The Department of Health and the Wellcome Trust invited proposals from organisations and research groups seeking to draw on funding from the Health Innovation Challenge Fund to further the development of innovative healthcare products

The aim of the Health Innovation Challenge Fund is to facilitate high-quality translational health research - technological developments that can deliver economic and patient health benefits to this country and build on the UK's excellence in science. Through the provision of 'gap-bridging' funding, the initiative will stimulate the delivery of technologies, products and interventions having clinical applicability within the NHS in the 3 - 5 year timeframe.

A series of themed calls will be made, the first of which is 'Advancing Genetic Discoveries into Clinical Practice' with funding up to £20m. This seeks to capitalize on the wealth of information created by human genome analysis and the drivers to bring the emerging insights to clinical application.

Health Minister Lord Darzi said:

"We must support innovation in order to respond to the challenges we face - especially where resources are constrained. New ideas need to be tested, to ensure they are successful and add value - and this requires investment. There is a significant body of evidence to suggest that investment in innovation produces long-term benefits overall. The Healthcare Innovation Challenge Fund will provide vital resource and support to the UK healthcare sector."

Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Welcome Trust, said:

"The Wellcome Trust is a committed funder of translational research. Our partnership with the Department of Health should provide a valuable catalyst to stimulate the research community to apply their ideas and emerging technologies to patient care. The call for proposals in medical genetics is timely and important, given the tremendous pace of developments arising from the application of genome sequencing to improved understanding of human variation in health and disease. This scheme fits well with the recent recommendations of the House of Lords Select Committee report on Genomic Medicine."

The Health Innovation Challenge Fund forms part of Lord Darzi's strategy for the future of the NHS - High Quality Care for All - in which he committed to creating a pioneering NHS where innovation can flourish. Today's announcement reinforces the Government's commitment to supporting the UK life sciences and biotechnology sector and complements the Wellcome Trust's aim of improving health through research and its timely application to product development for the benefit of patients and society.

The Health Innovation Challenge Fund is a scheme of up to five years supported by up to £100 million contributed in equal measure by the Department of Health and the Wellcome Trust, the biggest medical research charity in the UK.

Source
Department of Health, UK