Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI)

The new SBRI is a cross-government programme for the procurement of technology development projects including the demonstration and evaluation of new technologies. The Department of Health is currently running a pilot SBRI competition in Healthcare Associated Infections in conjunction with the Technology Strategy Board.

Purpose

• The purpose of the SBRI programme is to fund separately the feasibility and demonstration stages of technology development.
• The benefit to the Department and to the NHS is to make new developments available faster and more effectively.
• The supplier benefits by having revenue to cover development costs and by working with an interested, long-term customer.
• SBRI is intended to be particularly beneficial to early-stage businesses.

Funding

• Projects will be in two phases:
  • Phase 1 is intended to show the technical feasibility of the proposed concept,and will be for a maximum of £100,000 per project. We aim to fund several Phase 1 projects in each topic area, each lasting for six months.
  • Phase 2 is intended to develop and evaluate prototypes or demonstration units of the more promising technologies, and will be typically in the range £250,000 to £750,000 per project.
• Funding will be via a contract for the supply of services and will cover 100% of project costs.

Process

• The pilot competition is now live and is being managed under the NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme; it is envisaged that future competitions will take place at a frequency of several per year.
• Details of the Invitation to Tender, Application Form, Guidance Notes and Technical Specification are available here.
• Applications will be subject to an initial scrutiny by a sub-panel. Applications which are successful at the scrutiny stage will be considered by an assessment panel.
• As a condition of funding, all awardees will be required to submit an ‘end-of-contract’ report that will be collated into a publicly available report.

Selection Criteria

• Applications will judged on the fit of the proposal to the requirements outlined in the specification, the quality and track record of the team, the quality of the project plan, evidence of freedom to operate, an understanding of the risks that are being taken, and value for money.
• More detailed selection criteria are available in the SBRI Guidance Notes.

Eligibility

• Any company based in the European Union may apply. We particularly welcome applications from small, early-stage businesses but this is not a selection criterion.
• Contracts will be with a single, commercial supplier organisation. Consortia can be formed but must deal through a single entity.
• In order to streamline the process, feedback to unsuccessful applicants will only be available on request after the contracts with successful suppliers are in place.

Please follow this link to Calls and Competitions

Please follow this link to the Guidance Documents