Funding & Opportunities

Do you have an idea that you want to develop into a realised design, a prototype that requires market testing or a product without a clear route to market then the Innovation Clinic might be for you!

Innovation Clinic – Morgan Innovation & Technology

Support offered: During the one hour session, innovators will get the opportunity to discuss their specific challenges with experts from Morgan IAT and Wessex AHSN with a view to identifying solutions and accelerating time to market.

Stage of innovation: Whether you’re at the early idea stage or feel that you’ve taken your product as far as you can on your own and need a bit of outside help, the Innovation Clinic might be just what you need to help steer you in the right direction.

Application deadline: 27/01/2020

A search has been launched during World Antibiotic Awareness Week to find innovative technologies that will support health and social care workers to overcome the challenges of tackling antimicrobial resistance.

Preventing infections and reducing antimicrobial resistance

Support offered: The successful innovators from the call will receive bespoke assistance and a financial award from the AHSN NENC and the Innovation Super Network and will be guided through the Innovation Pathway to develop the solutions.

Open to: Applications from innovators from all areas, whether businesses, individuals, universities, NHS teams or charities – who are interested in forming collaborations to develop solutions to the challenges posed by antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Application deadline: 31/01/2020

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

We are encouraging local women with any business ideas or side hustles to come along and learn about how we can help them to found a business and grow into commercial success.

Back Her Business

Support offered: A free programme to help women formed businesses access world class business support, which includes workshops, coaching and mentoring from our expert advisors, as well as support to launch a crowdfunding campaign.

Open to: Back Her Business is open to UK residents with new UK projects.

Application deadline: 03/02/2020

Emerging Minds is a UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) funded research network which aims to facilitate research with the potential to reduce the prevalence of mental health problems experienced by children and young people.

Emerging Minds Network Funding Call

Support offered: Up to £40k funding and short term cross-sector placements for early career researchers, a mentoring programme, events and workshops as well as a regular newsletter.

Stage of innovation: Research activities with the potential to generate future research opportunities and secure more substantive funding.

Open to: Funding is available for collaborations across disciplines and sectors. However, consistent with UKRI guidelines, the project lead or one of the co-leads must be based at a UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) as the funding can only be directly transferred to a UK HEI.

Application deadline: 21/02/2020

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 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

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