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		NIHR Central Commissioning Facility (CCF)

Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme

i4i online and on the road

The NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme is running four regional workshops between November 2008 and March 2009 with the Health Technologies KTN. The purpose of these workshops will be to provide information on the i4i Programme, including advice on submitting a proposal, and to allow delegates from a wide range of disciplines to network with a view to developing new partnerships and opportunities for subsequent calls.

Regional locations and registration details

Innovation UK, an online publication, provides a global platform for the UK’s most innovative companies, products, research and applications and highlights Britain’s delivery and success exploitation of innovative ideas. A recent article highlights the position of the i4i Programme within the UK HealthTech sector and the way in which the Programme is aiming to drive innovation within the healthcare environment.

Read the article

Visit the Innovation UK website

The Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme is bringing new investment together with two existing, successful NIHR programmes: New and Emerging Applications of Technology (NEAT) and Health Technology Devices (HTD), to improve the identification of promising healthcare technologies and accelerate the development of new healthcare products for the 21st century.

Closer links are being established between the existing product funding streams and a range of ‘ideas generators’ - including the Research Councils, Biomedical Research Centres, the NHS National Innovation Centre, the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), healthcare companies, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) - and with organisations who can take products to market including individual companies, UK Trade and Investment (UKT&I) and venture capital groups.

Programmes under The umbrella of i4i includes:

• i4i Future Product Development funding streams
• Pilot Healthcare Technology Co-operatives (HTCs)
• Challenge Fund for Innovation supporting
  • NIHR involvement in Assisted Living Innovation Platform
  • NIHR involvement in Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme
  • NIHR involvement with Medical Futures
  • NIHR involvement in MATCH PLUS project
• The migration of the New and Emerging Applications of Technology (NEAT) and Health Technology Devices (HTD) programmes into the i4i Programme

The i4i programme is stimulating the flow of new product ideas into its new funding stream – i4i Future Product Development – and is improving links to other organisations and activities across the innovation landscape by investing in them through the Challenge Fund. i4i will actively seek further new collaborations. Under i4i, current NEAT and HTD grant-holders will benefit from the same support mechanisms as being afforded through the i4i Future Product Development scheme.

FUNDING STREAMS UNDER i4i

i4i Future Product Development

The i4i Future Product Development funding stream consists of three components:

1. Future Product Development Stream 1 (FPD1) – Up to 1 year academic led investigation to determine whether a piece of prior basic research or an existing technology can be used to meet a healthcare need. There should be the potential for a device, based on the technology or technologies, to be developed through further applied R&D.

2. Future Product Development Stream 2 (FPD2) – A more detailed academic led study building on the results of a completed assessment of the feasibility, to provide further evidence of the capability to deliver improved healthcare outcomes, of technical progress and of commercial opportunities.

3. Future Product Development Stream 3 (FPD3) – Involving collaborations between industry and research partners, a more detailed study building on the results of a completed assessment of the feasibility to provide further evidence of the capability to deliver improved healthcare outcomes, of technical progress and of commercial opportunities.

The NEAT programme aims to deliver strategic and applied research across the medical sciences that have the potential to generate both intellectual property and cost-reducing products and interventions. Outputs have wide applicability and are capable of exploitation to enhance the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of health and social care. The NEAT Programme is managed by the NIHR Central Commissioning Facility.

Further information about NEAT

The Health Technology Devices Programme aims to stimulate and promote collaborative research that contributes towards the development of new technology which meets patient needs. The HTD programme focuses on supporting the development of new medical devices and healthcare technologies that are capable of exploitation by the healthcare industries. HTD Calls are invited and handled through the HTD web portal at:

www.healthtechnologyportal.org.uk

NIHR INVESTMENT IN INNOVATION

Pilot Healthcare Technology Co-operatives

Based in two NHS Trusts, the pilot Healthcare Technology Co-operatives (HTCs) being funded as part of the NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme, are a new type of NHS-led virtual organisation which will bring together a wide spectrum of stakeholders with a common purpose. These include patients and carers, academics, clinicians, nurses and other healthcare providers working in partnership with industry to catalyse the development of innovative healthcare technology products.

Read the press release

Read more about the Bowel Function Healthcare Technology Co-operative and the Devices for Dignity Healthcare Technology Co-operative (D4D-HTC).

Read more

i4i WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP

The Challenge Fund for Innovation (CFI) is one of the mechanisms whereby NIHR is stimulating the flow of good ideas which can be turned into products for the NHS. Some of these ideas are quite near market and require a different approach to those that are at an early stage and can be accommodated under Future Product Development streams. In the future NIHR may challenge industry through CFI to provide the products the NHS needs through directed calls for proposals. CFI is also gaining access to good ideas by co-investing in appropriate activities operated by other organisations such as other government departments, research councils and the private sector. NIHR’s investment can be in the form of working closely with the organisation to help set the agenda as well as contributing funds to specific projects. As of May 2008 these included:

During 2007, the Department of Health and the NIHR (via the Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme), the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) agreed to jointly fund a number of activities in the area of Assisted Living under the umbrella of the TSB-led Assisted Living Innovation Platform (ALIP). This platform was launched in November 2007 with the aim of significantly advancing the technology to meet the demand for independent living from people suffering from chronic long term conditions.

Read the press release

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP)

The KTP programme is a very successful programme which puts companies and universities in partnership. In some instances this is so that the company can build on the skills of the academic partner to create the concepts around a new product. The next step for the company is funding of the type that i4i Future Product Development can provide.

Medical Futures

Medical Futures is a competition run annually to identify promising inventions in a variety of categories. Many of the product ideas and prototypes submitted to Medical Futures are at a stage where the next step is funding of the type that i4i Future Product Development can provide.

Visit the Medical Futures website

MATCH PLUS

Multidisciplinary Assessment of Technology Centre for Healthcare (MATCH) is a research collaboration between five universities and a group of industrial partners funded by EPSRC to develop methods and models to assess the value of products from multiple perspectives.

Read more