The NIHR is one of the largest funders of health and social care research in Europe, spending over £1 billion every year in the UK with the goal of improving the health and wealth of the nation.

As NIHR’s medtech industry engagement adviser, my role is to help NIHR support innovators across the life sciences industry - facilitating access to the most integrated health and care research system in the world and supporting translational research for medtech.

Attending this year’s MedTech Innovation Expo provided a timely reminder of the power and potential of the life sciences industry in the UK. After the disruption of the pandemic, it was exciting and invigorating to meet innovators who are harnessing the opportunities of increased interest in health research and its ability to change lives for the better.

At NIHR we are particularly interested in supporting medtech and digital innovations. Our dedicated medtech funding programme, ‘Invention for Innovation’ (i4i), is focused on de-risking early-to-late stage medical devices, in vitro diagnostics and patient-focused digital health technologies with the ultimate goal of use across the NHS, bringing the benefits of healthcare technology to patients and the public.

But it’s not just dedicated funding programmes - we work with innovators at any stage of clinical development. We provide access to experts including clinical collaborators and patient and public advisors, and we can also connect innovators to the richest primary and secondary health data sets in the world and provide access to world-class research facilities. We also support innovators in designing, setting up and delivering their studies within the NHS and social care system.

Our MedTech and In Vitro Diagnostics Co-operatives (MICs) are another key part of the picture. We support 11 MICs across the country, based in leading NHS organisations, to help innovators generate the evidence they need to support adoption of a new device or technology within the NHS. These technologies are ultimately bringing benefits to patients, cost savings to the NHS, and helping to make the system greener and more efficient.

In 2020/21 the NIHR helped deliver more than 3,500 studies across the life sciences industry, with 1500 SME collaborations and over 1300 studies sponsored by industry partners.

NIHR is also innovating its own new funding models, with an exciting quick response funding pilot called FAST that launched this year and is currently reviewing its first crop of applications. FAST - Funding At the Speed of Translation - offers a simple, speedy funding model to allow innovators to further explore and de-risk their devices or technology, or to fail fast if they are simply not viable.

The scheme has been created to help the traditional research funding cycle adapt to the growing opportunities of data and digital innovations - speeding up funding so that promising innovations don’t miss out simply because a grant-giving process takes too long.

NIHR is also increasing its investment into social care research - an area with huge potential to benefit from technology. Our i4i programme has already funded ground-breaking advances in the social care space, including a speech rehabilitation app developed by Therapy Box, and we are already exploring further potential innovations that can improve social care across the sector, including technology to help tackle loneliness and social isolation, as well as digital tech to support older adults living in the community who are accessing social care services.

Our message is clear - we want to hear from innovators across the life sciences industry so we can connect them with the wealth of expertise and support that’s available throughout the health and social care sectors. The opportunities have never been greater and we look forward to partnering with you, wherever you are in the innovation pipeline.