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

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.

More Information

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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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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Related Events and Recordings

Tue
4
Mar
2025

Developing new sustainability standards in medicines manufacturing

10.00 - 11.00 | Online

Watch now
Thu
10
Apr
2025

Obesity pathway innovation sandpit series

10.00 - 16.30 | London

Read more
Wed
2
Apr
2025

Transforming Medicines Manufacturing - seeing success through innovation and collaboration

09.00 - 16.30 | Manchester

Read more
See all events

Our Experts

Related News

Innovate UK championing sustainable innovations in medicines manufacturing

07/03/2025

Innovate UK championing sustainable innovations in medicines manufacturing

Innovate UK’s Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation programme (SMMIP) focuses on industry-led innovation towards more sustainable medicines manufacturing in the UK.

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ME, chronic fatigue syndrome and long Covid project receives Innovate UK funding

08/05/2024

ME, chronic fatigue syndrome and long Covid project receives Innovate UK funding

PrecisionLife has received an Advancing Precision Medicine grant from Innovate UK to investigate the causes of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and long Covid.

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Project to detect hidden signs of osteoporosis gets Innovate UK funding

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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

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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