Health Innovation Funding Opportunities

Featured Funding Opportunities

Future Leaders Fellowships: round 9, business and non-academic Deadline: 25 June 2024
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. This funding is from UKRI.

Design Foundations Round 5. Deadline: 26th June 2024
UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2 million for people-centred and systemic design projects, across a range of themes and innovation areas. These are to influence, inform and de-risk their future R&D activity.

Women in Innovation Award 2024/25. Deadline 10th July 2024
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.

Funding for early stage development of new healthcare interventions. Deadline: 10 July 2024
Apply for funding to generate critical preliminary data to build confidence in the development strategy for a new medicine, repurposed medicine, medical device, diagnostic test, or other medical intervention development.

UK-Taiwan CRD 2024 Deadline: 17 July 2024
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £5 million for the purpose of developing innovative proposals with Taiwan. You must collaborate with at least one Taiwan business applying under the equivalent DoIT programme.

ARIA Activation Partners. Deadline: 19th July 2024 (with non-mandatory EOI deadline of 29 May 2024)
Looking for proposals for Activation Partners who will unlock latent ideas, empower talent, support new ventures, and provide insights and connectivity across our opportunity spaces.

Design Exchange Partnerships: design the green transition round three . Deadline: 12 September 2024
Apply for funding to develop design–led solutions to address specific challenges around the theme of more-than-human design. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funding.

Canada-UK: Biomanufacturing of Biologics & Advanced Therapies Round 2. Deadline: 16th October 2024
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.

General health innovation funding opportunities:

INNOVATE UK:
Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government. 

Innovate UK Investor Partnerships: SME round 7. Deadline: 19th June 2024
UK-registered SMEs can apply for grant funding alongside private investment from selected investor partners.

Future Leaders Fellowships: round 9, business and non-academic Deadline: 25 June 2024
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. This funding is from UKRI.

Innovate UK innovation loans future economy: round 15. Deadline: 26th June 2024
UK registered businesses can apply for loans for innovative projects with strong commercial potential to significantly improve the UK economy.

Innovate UK Smart Grants: April 2024 Deadline: 24 July 2024
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.

BIOTECHNOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL:
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, is a non-departmental public body and is the largest UK public funder of non-medical bioscience. It predominantly funds scientific research institutes and university research departments in the UK.

BBSRC standard research grant Deadline: Open call

You can apply for research grants at any time in any area within the remit of BBSRC. BBSRC funds research in plants, microbes, animals (including humans), and the tools and technology underpinning biological research from the level of molecules and cells to tissues, whole organisms, populations and landscapes.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH AND CARE RESEARCH:
The National Institute for Health and Care Research is the British government’s major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. Its mission is to “improve the health and wealth of the nation through research”. 

NIHR i4i Launch dates: Product Development Award
i4i Product Development Awards (PDA) support 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 system. The expected focus of a PDA is product development required to enable a technology for clinical use or use in social care and/or the clinical development of a laboratory-validated technology or intervention. The research proposals may address any area of unmet need. Projects must have a clear pathway towards adoption and commercialisation. 

Product Development Award Call 28: Launch 10 April 2024 / Deadline: 29th May 2024.
Product Development Award Call 29: 10 October 2024 / Deadline: 5th December 2024

DEFENCE AND SECURITY ACCELERATOR (DASA) Deadline: Open call
DASA aims to find and fund exploitable innovation to support UK defence and security quickly and effectively and support UK prosperity. 

Open Competition 
The Open Call is one of the funding competition mechanisms DASA uses to find proposals that address challenges faced by government stakeholders. It gives bidders the opportunity to present their ideas to defence and security stakeholders at any time, without waiting for a relevant Themed Competition.

MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (MRC)
The Medical Research Council (MRC) improves the health of people in the UK – and around the world – by supporting excellent science and training the very best scientists.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (ESRC) Deadline: Open call

ESRC Research Grant 
If you have an excellent idea for a research project, the ESRC have their Research Grants open call. Awards ranging from £350,000 to £1 million (100 per cent full Economic Cost (fEC)) can be made to eligible institutions to enable individuals or research teams to undertake anything from a standard research project through to a large-scale survey and other infrastructure or methodological development.

NC3RS:
The NC3RS is a UK-based scientific organisation dedicated to helping the research community worldwide to replace, reduce and refine the use of animals for medical testing.

CRACK IT challenges 
Funding of £4M is available through the 2023 CRACK IT Challenges competition* to solve four Challenges, providing academics and SMEs based in the UK and Europe** with the opportunity to deliver scientific and 3Rs benefits through the development and commercialisation of 3Rs products and services that are tailored to end-user needs.

Trusts and Charities

The Health Foundation (HF)
HF’s aim is a healthier population, supported by high quality health care that can be equitably accessed. HF learns what works to make people’s lives healthier and improve the health care system. From giving grants to those working at the front line to carrying out research and policy analysis, they shine a light on how to make successful change happen.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF)
BHF provide personal support for clinical and non-clinical cardiovascular researchers at all stages of their career. They also provide grants for short and long term research projects, essential infrastructure and strategic initiatives.

Association of Medical Research Charities
Over 30 years ago a small, diverse group of medical research charities form the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) to unite the sector and provide it with a leading voice. Since then their membership has grown to over 140 charities. In 2018, these charities invested £1.3 billion in medical research.

Other UK Government, Seed Funds & Loans

The British Business Bank Deadline: Open

BBB are a government-owned business development bank dedicated to making finance markets work better for smaller businesses. Whether you’re looking for finance to start a business, grow to the next level, or stay ahead of the competition, they say that they can deliver greater volume and choice of finance.

Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) funding. General ‘collection’ of news and funds

Information about SBRI for businesses and public sector organisations that might want to use the scheme.

UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund Deadline: Open

The UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (formerly known as The Rainbow Seed Fund) is a £27.1m early-stage venture capital fund building and growing technology companies stemming from the UK’s research base.

Creative England Investments Deadline: Open

Creative England is supporting SMEs by providing competitive loans to digital businesses in order to make their growth plans a reality. The investments on offer are intended to fuel this fast-growing sector by financing business expansion and new products, leading to the creation of new high-quality jobs and Intellectual Property (IP). Loans from £50,000 – £250,000 are available with repayment terms ranging from 3-36 months. Interest rates range from 5% to 10%, depending on the risk profile of the applicant. This includes companies from within the digital healthcare sector.

International Grants

UK – Germany Bilateral: Collaborative R&D Round 3 Deadline: 3 June 2024
UK registered organisations, collaborating with at least one German SME, can apply for a share of up to £4m for projects in emerging technologies.

UK-Taiwan CRD 2024 Deadline: 17 July 2024
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £5 million for the purpose of developing innovative proposals with Taiwan. You must collaborate with at least one Taiwan business applying under the equivalent DoIT programme.

Global Innovation Fund Applications: Open
GIF focuses on solutions that have the potential to address an important development problem more effectively than existing approaches and can come from anyone, anywhere. They seek out innovations they believe have the greatest potential to improve the lives of millions of people living in poverty.

The EIC Accelerator: Open Competition (Grants only)
The EIC Accelerator supports individual Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), in particular, Startups and spinout companies to develop and scale up game-changing innovations. 

Other international funds of interest:

The Global Challenges Research Fund
The Newton Fund