Building on Accelerating FemTech for early stage companies and recognising the demand for tailored support more advanced stages of development, Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate is designed for women’s health innovations with a technology readiness level of 4 or above. Find out more: Technology readiness levels (TRL) – UKRI. These innovations should have the potential to address current challenges in women's health and other conditions that effect women differently or disproportionally. These innovations will be targeting business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C) women’s health markets.

The programme aims to bridge the gap between visionary women’s health solutions and the complex realities of healthcare markets, enabling growth through tailored support, strategic collaboration and a refined pathway for real-world evaluation, such as health economic analyses.

This hybrid programme is delivered by the Health Innovation Network South London in collaboration with HINs and other partners from across the UK. At the heart of Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate is a 10 week programme of learning, networking and collaboration. This includes two in-person residentials (onboarding mid programme and an end of programme), a series of virtual webinars, one-to-one sessions with business coaches and mentors, and a final showcase.

Aims:

A clear partnership roadmap to support evaluation and growth

A refined pathway for real-world evaluation, such as health economic analyses

Stronger industry or healthcare connections

Enhanced growth for both innovators and their innovations

Benefits:

Expert-led Workshops and Webinars: gain insights from subject matter experts to sharpen approaches to key topics for innovation and commercial growth, such as real-world evaluation.

Tailored Business Coaching: bespoke support from experienced business coaches who act as critical friends. Regular, one-to-one sessions refine strategy, facilitate connections and accelerate growth.

Bespoke Mentoring: leveraging experienced professionals from across the healthcare system, fostering individual growth, such as enhancing entrepreneurship skills, and accelerating the development of innovative solutions that advance women’s health.

Strategic Networking: opportunities for peer-learning and stakeholder engagement across the healthcare system to foster collaboration, market access and growth.

Those participants who complete the programme in full will be eligible to apply for a closed call funding opportunity from Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst in Spring 2026 with a focus on real world evaluation including budget impact assessment.

Accelerating FemTech was created in 2023 as an early stage accelerator to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) developing early-stage innovations for women’s health.  

Cohort 1 was delivered from September 2023 to December 2023 and supported 12 innovators through three phases of delivery: Inspire, Accelerate and Sustain.  

Cohort 2 built on the experiences of cohort 1, broadening to support 21 innovations for women’s health from SMEs, university spin-outs and academically-minded innovators.  

Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate builds on the success of these cohorts, whilst recognising the demand for tailored support from innovators who are at more advanced stages of development. It is designed to support up to 10 innovations for women’s health with a technology readiness level (TRL) 4 or above. The programme also has a greater emphasis on refining real-world evaluation pathways, such as health economic analyses, as a foundational strategy for driving the growth and market readiness of innovations in women’s health. 

Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate demonstrates the Health Innovation Network South London’s ongoing commitment to providing comprehensive support that benefits the entire FemTech innovation lifecycle, ultimately make a real impact to women’s lives. 

FemTech is broadly defined as innovative solutions which address women’s health and can include digital products, medical devices and diagnostics. FemTech covers a wide range of clinical areas and aims to improve women’s health in female-specific conditions, such as maternal health, female cancers, menopause,, pelvic pain, fertility and sexual health. However, FemTech also includes general health conditions that effect women disproportionally or differently, such as orthopaedic knee injuries, cardiovascular disease or osteoporosis.

The Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate programme is about developing products for women’s specific health and care needs (whether cis or trans). We would like the programme to be inclusive of innovations for transwomen, and we would encourage any innovators creating products in this space to apply to the programme.

If your application is successful and you are selected to join Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate, you will benefit from bespoke support, targeted workshops and mentoring to enhance product development, entrepreneurship skills, and stakeholder engagement across the NHS and academia. The learning progamme includes:

Face-to-face learning.

Webinars, with topics such as developing a value proposition, evidence generation and evaluation strategy, investment, regulations and user-centered design.

Tailored support from expert business coaches.

Guidance from senior mentors across the healthcare system.

Access to subject matter experts across various specialities, including regulations, intellectual property and design.

Peer support through Action Learning Sets.

Those participants who complete the programme in full will be eligible to apply for a closed call funding opportunity from Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst in Spring 2026 with a focus on real world evaluation including budget impact assessment.

The Biomedical Catalyst is run by Innovate UK. The programme was established in 2012 and helps small to medium sized (SMEs) businesses based in the UK to test and develop innovative health and care projects.

To obtain Biomedical Catalyst funding for a project, you will need to carry out all of the project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.

The Biomedical Catalyst supports ideas for:

• Disease prevention and management;
• Disease detection and diagnosis; and
• Tailored treatments that change a disease or offer potential cures.

The Biomedical Catalyst has three key objectives:

• Deliver growth to the UK life sciences sector;
• Deliver innovative life sciences products and services into healthcare more quickly and effectively; and
• Provide support to academically and commercially led research and development

Learn more about Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst.

If you are successful in being awarded the Biomedical Catalyst feasibility funding, it will be funded at 100% under Minimum Financial Assistance (MFA) or De Minimis (for businesses from Northern Ireland). The likely award amount will be between £50,000-£100,000 so you will need to still have this value available in your allowance. The maximum MFA support that can be received in the elapsed part of the current financial year, and the two financial years immediately preceding the current financial year is £315,000, and for applicants affected by EC De Minimis regulations, this limit must not exceed 200,000 euros (~£168,000).

Applications for Accelerating FemTech open on Monday 1 September 2025 and close at 11:59pm on Sunday 28 September.

Interviews will take place virtually between Monday 21-23 October. Applicants will be notified if they have been selected for Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate on w/c Monday 27 October. The programme will start with an in-person residential event in London on Wednesday 26 November and Thursday 27 November.

The second in-person residential will run in London on Wednesday 21 January and Thursday 22 January.

Weekly business coach meetings, weekly webinars and monthly mentoring sessions will run from the end of November 2025 to the end of February 2025.

The in-person showcase event will be during w/c  23 February.

We aim to accept up to 10 innovators, with representation from both academic and commercial backgrounds.

No, Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate does not make investments in companies.

Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate is funded by Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst.

No, Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate is equity-free and cost-free, utilising Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst funding. Please note that that the programme will give benefit to the participating companies, so it is classed as a subsidy under UK Subsidy Control rules.  The programme has a Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA) value of £15,000. Applicants will need to declare that receiving this subsidy does not exceed the maximum amount of MFA they are eligible to receive in the last 3 fiscal years.

The 10 week programme will require you to commit to spend at least one day per week on average from 18 November 2024 to the end of March 2025 to benefit from the programme.

The programme will require physical attendance at three events. These are the onboarding residential on Wednesday 26 November and Thursday 27 November 2025; the January residential on Wednesday 21 January and Thursday 22 January 2026; and a showcase event w/c  23 February 2026.

The rest of the programme will be delivered virtually.

The projects that successfully graduate from Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate will be eligible to enter a specific Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst closed grant funding competition in Spring 2026. The application process will be shared by Innovate UK closer to the time.

Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate is designed for women’s health innovations with a technology readiness level of 4 or above. helping UK-based companies,  to gain the commercial and funding momentum they need for long-term success.  The programme aims to bridge the gap between visionary women’s health solutions and the complex realities of healthcare markets, enabling growth through tailored support, strategic collaboration and a refined pathway for real-world evaluation, such as health economic analyses.

You should also be interested in Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst grant funding, which helps businesses test and develop innovative health and care projects. The likely award amount will be between £50,000-£100,000 so you will need to still have this value available in your MFA allowance.

No, Accelerating FemTech is open to UK registered companies from across the UK who are focused on women’s health. The programme is delivered by the Health Innovation Network South London (HIN), DigitalHealth.London and partners from across the UK.

No, the founders do not need to be female. Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate is about supporting and developing innovative products for women’s specific health and care needs. We welcome founders of all genders who have a product in this space.

No, non-UK registered companies are not eligible for the programme. Accelerating FemTech funded by Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst, which means that it is only open to UK registered companies. In addition, to apply for the subsequent Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst funding for a project, you need to carry out all of the project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.

Yes, we accept applications from companies that have been incorporated for any length of time.

We are looking for women’s health innovations with a technology readiness level of 4 or above. Find out more: Technology readiness levels (TRL) – UKRI.

No, the innovation can have a B2B and B2C route to market. As part of the Accelerating FemTech: Evaluate programme, innovators will be supported by business mentors and the HIN team to navigate potential markets for innovations, as well as develop stakeholder engagement across the NHS and academia.

There is no exclusion criteria on intellectual property (IP) ownership.