

Support offered: Mentoring and business support (including planning and strategy, financial advice, market research, IP advice and bid writing); sector specific expertise; networking & academic/ industry collaboration opportunities

Stage of innovation: Any

Open to: Start-ups and SMEs based in the West of England who are looking to further develop novel products or services for the health and life science sector

Application deadline: Ongoing

Many entrepreneurs find the NHS business landscape difficult to navigate – that’s why we’ve created a training programme specifically addressing the needs of healthcare innovators and covering core skills in entrepreneurship.

Health Innovation Programme

Support offered: An intensive, fully-funded, four-day personal development course, our Health Innovation Programme has been running since 2015, delivering high quality coaching, mentoring and personal development support.

Stage of innovation: Innovative business propositions that have real potential for health and care. This could be a product or service already in development or simply the germ of an idea but the concept must be realisable into a sustainable business model/proposition and you will need to be genuinely passionate about taking your proposition forward.

Open to: Priority will be given to applicants employed in the West of England AHSN geographical boundaries which covers Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, Bath, North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire. Applications from Wessex AHSN and South West AHSN geographical boundaries will also be considered.

Application deadline: 01/03/2020

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Award is run by the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) in partnership with NHSX and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). It will make £140million available over three years to accelerate the testing and evaluation of the most promising AI technologies which meet the strategic aims set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award

Support offered: £140million will be available over three years to accelerate the testing and evaluation of the most promising AI technologies which meet the strategic aims set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Stage of innovation: The Award will support technologies across the spectrum of development: from initial feasibility to evaluation within the NHS. Initially, it will focus on four key areas: screening, diagnosis, decision support and improving system efficiency.

Application deadline: 04/03/2020

The British Council and Bristol Cultural Development Partnership today launched a call for applications for the second round of Social Innovation Grants for people in Bristol to explore international partnerships and projects as part of Festival of Ideas 2020.

Social Innovation Grants – Bristol

Support offered: A grant of up to £1000

Open to: Applicants must live in or be based in Bristol. Those applying on behalf of an organisation are eligible only if the organisation has an annual turnover of less than £500,000.

Application deadline: 06/03/2020

The Health Foundation has announced a new £2.1m programme for partnerships developing collaborative communities where people, families, health care professionals and researchers work together to improve health care.

The Common Ambition programme

Support offered: Successful partnerships will receive funding of between £300,000 and £500,000 for two to three years. Successful teams will be provided with a bespoke package of support – which could include coaching, training, facilitation and learning events – worth between £30,000 and £50,000. This will help teams to learn and apply collaborative working approaches and design their partnerships to achieve clear measurable outcomes.

Open to: Funding is available to collaborations between providers of NHS services and voluntary or community sector organisations, such as charities or social enterprises.

Application deadline: 20/03/2020

The Ready Steady Go and Hello programmes help empower young people and adults to manage their healthcare by equipping them with the skills, knowledge and confidence to manage their condition by using a structured framework to facilitate discussion and education.

Ready, Steady, Go & Hello Study Day: ​Delivering Patient Empowerment, Shared Decision Making & Transition

Support offered: Familiarise participants with the tools that can help deliver high quality sustainable healthcare for patients and families from childhood, through transition and into adult services. Discuss the psychosocial impacts of living with a long term condition and explore strategies to address these issues. Share examples of good practice and resources and identify areas that require additional resource development.

Open to: Anyone involved with patient care in both children and adult services:- the multi-disciplinary team, commissioners, representatives of patient groups, service leads, NHS decision makers.

Application deadline: 22/03/2020

Ethical Healthcare Consulting CIC are proud to offer the Minerva leadership programme, aimed at women in middle to senior positions working in a digital health and care environment who have the drive and ambition to make a difference and aspire to a more senior professional leadership role.

Minerva

Support offered: A self-reflective understanding and acceptance of your unique leadership style and strengths. The critical skills and insight into how you can develop as a leader now, and in the future. Personalised leadership coaching sessions. A place on all eight one-day modules throughout 2020-21. An introduction to action learning which will enable you to address complicated issues by working collaboratively. Lifelong membership of the Minerva alumni network.

Open to: Minerva is for women working in health technology or health and care data environment, who aspire to lead. You might come from a wide range of professional disciplines, for example you might be a programme manager, clinician, senior business analyst, developer, comms expert and so the list goes on – what’s more important is that you have the right appetite for a focused senior leaders development programme and a drive to succeed.

Application deadline: 17/04/2020

Opportunity to apply for a share of up to £25 million to deliver ambitious or disruptive R&D innovations that can make a significant impact on the UK economy.

Innovate UK Smart Grants: January 2020

Support offered: Duration between 6 and 18 months and total eligible project costs between £25,000 and £500,000: can be single or collaborative. Duration between 19 and 36 months and total eligible project costs between £25,000 and £2 million: must be collaborative.

Open to: Application must include at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME). Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy.

Application deadline: 22/04/2020

SETsquared’s Scale-Up Programme will invest £100k+ into R&D project proposal development for a significant number of open and themed One Health funds including Bio/Med tech focused on disease prevention, precision medicine and other novel medical solutions.

One Health Campaign

Support offered: Funding of up to £35k per project to help develop collaborative R&D proposals bids.

Stage of innovation: R&D project proposal development

Open to: Academics (from the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey), companies and consortia, including companies and academics.

Application deadline: Ongoing

The Wellcome Trust is awarding up to £750,000 support researchers who are transforming great ideas into healthcare innovations that could have a significant impact on human health.

Wellcome Trust Innovator Awards

Support offered: Up to £500,000, or up to £750,000 for multidisciplinary collaborations. Usually up to 24 months, or up to 36 months for multidisciplinary collaborations.

Stage of innovation: Any

Open to: Innovator Awards are open to researchers who are developing healthcare innovations that could have a major and measurable impact on human health. Individuals and teams from not-for-profit and commercial organisations can apply. Organisations can be of any size, based anywhere in the world.

Application deadline: Ongoing

The NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme supports the preclinical and clinical development of medical devices in areas of existing or emerging patient need.

i4i Product Development Awards Call 2019

Support offered: The aim of the Invention for Innovation (i4i) programme is to de-risk early stage projects that have a strong potential for commercialisation and acceptance for use in the NHS, making them attractive to follow-on funders and investors. i4i funds collaborative research projects that have demonstrated proof-of-principle and have a clear pathway towards adoption and commercialisation.

Stage of innovation: i4i Product Development Awards (PDA) support innovations at any stage of the translational research and development pathway, including the clinical development of laboratory-validated technologies or interventions.

Application deadline: Ongoing

If you are interested in Health Economics, Transformational Leadership, Collaborative Management, Efficient Working and Entrepreneurship then you are an ideal candidate for The HELM Programme.

Health Economic Leadership Management

Support offered: Training and support surrounding Health Economics, Transformational Leadership, Collaborative Management, Efficient Working and Entrepreneurship.

Stage of innovation: No innovation necessary.

Open to: NHS Employees

Application deadline: Ongoing

The Bristol Industrial PhD Placement Fund is supported by the EPSRC National Productivity Investment Fund. It encourages innovative, creative and collaborative ways for PhD students to experience working within industry and gaining new skills.

Bristol Industrial PhD Placement Fund

Support offered: PhD students who take on a placement will be able to apply their technical, research and professional skills across different contexts outside of academia.

Open to: Any external organisation aligning with the EPSRC Industrial Strategy challenge in one of the 9 selected areas.

Application deadline: Ongoing

If you are a business with ambitions to grow, the introduction of innovation into your strategy, culture and management can deliver real results.

Innovate2Succeed

Support offered: A range of business support, from access to funding and design thinking to leadership and management and entrepreneurial culture.

Open to: Any business looking to develop new products or technologies or take existing products or services to new customers or markets.

Application deadline: Ongoing

Supporting businesses, academia and healthcare providers to collaborate and innovate positive change for the benefit of patients, the NHS and the economy.

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Application deadline: Ongoing