MedTech
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.
The range of products and services is vast, spanning medical devices and in-vitro diagnostics, and overlaps with medicines (through drug delivery systems) and with digital health (through software as a medical device).
The sector is therefore highly diverse, dominated in the UK by resource-constrained SMEs, and the individual segments can to some extent, be viewed as separate industries. But they’re bound together by some common elements – a shared regulatory framework; an increasing convergence of technologies (particularly in connected devices); and a drive to deliver innovation. They also face some common challenges – these include a complex innovation and funding landscape; regulatory change; and a need to improve sustainability.
Innovate UK Business Connect can help innovators to navigate the complex landscape and accelerate ambitious ideas into new products and services. Our team of trusted experts, from within the Health team and across the wider range of disciplines in which we have deep expertise, can help create diverse connections to drive positive change.
Related Opportunities
Global Incubator Programme: Canada - AI for Health
Opens: 14/04/2025 Closes: 01/06/2025
Delivered by Innovate UK, in partnership with MaRS, this Global Incubator Programme (GIP) provides an opportunity for UK-based companies to expand into the North American market and collaborate with one of the world’s largest innovation hubs for AI and healthcare.
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Global Business Innovation Programme: Digital Health, USA
Opens: 22/04/2025 Closes: 08/06/2025
Innovate UK seeks up to 15 ambitious UK small businesses (with under 250 employees) who want to explore digital health opportunities in the USA.
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Global Incubator Programme: USA (Houston) Healthtech – Medical Devices - 2025
Opens: 14/04/2025 Closes: 30/05/2025
Delivered in partnership with the Texas Medical Center Innovation (TMCi), Houston, USA and supported by the Department for Business & Trade (DBT), this Global Incubator Programme (GIP) will give medical device companies the opportunity to explore and exploit collaborative innovation and growth o
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Horizon Europe 2025 work programme Cluster 1: Health
Opens: 03/05/2025 Closes: 16/09/2025
Topics available under Horizon Europe’s Health programme for 2025/26, with funding of up to €20m per project.
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Innovation Exchange challenge: Detecting Nitrous Oxide levels in maternity wards
Opens: 28/04/2025 Closes: 06/06/2025
Hull University Teaching Hospitals seek innovators who can provide a solution to allow them to monitor and display levels of nitrous gases in their clinical suites in real time.
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Contracts for Innovation: READ-OUT digital cognitive dementia assessments
Opens: 14/04/2025 Closes: 14/05/2025
Organisations can apply for a single award of up to £600,000, inclusive of VAT, to implement and assess a dementia based digital cognitive assessment (DCA) to be evaluated as part of the READ-OUT study being managed by the University of Oxford.
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Related Events and Recordings
Related News
24/07/2024
£3.2m funding awarded to advance early-stage healthcare innovation
Thirty-three companies, which took part in Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst pilot accelerators, have been awarded funding to further develop their innovative projects.
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16/05/2024
Project to detect hidden signs of osteoporosis gets Innovate UK funding
Naitive Technologies has secured funding from Innovate UK’s Advancing Precision Medicine programme to develop its technology which aims to find patients at risk of osteoporosis during routine, otherwise unrelated, hip or pelvis X-rays.
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Related programmes
Biomedical Catalyst
Helps transform innovative ideas into commercially viable businesses.
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.
Neurotechnology Landscape
Neurotechnology is the application of electronics and engineering to the human nervous system and ranges from the measurement of the whole brain through technologies such as electroencephalography to the stimulation of a single nerve using bioelectronic medicines.