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.
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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
Related Opportunities
EUP OHAMR 2026 transnational call: New treatments to tackle Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
Opens: 18/11/2025 Closes: 02/02/2026
International call to explore new "Treatments and adherence to treatment protocols" to tackle AMR, total call budget of over 31 million Euro.
More Information
Biomedical Catalyst 2025: Industry led R&D large projects
Opens: 10/11/2025 Closes: 10/12/2025
UK registered micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can apply for a share of up to £25 million for the development of innovative solutions to health and healthcare challenges. This funding is from Innovate UK.
More Information
Biomedical Catalyst 2025: Industry led R&D small projects
Opens: 10/11/2025 Closes: 10/12/2025
UK registered micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can apply for a share of up to £25 million for the development of innovative solutions to health and healthcare challenges. This funding is from Innovate UK.
More Information
ARIA: Bioenergetic Engineering - Precision Mitochondria
Opens: 07/10/2025 Closes: 15/01/2026
Backed by at least £55m, this programme aims to create a foundational toolkit for engineering the mitochondrial genome in vivo.
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Microbiome Engineering for Resilience and Performance
Opens: 29/10/2025 Closes: 05/12/2025
The Innovation Exchange (iX) Programme is supporting Dstl to find innovators who can help to enhance the resilience and/or performance of UK Defence personnel using microbiome engineering.
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Women in Innovation Awards 2025/26
Opens: 26/11/2025 Closes: 04/02/2026
Women founders or co-founders of UK registered SMEs can apply for a package of support that includes a grant of up to £75,000 and bespoke business support, to further their ambitious growth plans.
More Information
Related Events and Recordings
Tue
2
Dec
2025
Opportunities in the 2026 European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder Scheme
10.00 - 15.00 | Online
Register for this event
Fri
28
Nov
2025
EUP OHAMR 2026 call: New treatments to tackle Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) – UK webinar and drop in sessions briefing
11.00 - 12.00 | Online
Recording coming soon
Thu
27
Nov
2025
Addiction Healthcare Goals - Tackling addiction by catalysing innovation
09.30 - 16.30 | London
Recording coming soon
Our Experts
Related News
01/09/2025
New round of Accelerators to support health and life science innovation
Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst continues to lead the way in supporting UK-based health and life science innovators, offering a powerful combination of access to funding, mentorship, and ecosystem support to accelerate the journey from concept to commercialisation.
Read more
13/08/2025
Enhancing weight management support in the UK
Yesterday, the government and Lilly announced a health innovation programme of up to £85m, delivered by Innovate UK, to demonstrate new weight management pathways in the community. The UK government will contribute up to £50m in new UK-wide investment through the Obesity Healthcare Goals programme, managed by Innovate UK, with up to £35m of grant funding coming from Lilly.
Read more
23/07/2025
Healthy Living and Agriculture Review 2025 - A focus on Healthy Lives
Helping people live longer and more fulfilling lives by maintaining health and wellbeing in both mind and body.
Read more
Related programmes
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
Accelerating the translation of innovative ideas and discoveries into healthcare solutions that improve lives. The Biomedical Catalyst transforms innovative ideas into commercially viable businesses. It delivers sector growth, de-risks innovation and gets companies investment ready.
Healthy Lives Community of Practice
The Healthy Lives Community of Practice is a collaborative network to connect and share knowledge and health related insights – helping people to live longer, healthier, happier lives.
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
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 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
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.