EEDA - East of England Development Agency

Cash injection for healthcare ideas

14 May 2009

An injection of European funding will mean patients across the East of England could benefit from ground-breaking new technologies within five years.

NHS East of England, the East of England Development Agency and the Technology Strategy Board are leading a major regional initiative to encourage companies to come forward with new technologies to help improve healthcare provision.

The Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), which is being piloted at regional level in the East of England, has secured a major cash injection of £800,000 from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

This is on offer to companies working on the development of an innovative process, material, device, product or service which will help to meet current health priorities in the region.

Paul May, director of innovation at EEDA said:

“The excellent collaboration between EEDA and its partners has resulted in leveraging in this significant funding boost from the European Regional Development Fund.

“Both patients and businesses across the East of England will benefit from the Small Business Research Initiative. The pilot scheme is part of our strategy to help the region’s strong healthcare sector to innovate so it can survive through the tough economic times and be prepared to thrive on the opportunities in the eventual upturn.

“This is the first region in the UK to pioneer this type of public sector procurement which is method used in the US. We will be evaluating the scheme closely as it progresses to see whether this is a model that can be applied to other areas too.

Up to £100K for each winning project is on offer in Phase 1, with the potential of further financial assistance to develop and evaluate projects in
Phase 2.

The initiative is also being supported by Health Enterprise East (HEE), the region’s NHS innovations hub based at Papworth Hospital, who are managing the competition on behalf of the funding partners.

SBRI East will be officially launched on 22nd April with a closing date for submissions of 30th June 2009. An application form can be downloaded at www.hee.org.uk

• SBRI ERDF press notice.doc   (DOC 181KB)