Health

Health is critical to our wellbeing as individuals, plays a key role in societal and economic advances, and presents many opportunities for environmental impact. Innovations in health & care allow us to alleviate suffering, increase quality of life and life expectancy, and manage the needs of a changing and ageing population.

The Health sector which delivers these innovations is diverse and covers a wide range of business activities. Innovate UK Business Connect covers the whole sector by focusing on the broad sub sectors of Medicines, Medical Technology and Digital Health. The logic behind this focus is that each of the sub-sectors is a significant sector in its own right and has distinct characteristics. The Health team at Innovate UK Business Connect has considerable experience of working in these sub-sectors and of driving cross-sector working to facilitate positive change.

Our Medimap provides a dynamic representation of the UK’s end-to-end medicines supply chain covering organisations involved in the discovery, development and manufacture of medicines, as well as those supporting the sector.

Our Health Funding Map, developed with the BioIndustry Association (BIA), will help in the navigation of the complicated world of medical and health innovation funding. You can find links to, details of, and further information on many funding schemes covering a wide variety of health areas.

Our current focus in this area

The digital health and care sub-sector is characterised by a large number of small companies developing technology across the health spectrum.

Medical technologies touch all of our lives – from pregnancy testing and ultrasound scans before birth; through wound care products for childhood injuries; to diagnostic imaging systems and therapeutic implants for disease in adults.

From bioelectronic medicine that treat chronic diseases, to brain-computer interfaces that help stroke rehabilitation, neurotechnology will play an increasingly important role in meeting some of the challenges of an ageing society.

Precision Medicine aims to target the right drug, to the right patient, at the right dose and the right time. Precision Medicine is a cutting-edge field of innovation that improves disease outcome by tailoring treatments to characteristics of patients.

Microbiome science and innovation play a vital role to various sectors of the UK economy, including human health, wellbeing and agri-food. From personalised gut health solutions to nutrition, from animal health to food security and biodiversity.

The application of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to the field of health represents a major opportunity for the UK. AI is a powerful tool that can be applied across industry sectors to solve specific challenges. The application of these tools in Health requires a mutual understanding between the AI and Health communities.

Related Opportunities

Launchpad: life and health sciences, Northern Ireland – Round 2 MFA

Opens: 04/11/2024   Closes: 11/12/2024

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £4.3m for innovation activities in the life and health sciences cluster in Northern Ireland.

More Information

Launchpad: life and health sciences, Northern Ireland – Round 2 CR&D

Opens: 04/11/2024   Closes: 11/12/2024

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £4.3m for innovation activities in the life and health sciences cluster in Northern Ireland.

More Information

Investor Partnerships in health technologies, West Yorkshire: Rd 1

Opens: 04/11/2024   Closes: 11/12/2024

Grant funding for SME innovation projects, alongside investment from selected investor partners, in the health technology cluster in West Yorkshire

More Information

Mindset extended reality (XR): Digital therapeutics for mental health

Opens: 04/11/2024   Closes: 15/01/2025

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £3.7 million for R&D projects that provide digital therapeutics for mental health solutions.

More Information

Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF): Expression of Interest

EOIs accepted on a rolling basis; quarterly assessments

Capital grants to support investments over £8m in the manufacture of human medicines, medical diagnostics and medtech products; assessed quarterly

More Information

Horizon Europe Pump Priming collaboration opportunities 2024

Opens: 12/11/2024   Closes: 17/01/2025

Innovate UK and British Academy are pleased to announce funding schemes for Horizon Europe Pump Priming Grants, open to all disciplines.

More Information

Related Events and Recordings

Wed
13
Nov
2024

Adoption of preventative healthcare innovation in an evolving health and care economy

14.00 - 15.30 | Online

Watch now
Tue
17
Sep
2024

Healthy Ageing – Funding and Investment Opportunities Snapshot Webinar

14.00 - 15.00 | Online

Watch now
Fri
24
Jan
2025

Shaping the future of medical products: Data-driven innovation and regulatory perspectives from the MHRA

11.00 - 12.00 | Online

Register for this event
See all events

Our Experts

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Related programmes

Transforming Medicines Manufacturing

Transforming Medicines Manufacturing

Innovate UK’s Transforming Medicines Manufacturing programme aims to drive the de-risking and adoption of highly innovative flexible, agile and scalable manufacturing technologies through a culture of collaboration that will drive the growth of this critically important manufacturing sector.

Biomedical Catalyst

Biomedical Catalyst

Helps transform innovative ideas into commercially viable businesses.

Healthy Ageing Community of Practice

Healthy Ageing Community of Practice

The Healthy Ageing Community of Practice is a collaborative learning community for businesses, social ventures, researchers, investors and policymakers to connect and share knowledge and insights in relation to healthy ageing.

UK-Kenya Health Global Innovation Network

UK-Kenya Health Global Innovation Network

This Global Innovation Network shatters knowledge silos and ignites collaborative action. We bridge the gap between cutting-edge UK expertise and Kenyan ingenuity, co-creating accessible, affordable solutions to conquer Kenya’s cancer challenges.

Phage Innovation Network

Phage Innovation Network

Driving innovation in the regulation and development of phage-based technologies for applications across multiple sectors, ensuring the UK maintains its strong stance on tackling antimicrobial resistance and solidifies its position as a world leader in phage research.

Medimap: End-to-end medicines supply chain map

Medimap: End-to-end medicines supply chain map

Medimap is a new interactive reference tool for the UK medicines sector, mapping and categorising over 3,000 sites of organisations engaged in or supporting the end-to-end supply chain for medicines.

Health Funding Map

Health Funding Map

The map was developed by Innovate UK Business Connect and the BioIndustry Association (BIA) with the help of a wide range of funders. It helps in the navigation of the complicated world of health innovation funding.

For general enquiries regarding our Health sector contact us now

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