Funding

We have listed below some of the key funding calls (mainly grants) that are applicable to companies in UK healthcare. For more information, please contact us.

Upcoming Funding Calls

Current Funding Calls

NIHR Challenge: Maternity Inequalities

Funder: NIHR

Opened: 13 March 2024

Closes: 22 May 2024

Sector: Healthcare

Funding: £50 million

The first ever NIHR Challenge funding call, backed by £50 million, will task researchers and policymakers with finding new ways to tackle maternity disparities.

This funding call will bring together a diverse consortium, funding research and capacity building. The aim is to increase the evidence base to address maternity inequalities, facilitating a multidisciplinary whole systems approach to address uncertainties across research, innovation and implementation.

The stage 1 process will invite organisations to apply to join the consortium. Successful organisations will come together at stage 2 to develop the work programme including large scale ambitious projects which lead to a step change and measurable improvement in maternity inequalities. Selected organisations forming the consortium will also be expected to draw in wider expertise, such as practitioners, charities, industry, implementation, and systems experts to ensure geographical spread and that research is undertaken where the need is greatest.

More information.

Programme Development Grants - Competition 39

Funder: NIHR

Opened: 27 March 2024

Closes: 1pm 22 May 2024

Sector: Healthcare

Programme Development Grants are available for researchers to undertake preparatory work to develop a future programme of research (Stream A).

PDGs are also available for researchers to develop and enhance the quality and value of an ongoing or recently completed Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) award (Stream B)

NIHR PDG and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) highlight for child health and wellbeing research (Stream B)

The scope of the call includes but is not limited to safeguarding, disability/neuro-disability, community child health and care, mental health in children and young people, health inequalities, social care and public health issues, and obesity. In recognition that significant development work will be required to formulate a competitive programme of applied research, development awards will first be made available via the NIHR Programme Development Grants programme (Stream A only) to enable national multi sector and multi-professional research teams to be formed and/or existing teams to be consolidated and strengthened, and to undertake preparatory research work.

Applications to the PDG RCPCH Stream A highlight notice can be for up to £250,000 and over a period of 12 to 18 months.

More information.

Invention for Innovation - Product Development Awards Call 28

Funder: NIHR

Opened: 10 April 202

Closes: 1pm, 29 May 2024

Sector: Healthcare & Life Sciences

The i4i Product Development Awards (PDA) supports collaborative research and development of medical devices, in vitro diagnostic devices and high-impact patient-focused digital health technologies for use in the NHS or social care systems. PDA are researcher-led and aim to de-risk innovations, supporting early product development and real-world evaluation, to make them more attractive for follow-on funding and further commercial investment. The expected focus of a PDA project is to:

carry out product development required to enable technologies for clinical use or use in social care,
carry out the clinical development of a laboratory-validated technology, and/or
accelerate the development and uptake of innovative products, which already have demonstrated safety and efficacy.

The aim is to accelerate benefits to patients and end users, de-risk the technologies and make them attractive to follow-on funders, investors and buyers, in particular NHS commissioners and national guidance bodies. Projects must have demonstrated proof-of-concept as a minimum, which is generally described as TRL3. A minimum of two organisations must be involved.

More information.

NHS Cancer Programme Innovation Open Call 3

Funder: SBRI Healthcare

Opened: 8th April 2024
Closes: 1pm 29 May 2024

Sector: Healthcare/ Life Sciences

Applications are invited for innovations or new approaches that will detect cancers earlier and increase the proportion diagnosed at stage one or two.

The competition aims to fast-track high quality, proven, late-stage innovations into front-line settings, as well as address implementation evidence gaps. Innovations will be 100% funded up to the total value of £4 million (excluding VAT) over a maximum of 24 months.
More information.

Transforming Prediction and Early Diagnosis in the Community

Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Opened: 19 March 2024

Closes:4pm 29 May 2024

Sector: Healthcare

Apply for funding to develop novel tools and technologies for patient-specific prediction, early and accurate diagnosis of physical and mental health conditions for use in the community.

Projects should engage relevant partners to ensure the research is co-created and co-delivered. Projects should contribute to tackling health inequalities and embed equitable, diverse, and inclusive patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE).

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £2,500,000. EPSRC will fund 80% of the FEC (up to £2,000,000). Projects can be up to 36 months.

More information.

Advancing Healthcare Large Grants

Funder: Barts Charity

Open

Closes: 06 June 2024

Sector: Healthcare

The Advancing Healthcare Large Grants provide funding (£50,000 to £500,000) for NHS staff to pilot new ideas, technologies and ways of working within Barts Health NHS Trust that could advance healthcare delivery and improve the health of its local community. At least one applicant must be employed by Barts for the duration of the proposed work.
Duration of funding - up to 36 months.

More information.

Enhancing biomedical and health-related data and digital platform resources

Funders: Medical Research Council, NIHR

Open: 9 April 2024

Closes: 4pm 18 June 2024

Sector: Health & life sciences

Apply for data and digital platform resources that will support, manage, link, share and access data at scale for biomedical, health and care research within the remit of MRC, NIHR or both. Maximum award £3,750,000 (out of a total fund of £15 million)

Applications should be for work that includes:

enhancing platforms, environments and their operations
capabilities for users, for example data ingress or egress tools, analytics
mechanisms to manage findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable (FAIR Principles) data
technical approaches to managing interface between secure health and social care data and biomedical research data
unique linkage of health and related datasets, for example research generated data, environmental, administrative, and wearable data.

Applicants should be a researcher or specialist employed by an eligible research organisation. This includes eligible individuals with roles or job titles such as Research Software Engineer.

The duration of awards is up to five years. The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £3,750,000. MRC and NIHR will fund 80% of the FEC.

More information.

New Innovators in digital technology, North East England

Funders: Innovate UK/ North East LEP/ North of Tyne Combined Authority

Opened: 7 May 2024

Closes: 11am 19 June 2024

Sector: All, including health

The project’s total costs and grant funding request must be between £25,000 and £50,000 and must last for 3-6 months (ending by 31 March 2025). If your business has been funded directly by Innovate UK previously, you are not eligible to be offered funding through this competition. An eligible UK business can submit one application only.

Your project must use the funding to help grow your innovation activities in the digital technology cluster in North East England, both during and after the project.

For this competition, North East England consists of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and County Durham.

Your innovation can lead to new products, processes or services that are significantly ahead of others currently available, or propose an innovative use of existing products, processes or services. It can also involve a new or innovative business model.

More information here.

New Innovators in life and health sciences, Northern Ireland

Funders: Innovate UK/ Invest Northern Ireland

Opened: 7 May 2024

Closes: 11am 19 June 2024

Sector: Health & life sciences

The project’s total costs and grant funding request must be between £25,000 and £50,000 and it must last 3-6 months, ending no later than 31 March 2025. If your business has been funded directly by Innovate UK previously, you are not eligible to be offered funding through this competition. Only one application per SME.

The project can focus on one or more of the following (not an exhaustive list):

diagnostics
therapeutics
biomarkers
data, digital and medical devices, including for healthcare delivery planning
technologies that support the supply chain for life and health sciences.

More information here.

NIHR Incubator competition 2024

Funder: NIHR

Opened: 20 March 2024

Closes: 1pm 20 June 2024

Sector: Healthcare & Life sciences

NIHR Incubators offer the opportunity to delve into the complex issues and barriers that exist in capacity building in a particular area by the community who are embedded in and who have forged careers in these areas. The funding enables a community to bring together key stakeholders to suggest and implement solutions to building research capacity and developing research careers in a sustainable and meaningful way. Their focus will be on building academic research capacity in terms of attracting and retaining people in the area of interest, but there should be consideration of a broad spectrum of research careers.

NIHR particularly encourages applications for Incubators that focus on the following areas/disciplines (please see the guidance notes for further information):

Knowledge Mobilisation Research
General Paediatrics and moving research across the age range

Please note, only the top-ranked application will be funded in each of the highlight notice areas. Applicants are asked not to propose an Incubator in areas/disciplines where there is currently an NIHR-supported Incubator. A list of the 10 current Incubators can be found here.

NIHR Incubators are for a 3 year period and will receive:

NIHR badging and support for 3 years, including the opportunity for all Incubator Leads to meet regularly
£30,000 funding per annum (over the 3 year Incubator period) to cover some or all of the cost of a project manager/admin support post
£10,000 per annum (over the 3 year Incubator period) for additional engagement activities

Guidance notes.

Future Leaders Fellowships: round 9, business and non-academic

Funder: UKRI

Opened: 7 March 2024

Closes: 11am 25 June 2024

Sector: All

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £110 million for ambitious research and innovation projects in any sector, and tailored support to develop careers for future leaders.

The aim of this competition is to:

support ambitious research and innovation to tackle difficult and novel challenges
support excellence in innovation, across interdisciplinary boundaries and sectors
develop, retain, and attract the next wave of research and innovation leaders

Working with a host organisation a Future Leaders Fellow will receive at least four years of funding to pursue an ambitious programme of innovation. The fellow will also have access to tailored opportunities and resources to develop their career as a future leader in their field. The Future Leaders Fellowships programme is open to all early-career innovators and researchers.

Your project’s total grant funding request must be between £300,000 and £3 million.

Eligibility criteria.

Knowledge transfer partnerships (KTP): 2024 to 2025 Round 2

Funder: Innovate UK

Opened: 15 April 2024

Closes: 11am 26 June 2024

Sector: All

Led by an UK higher education (HE) or further education (FE) institution, research and technology organisation (RTO) or Catapult., your application must be for a specific, strategic innovation project that tackles one or more challenges faced by the business partner.

It can be any kind of project and must show:

why the business needs this Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)
what new knowledge is required by the business
what new capabilities will be embedded as a result of the KTP.

Typically, a project’s total costs are £8,500 per month. Projects must be between 12 and 36 months. A proportion of the knowledge base partners’ costs will be funded by Innovate UK. The remainder of the project costs are paid by the business partner.

More information here.

Research Programme for Social Care (RPSC)

Funder: NIHR/ HTA

Opened: 6 March 2024

Closes: 26 June 2024

Sector: Healthcare/ Social Care

The aim of RPSC is to fund research that generates evidence to increase the effectiveness of social care services, provides value for money and benefits people who need or use social care services, and carers. Research will cover both adults and children's social care.

RPSC welcomes high-quality proposals from researchers and practitioners that are focused on but not limited to:

Studies of social care needs, circumstances and relevant outcomes related to adults, children or young people who need or use social care and carers, including studies of inequalities in any of these domains
Evaluation of existing or new social care services, addressing their effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and distributional consequences
Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness evaluations of interventions, including adaptations or refinements of existing interventions/technologies
Developing and testing new assessments, interventions or services
Research methods development
Feasibility, pilot and definitive trials
Research examining consequences for social care users of provision of other services (e.g., health, education, criminal justice, family courts, housing, benefits)
Policy-implementation research
Studies that involve secondary data analysis or record linkage
Systematic or other reviews of evidence
Strategies for preventing or delaying the need for care and support
Research on approaches to support and strengthen the social care workforce
Capacity-building opportunities within awards

The Programme does not have a budget limit for individual projects. Teams need to propose a budget that is appropriate for the proposed work packages, project duration, resources, public involvement, equality, diversity and inclusion strategy, and collaborations. Please note that value for money will still be one of the key criteria of assessment.” The total programme fund is £10m.

The NIHR RPSC team are hosting a webinar for RPSC Call 2 at 10am to 12pm on 04 April 2024. You can register here.

More information.

Advancing Healthcare Small Grants

Funder: Barts Charity

Open

Closes: 27 June 2024

Advancing Healthcare Small Grants provide funding of up to £50,000 for NHS staff to pilot new ideas, technologies and ways of working within Barts Health NHS Trust that could advance healthcare delivery and improve the health of its local community. At least one applicant must be employed by Barts for the duration of the proposed work. This grant can be applied for 4 times a year. Duration of funding - 18 months.

More information.

Sector: Healthcare

NIHR Research for Patient Benefit programme (Competition 54)

Funder: NIHR

Opened: 13 March 2024

Closes: 1pm 10 July 2024

Sector: Healthcare & Life sciences

The NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) programme is inviting stage 1 applications for research proposals that are concerned with the day-to-day practice of health service staff, and that have the potential to have an impact on the health or wellbeing of patients and users of the NHS.

As a researcher-led programme, RfPB does not specify topics for research but instead encourages proposals for projects that address a wide range of health service issues and challenges.

The funding available for individual projects is up to £500,000 for up to 36 months. Feasibility studies are expected to cost less than £300,000 (Tier 2), and proposals that will generate results that might be useful for more downstream investigations are expected to cost less than £200,000 (Tier 3). RfPB has a two stage application process.

More information.

Women in Innovation Award 2024/25

Funder: Innovate UK

Opened: 13 May 2024

Closes: 11am 10 July 2024

Sector: All

Women within UK registered micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can apply for a share of up to £4 million to develop their exciting and innovative ideas. The £75,000 grant also includes bespoke business support. This competition is open to single applicants only.

To lead a project you must be a woman founder, co-founder or senior decision maker within a UK registered SME that has been registered on Companies House for at least 12 months.

More information.

UK-Taiwan CRD 2024

Funder: Innovate UK

Opened: 08 April 2024

Closes: 17 July 2024

Sectors: Biotech, Green energy, AI, smart manufacturing

The aim of this competition is to fund business led, collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research, for innovative proposals developed between the UK and Taiwan.

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £5 million (maximum £900,000 each) for the purpose of developing innovative proposals with Taiwan. You must collaborate with at least one Taiwan business applying under the equivalent DoIT programme.

The projects Innovate UK fund are expected to result in a new product, industrial process or service, be innovative, involve a technological risk, and have high market potential.

It would particularly welcome applications from the following sectors:

smart technology, for example next generation communication, semiconductor technology and space technology
green energy technologies, for example electric vehicles, hydrogen transportation, renewable energy, future grids and carbon capture utilisation and storage
smart manufacturing
biotechnology, for example medical materials and devices
service innovation, for example the Internet of Things, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, 5G and 6G

More information.

Digital technology enabled interventions in Social Care

Funder: HTA/ NIHR

Opened: 22 March 2024

Closes: 1pm 24 July 2024

Sector: Social care

This Programme is accepting Stage 1 applications to their commissioned workstream for this research topic. Applications received by the advertised closing date will be considered at a first-stage funding committee meeting, and successful applicants will then be invited to submit a Stage 2 application. Applicants will have 8 weeks to complete and submit their Stage 2 application form.

This funding opportunity is eligible for a SWAT/SWAR (study within a trial or study within a review), which can help significantly improve methodology of future research as well as the host study.

Thee is a webinar to discuss the HTA Programme's current funding opportunities in social care on 21 May 2024, 12pm to 1.15pm. Applicants may register to attend just the webinar by emailing their name and institution to htaresearchers@nihr.ac.uk

The HTA Programme is interested in proposals for the evaluation of a wide range of digital technologies for social care across both children and adult services, including, but not limited to:

digital applications for promoting behaviour change to prevent deterioration of a specific long-term condition or improve general wellbeing
technologies designed to improve the personal safety and/or well-being of people who draw on care and support services and carers, e.g. technologies aimed at preventing falls or alerting carers to a fall, geographical positioning systems (GPS), home monitoring systems
digital memory aids, e.g. technologies to support the following advice or guidance from health and social care practitioners and/or organising social care related aspects of their lives
digital interventions for loneliness or social isolation
remote assessments (or other care planning processes) (child development, occupational, etc.)
enablers of the adoption of digital technologies by citizens and their support networks, such as tools aimed at improving digital literacy and preventing digital exclusion among specific populations
robotics for assisting simple tasks such as cognitive assistive robots, socially assistive robots

Digital technologies include a broad range of both hardware and electronic devices, such as smart watches; software, such as mobile applications, and internet delivered services such as online support groups

Applicants should clearly define and justify the specific population of interest, study design and outcome measures. In defining these, they should ensure a strong emphasis on social care outcomes, as well as appropriate balance between considerations primarily affecting the users of assistive technologies (including people with lived experience and their support networks) such as ease of use, psychosocial wellbeing or requirements around privacy, and the implementation and economic factors of concern to local authorities and other social care organisations.

Other commissioning information.

Innovate UK Smart grants

Funder: Innovate UK

Opened: 25 April 2024

Closes: 11am 24 July 2024

Sector: All

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25 million for game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovations that can significantly impact the UK economy. Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy.

Projects of 6 to 18 months must have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £500,000 and can be single or collaborative. Projects of 19 to 24 months must have total eligible project costs between £100,000 and £1 million and be collaborative.
Eligibility criteria.

ABOVE (Arise Beyond Open Innovation for Value and Entrepreneurship)

Funders: Medilink Midlands, Anglia Ruskin University, and Essex County Council

Open

Closes: Ongoing until August 2024 (rolling applications)

Sector: Healthcare in Essex, UK

‘Arise Beyond Open Innovation for Value and Entrepreneurship’ (ABOVE) is a new collaborative programme delivered in partnership with Arise Innovation Hubs, part of Anglia Ruskin University. The ABOVE programme will provide innovation support grants as well as sector-specific events around the themes of health, performance and wellbeing. As a specialist provider of support to the life science sector,

Medilink Midlands continue to partner with Arise Innovation Hubs to provide expert guidance to SMEs on how to overcome barriers to growth throughout their innovation journey. Essex County Council has provided the funding for this project in support of their ten-year strategy to grow the life science, DigiTech, advanced manufacturing and engineering sectors, leading to more opportunity, jobs and growth across Essex.

Alongside an ongoing support and events programme, the ABOVE programme will provide a limited number of innovation grants. Essex SME’s can apply for up to £5,000 to help unlock their business potential.
More information.

Clinical Study Grants

Funder: British Heart Foundation

Open

Closes: 5pm 29 August 2024

Sector: Healthcare

The Clinical Study Grant supports funding for over £350,000 for:

Interventional clinical trials: trials of specific interventions or pathways of care for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Interventions include drugs, surgery, devices, psychological, physical and educational interventions.
Observational studies of specific patient groups that are hypothesis led and address a defined clinical question(s) over a fixed timescale (up to 5 years). The population of interest should be a patient population, who will usually be recruited within the NHS. The study should have a predefined outcome(s) that will lead to changes in clinical management directly or will inform the development of a clinical trial to test an intervention.
Clinical studies can include a mechanistic evaluation, either as a sub-study within a clinical trial or as part of an observational study.

More information.

Novel and Emerging Technologies (NET) Grants

Funder: Heart Research UK

Open

Closes: 2 October 2024

Sector: Healthcare

This unique grant (limit of £300,000) gives researchers the opportunity to apply for funding to develop a novel and emerging technology or a new application of an existing technology.

NET grants are research projects which focus on the development of new and innovative technologies to diagnose, treat and prevent heart disease and related conditions.

Research projects with the emphasis on (1) novel and emerging technologies and (2) their application into cardiovascular disease prevention and/or treatment, which can be expected to benefit patients within a foreseeable timeframe, will be considered.

Appropriate approaches include tissue and bioengineering, the development and evaluation of new diagnostic devices, bio imaging, nanotechnology, biomaterials, genomic, and proteomic approaches, computational biology and bioinformatics.

Funding clinical trials through the NET Grant scheme is not appropriate. However, research projects incorporating a small scale clinical study to demonstrate the feasibility of the technology will be considered, providing that the clinical study is not the main focus of the research programme. Projects that are more specifically clinically focused should be directed to the Translational Research Project (TRP) grants scheme.

For example, the grant may support emerging strategies/ technologies in the management of risk factors, the evaluation of invasive cardiology procedures (eg angioplasty and stent replacement), and evaluation of new surgical approaches to cardiovascular disease, strategies aimed at improving the efficacy of ventricle assist and other devices, and the outcomes of resuscitation after cardiac arrest.

A multidisciplinary approach is encouraged. Proposals should be based on excellent science and also clearly describe the future clinical implications and the translational strategy.

More information.

EIC Accelerator

Funder: Horizon Europe

Opens: 14 March 2024

Closes: 3 October 2024

Sector: All technology sectors

The EIC Accelerator is a funding programme under Horizon Europe that offers support to start-ups and SMEs that:

have a innovative, game changing product, service or business model that could create new markets or disrupt existing ones in Europe and even worldwide,
have the ambition and commitment to scale up,
are looking for substantial funding, but the risks involved are too high for private investors alone to invest

Applications consist of:

A 5-page form where you must summarise your proposal and respond to a set of questions on your innovation, your potential market and your team;
A pitch-deck of up to ten slides in pdf format;
A video pitch of up to three minutes where the core members of your team (up to three people) should provide the motivation for your proposal.

Applicants will normally receive feedback within 4 weeks.

More information.

Canada-UK: Biomanufacturing of Biologics and Advanced Therapies Round 2

Funders: Innovate UK, National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program

Opened: 8 May 2024

Closes: 11am 16 October 2024

Sector: Healthcare & Life sciences

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £3 million for collaboration with Canadian SMEs on joint R&D projects, for enabling technologies and innovations in biomanufacturing of biologics and advanced therapies.

The aim of this competition is to stimulate the development and implementation of innovative technologies in biomanufacturing. The objective is to build the desired flexibility and technical capabilities required for the development and economically sustainable production of the next generation vaccines and therapies.

The total grant funding request for all UK partners can be up to £600,000 for each application. The total funding request for all Canadian partners combined can be up to CA$1 million for each application.

More information.

Advancing Healthcare Small Grants

Funder: Barts Charity

Open

Closes: 17 October 2024

More information.

Sector: Healthcare

Clinical Study Grants

Funder: British Heart Foundation

Open

Closes: 5pm 23 October 2024

Sector: Healthcare

The Clinical Study Grant supports funding for over £350,000 for:

Interventional clinical trials: trials of specific interventions or pathways of care for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Interventions include drugs, surgery, devices, psychological, physical and educational interventions.
Observational studies of specific patient groups that are hypothesis led and address a defined clinical question(s) over a fixed timescale (up to 5 years). The population of interest should be a patient population, who will usually be recruited within the NHS. The study should have a predefined outcome(s) that will lead to changes in clinical management directly or will inform the development of a clinical trial to test an intervention.
Clinical studies can include a mechanistic evaluation, either as a sub-study within a clinical trial or as part of an observational study.

More information.

SMART: SCOTLAND

Funder: Scottish Enterprise

Opens: 09 November 2023

Closes: 09 November 2024

Sector: All

SMART:SCOTLAND is a research and development (R&D) grant for small and medium-sized businesses that aims to support high risk, highly ambitious projects. It covers conducting feasibility studies to show how ideas could work in the real world and supports activities that have a commercial endpoint. The grant is only available to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) based in Scotland and supports the activities of commercially focused R&D projects.

The grant can support up to 70% of the eligible costs for a small enterprise and up to 60% of the eligible costs for a medium enterprise. Studies must last between 6 and 18 months, and the maximum grant is £100,000.

More information.

Smart Flexible Innovation Support (FIS)

Funder: The Welsh Government

Opens: 15 June 2023

Closes: 09 November 2024

Sector: All

The Welsh Government is investing £30 million in new programmes that will help Welsh organisations develop and embed new innovative products and services to help improve people’s lives, grow the economy and address the climate and nature emergency.

SMART FIS is not restricted to businesses and research organisations. It is open to any organisation wishing to engage in research, development and innovation (RD&I), including the third sector, local authorities and health boards.

For a new organisation this might mean accessing technology to get a new idea off the ground; for a developing one, it could be help with a project which you know has potential; and for an established organisation it might be about specialist know-how to give you an international edge by opening up new markets.

Funding is dependent on the organisation and type of project. A typical example would be £100,000 per year for 2 years.

More information.

Global Innovation Fund- Grants

Funder: Global Innovation Fund

Open, no closing date

Sector: All

The Global Innovation Fund is a non-profit, impact-first investment fund headquartered in London with offices in Washington, D.C. and Nairobi. It invests in the development, rigorous testing, and scaling up of new products, services, business process, or policy reforms that are more cost-effective than current practice and targeted at improving the lives of the world's poorest people.

It accepts applications from organisations working in any sector in any developing country. Any type of organisation may apply. This includes social enterprises, for-profit companies, non-profit organisations, government agencies, international organisations, and research institutions in any country. It is recommended that individual innovators, entrepreneurs, or researchers apply through an affiliated organisation.

More information.

Catapult/RTO Grants

Funder: Innovate UK Business Growth

Open, no closing date

Sector: All

Up to £15,000 grants available for:

Sector specific advice on expertise;
Testing and/or development work;
Market analysis, cost modelling etc;
Identifying opportunities for R&D, partnership building & collaboration, and more.

More information.

Past Funding Calls

Women Tech EU project

Funder: Horizon Europe/ EU

Opened: 18 March 2024

Closed: 5pm (CET) 20 May 2024

Sector: All

The overarching goal of Women Tech EU is to support women founders and entrepreneurs leading deep tech start-ups from Europe to grow into tomorrow’s tech leaders and to put women at the forefront of deep tech in Europe.

The first open call will select and empower 40 women-led deep tech early-stage start-ups that will contribute to the green, digital and social transition in line with the European objectives.

The call is open to women entrepreneurs from all over the European Union and Horizon Europe associated countries who meet the eligibility criteria described in the call documents. With €75,000 funding (non-diluting finance) and a six month personalised business development programme, the project will be paving the way for these innovators to shine as leaders in deep tech innovation across Europe.

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must be established in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country, with the company registered for at least six months at the time of submission.
The start-up must be in the early-stage, defined as not more than 8 years old and having raised less than €1 million in equity funding.
Women must be legally recognized as founders or co-founders and hold a top management position (CEO, CTO, or equivalent), with at least 25% of the company's shares.
Projects should focus on deep tech innovations offering solutions to societal problems across various sectors.

More information and to apply.

Ready2Scale Accelerator

Funder: European Union

Opened: 15 March 2024

Closed:15 May 2024

Sector: Digital and deep tech

The Ready2Scale Acceleration Programme is an all-encompassing 6-month journey tailored to substantially boost the growth of 25 chosen digital and deep tech startups. There is a Grant Award per Project of up to €60,000 + mentorship, networking and investment opportunities.

Eligible startups may receive up to €60,000 in grant funding, allocated across travel expenses up to €5,000, expert consultations up to €5,000, and up to €50,000 for product development.

Startups should be involved in the digital and deep tech sectors with at least one full-time employee. Preference is given to startups previously supported by the EIC or those with private/EU funding.

The first cohort will support 15 startups (June 2024), and the second cohort will support 10 (January 2025), aiming to provide comprehensive financial and developmental assistance to a total of 25 startups.

More information.

Innovate UK investor partnerships

Funder: Innovate UK

Open: 15 April 2024

Closed: 11am 15 May 2024

Sector: All sectors

Investors can apply to partner with Innovate UK to invest in innovative SMEs aligned with grant funding.

However, there is no Innovate UK funding awarded to applicant investors. Grant funding will be awarded by Innovate UK to applicant companies (SMEs) to cover a proportion of eligible project costs alongside your aligned investment from or led by one or more investor partners. The investment will typically be in the form of equity but can include other forms of funding, such as convertible loans.

Innovate UK currently has 115 investor partners, who are described in a directory on its website. It is seeking additional investor partners to join this programme for the future through this investor selection process.

Potential SME applicants will be able to apply for grant funding for:

feasibility studies, which can have eligible project costs from £50,000 to £300,000, can last between 6 and 12 months and will have grants of up to 70%, with at least the same amount of aligned investment from or led by an investor partner
industrial research projects, which can have eligible project costs from £100,000 to £1 million, can last between 6 and 15 months and will have grants of up to 70%, with at least the same amount of aligned investment from or led by an investor partner
experimental development projects, which can have eligible project costs from £250,000 to £2 million, can last between 12 and 15 months and will have grants of up to 45% for micro and small businesses or up to 35% for medium sized businesses, with at least twice the amount of aligned investment from or led by an investor partner

The investor partnership programme will cover specific themes within the future economy, as described in Innovate UK’s plan for action, in particular:

net zero
health and wellbeing
next generation digital technologies and technology families

More information here.

Launchpad grant for Mental Health

Funder: Medical Research Foundation

Open

Closed: 12pm, 8 May 2024

Sector: Healthcare

The Medical Research Foundation is inviting mid-career researchers in the field of mental health to apply for up to £100,000 to support their research.

Funded research should increase understanding of mental health, and improve diagnosis, treatment and recovery. It will also act as a launchpad for further research suitable for larger funding opportunities.

Applications within a broad field of mental health research are welcomed. However, applications are encouraged from neglected areas of mental health, including suicide and self-harm, trauma-related mental health, borderline personality disorder and OCD. Neurodevelopmental disorders are considered within the scope of this competition, and especially encouraged are applications from researchers working in ADHD and Tourette’s.

Applicants to the Launchpad Grants in Mental Health can use the funding to conduct pilot studies, generate data and collaborations, and develop competitive research proposals for larger funding. The research should have a UK focus.

Applicants may apply for up to £100,000 to support their research, over a maximum of a 2-year period (pro-rata for part-time positions). This competition is open to all UK-based (mid-career) researchers and clinical academics at eligible institutions (UK HEIs, Research Council research institutes, hospitals, and other independent research organisations).

Applicants must hold a PhD, DPhil, MD or doctorate in a relevant area and be conducting their research at an eligible institution. Partnerships outside of academia are allowed, providing the collaboration will advance the research project in line with the aims of the funding call.

More information.

Diet and health innovation: early stage feasibility projects

Funders: Innovate UK, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Opened: 14 February 2024

Closed: 11am, 8 May 2024

Sector: Healthcare

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2.5 million for early stage feasibility projects working with one or more of the Diet and Health Open Innovation Research Club hubs. This funding is from BBSRC and Innovate UK.

The aim of this competition is to support UK registered businesses and UK research organisations in the design and development of innovative food products to support sustained health and wellbeing. Projects can be focussed across the life course and are not restricted to older populations.

Your proposal must have the potential to impact the nutritional quality of food and drink products consumed by the UK population.

Your project must:

have total costs between £100,000 and £250,000
last between 9 and 18 months
carry out all of its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
start by 1 October 2024
end by 31 March 2026

To lead a project your organisation must be a business of any size or a research organisation eligible for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding. Your consortium must include at least one business and one research organisation, as a minimum.

Eligibility criteria.

Advancing Healthcare Small Grants

Funder: Barts Charity

Open
Closed: 02 May 2024

More information.

Sector: Healthcare

UK-Switzerland CR&D Round 2 Funding Competition

Funders: Innovate UK, Innosuisse (The Swiss Innovation Authority)

Opened: 5 February 2024
Closed: 1 May 2024

Sector: Life sciences, AI, Semi conductors, Quantum

The aim of this competition is to enhance UK and Swiss collaborations and capabilities in the emerging fields of technology. The result being, the developing and delivering of new innovations and applications of the technologies across a broad range of other sectors.

The total grants includes up to £4 million from Innovate UK and a minimum of 3 million CHF from Innosuisse. UK projects can request grant funding of no more than £450,000.

The bidding party must include a consortium of non-linked Swiss and UK partners. The projects must involve at least one Swiss implementation partner under the equivalent Swiss Innosuisse programme.

Eligibility criteria.

Research to Support Timely and Accurate Diagnosis for All

Funder: AcademyHealth, supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Opened: 25 March 2024

Closed: 3pm (Eastern Time) 1 May 2024

Sector: Healthcare

The diagnostic process links the symptoms patients experience, the determinants of their health, and their interactions with the health care system. To the extent that systematic differences exist in patients’ access, experience, and health care outcomes, the diagnostic process becomes a window into – and major component of – assuring equity in the health care system as a whole.

This call for proposals seeks to engage researchers in building evidence to reduce diagnostic inequities across the domains of patient access, experience, and health outcomes.

A total funding pool 0f $600,000 is available. AcademyHealth will fund a total of 4-6 projects up to $150,000 each over a 12 month grant period.

More information about the call for proposals, including eligibility criteria, selection criteria, and how to apply can be found here. Additional information, such as findings from interviews and listening sessions with patients, advocates, caregivers, researchers, and funders, that may be helpful to applicants and can be found in this issue brief and this report.

NIHR NICE Rolling Call (HTA Programme)

Funder: NIHR/ HTA

Opened: 4 January 2024

Closed: 1pm 1 May 2024

Sector: Healthcare/ Life Sciences

The Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme is accepting Stage 1 applications to this funding opportunity. The programme is interested in receiving applications to meet recommendations in research identified in NICE guidance that has been published or updated since 2015.

Proposals must be within the remit of the HTA Programme and the primary outcome measure must be health related. This call is also open in the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME), Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) and Public Health Research (PHR) programmes for proposals which fall within the remit of those programmes - applicants should apply directly to the relevant programme. This programme is funded in two separate stages.

Specification document.

Bioimaging Technology Development Awards

Funder: Wellcome Trust

Open

Closed: 30 April 2024

Sector: Healthcare (Imaging)

Wellcome is funding the development of new advanced bioimaging tools and technologies. Researchers who use bioimaging and technology developers will work together to create the bioimaging resources needed to answer ambitious research questions.

Lead applicant career stage: Leading a research programme
Administering organisation location: UK, Ireland or low- or middle-income countries (apart from India and mainland China)
Funding amount: Foundation phase: up to £500k; Scale-up phase: you should ask for the resources you need for your programme – see the 'What we offer' section on this page. You will need to justify this in your application.

More information.

Smart Grants

Funder: Innovate UK

Opened: 18 January 2024

Closed: 11am 24th April 2024

Sector: All sectors

Horizon Europe 'Health' single-stage calls for proposals

(Pandemic preparedness and response: Host-pathogen interactions of infectious diseases with epidemic potential)

Funder: European Health and Digital Executive Agency

Opened: 26 October 2023

Closed: 5pm (CET) 11 April 2024

Sector: Healthcare/ Life Sciences

This topic aims at supporting activities that are enabling or contributing to one or several expected impacts of destination 3 “Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden”. To that end, proposals under this topic should aim for delivering results that are directed, tailored towards and contributing to all of the following expected outcomes:

The scientific and clinical communities have an increased knowledge on viruses with epidemic potential and in particular a better understanding of pathogen–host interactions for the targeted development of vaccines and inhibitors for the prevention of viral infection and the viral transmission during pathogenesis.
The scientific and clinical communities have access to novel approaches for the prevention and treatment for emerging and re-emerging infections in the context of epidemic and pandemic preparedness.
The scientific and clinical communities have access to experimental vaccine candidates and candidates that inhibit cellular uptake of viruses against emerging or re-emerging viral infections for further clinical investigation.

A diverse and robust development pipeline of vaccine candidates and candidates that inhibit cellular uptake of viruses is available to fight emerging and re-emerging viral infections, increasing therapeutic options for clinical deployment in case of an epidemic or pandemic.
General information.

Horizon Europe 'Health' single-stage calls for proposals

(Pandemic preparedness and response: Maintaining the European partnership for pandemic preparedness)

Funder: European Health and Digital Executive Agency

Opened: 26 October 2023

Closed: 5pm (CET) 11 April 2024

Sector: Healthcare/ Life Sciences

Research funders, policymakers and the research community maintain a consolidated research and innovation framework for the European partnership for pandemic preparedness, including the Partnership’s objectives, governance and ways of working/operationalisation;
Research funders, policymakers and the research community are aligned towards common objectives and have a common understanding of the long-term Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for the Partnership;
European research funders are supported by a dynamic and efficient secretariat in their coordination efforts for pandemic preparedness research;
Healthcare providers, European and international stakeholders engage with the appropriate partners through the research and innovation framework for the partnership.

General Information.

Knowledge transfer partnerships (KTP): 2024 to 2025 round 1

Funder: Innovate UK

Opened: 13 February 2024

Closed: 11am 10 April 2024

Sector: All

UK registered academic institutions, RTOs or Catapults can apply for a share of up to £9 million to fund innovation projects with businesses or not for profits. Note that our partner, SEHTA is a registered RTO, Bidshaper can make an introduction if required.

The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme allows a UK registered business or not for profit organisation, (which we will refer to collectively as the ‘business partner’ from now on) to partner with a ‘knowledge base partner’, which is either a UK higher education (HE) or further education (FE) institution, research and technology organisation (RTO) or Catapult.

The KTP partnership brings new skills and the latest academic thinking into the business partner to deliver a specific, strategic innovation project. The knowledge base partner recruits the ‘associate’ to work on the project. The associate has the opportunity to lead a strategic development within the business, developing new skills and gaining valuable experience.

Funding is for a specific, strategic innovation project that tackles one or more challenges faced by the business partner.

It can be any kind of project and must show:

why the business needs this Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)
what new knowledge is required by the business
what new capabilities will be embedded as a result of the KTP

More information.

Climate Impacts Awards: Unlocking urgent climate action by making the health effects of climate change visible

Funder: Wellcome Trust

Open

Closed: 3 April 2024

Sector: Climate and Health

The aim of this scheme is to make the impacts of climate change on physical and mental health visible to drive urgent climate policy action at scale. We will fund transdisciplinary teams to deliver short-term, high-impact projects that maximise policy outcomes by combining evidence generation, policy analysis, engaged research approaches and communication strategies.

Funding: Up to £2.5 million, up to 3 years' duration

The Funder is looking for proposals with a clear theory of change and strong understanding of policy levers. Policy outcomes should be achievable within the award period, innovative in their design and should support meaningful and sustainable change. Proposals should describe the intended policy outcomes and how new insights and effective communication will influence these outcomes. Teams must have prior demonstrable success in work that combines science, policy and society

More information.

Real World Evidence Programme Call

Funder: NIHR & OLS

Opened: 31 January 2024

Closed: 1pm 27 March 2024

Sector: Healthcare/ Life Sciences

The Real World Evidence Programme is being led by OLS as part of the UK Government’s Life Sciences Vision and is backed by £10m of government funding. The aim of the call is to address the evidence gap required for widespread adoption of technologies that have received a recommendation for early use in the NHS from NICE Early Value Assessment (EVA), as well as developing guidance to support innovators to generate quality real world evidence that NICE and commissioners require for adoption and roll-out.

“The programme is open to all products with a recommendation for early use in the NHS from NICE EVA, but we particularly encourage submissions aligned with the Life Sciences Vision and its Healthcare Missions. The contracts awarded will be for a maximum of 36 months with no upper limit, subject to justification.”

Call specification.

Funding call to develop a co-designed tool to assist people with a learning disability

Funder: RCN Foundation

The RCN Foundation seeks an individual or organisation to undertake a quality improvement project to develop a co-designed tool which will assist people with lived experience of a learning disability to access urgent and emergency care in times of ill health.
More information.

Opened: 15 February 2024

Closed: 5pm 20 March 2024

Sector: Healthcare

Eureka collaborative R&D: Eurostars 3 Call 6

Funder: Innovate UK

Opened: 12 January 2024

Closed: 1pm, 14 March 2024

Sector: All sectors

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2.5 million for collaborative research in partnership with organisations from participating Eurostars countries. Your project must have high market potential and develop one or more of the following:

innovative products
technology-based applications
technology-based services

Projects must include at least one partner from the Eurostars network.
Eligibility criteria.

EIC Accelerator

Funder: Horizon Europe

Open

Closed: 13 March 2024

Sector: All technology sectors

The EIC Accelerator is a funding programme under Horizon Europe that offers support to start-ups and SMEs that:

have a innovative, game changing product, service or business model that could create new markets or disrupt existing ones in Europe and even worldwide,
have the ambition and commitment to scale up,
are looking for substantial funding, but the risks involved are too high for private investors alone to invest

Applications consist of:

A 5-page form where you must summarise your proposal and respond to a set of questions on your innovation, your potential market and your team;
A pitch-deck of up to ten slides in pdf format;
A video pitch of up to three minutes where the core members of your team (up to three people) should provide the motivation for your proposal.

Applicants will normally receive feedback within 4 weeks.

More information.

Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB)

Funder: NIHR

Opened: 15 October 2023

Closed: 6 March 2024

Sector: Healthcare/ Life Sciences

RfPB is researcher-led and does not specify topics for research. The funding available for individual projects is up to £500,000 for up to 36 months. Feasibility studies are expected to cost less than £300,000, and proposals that will generate results that might be useful for more downstream investigations are expected to cost less than £200,000.It is a 2 stage application process.

Its scope includes:

· Research into the provision and use of NHS services.

· Effectiveness and cost effectiveness evaluations of interventions.

· Research that examines the resource use of alternative means for healthcare delivery.

· Feasibility research to support applications for major awards to other funders.

· Development and refining of new interventions, scales or outcome measures.

· Research to explore the potential for improving patient health and wellbeing through needs assessments, methods development and exploratory studies.

· Evidence synthesis and systematic reviews.

More information.

BMA Foundation – grant categories 2024

List of grants here.

Funder: BMA Foundation

Closed: 1 March 2024

Sector: Healthcare/ Life Sciences

EIT Health Flagship

Funder: EIT Health & European Union

Closed: 28 February 2024

Sector: Healthcare/ Life Sciences

There are 3 flagships:

· New models to deliver healthcare – more information

· Digital transformation of healthcare – more information

· The re-industrialisation of Europe – more information

Detailed information about the application process and deadlines can be found here.