Tackling disease with healthcare innovations: apply for funding
Businesses can apply for a share of up to £12 million to develop or test innovative ways of diagnosing, preventing and treating disease.
Two doctors examine x-ray film. Credit: Dario Lo Presti at Shutterstock.com.
There is up to £12 million to support projects that are developing or testing out new healthcare products, technologies or processes.
This funding is available through the Biomedical Catalyst, a partnership between Innovate UK and the Medical Research Council that supports innovative opportunities in the life sciences.
Quicker, more effective healthcare
Projects in the Biomedical Catalyst could:
- help to prevent or manage chronic conditions
- lead to better detection or diagnosis of disease
- that treat disease or offer potential cures
In this funding round there are 2 competitions.
Late-stage projects
Up to £8 million is available for late-stage projects that test a well-developed concept and demonstrate its suitability in a relevant environment.
A late-stage project can include:
- initial human proof-of-concept studies
- demonstration of clinical utility and effectiveness
- demonstration of safety and efficacy. This includes phase I and II clinical trials
- developing production mechanisms
- prototyping
- market testing
- intellectual property protection
Competition information
- the competition is open, and the deadline for applications is 7 February 2018
- projects must be led by a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), working alone or with other SMEs or research organisations
- we expect projects to range in size from £200,000 to £4 million and to last between 1 and 3 years
- businesses could attract up to 70% of their project costs
Primer awards
A further £4 million is available in primer awards. This is for projects that carry out technical evaluations through to proofs of concept in a model system.
A primer project could include:
- experimental evaluation done at laboratory scale
- initial demonstration using in vitro and in vivo models. It does not include human clinical trials such as safety or efficacy
- exploring potential production mechanisms
- early-stage prototyping
- product development planning
- intellectual property protection
Competition information
- the competition is open, and the deadline for applications is 7 February 2018
- projects must be led by an SME, working alone or with other SMEs or research organisations
- we expect projects to range in size from £200,000 to £1.5 million and to last between 1 and 2 years
- businesses could attract up to 70% of their project costs