Energise Funding

This opportunity welcomes innovations across a broad spectrum, including medical devices, in-vitro diagnostics, digital health and AI solutions, behavioural interventions, and service improvements that align with the stated challenges.

Participant criteria: Eligible applicants include single organizations based in the UK—this encompasses private, public, and third-sector entities such as large corporations, small and medium enterprises, charities, universities, NHS Foundation Trusts, and Primary Care providers.

Lead Applicant: The lead applicant must be SAHCP system partner i.e. either NHS partner (e.g. NHS trust, GP practice), higher education institution or the County Council.

Collaboration requirement: A key condition for funding is the establishment of a collaboration agreement among all participating parties. This agreement must address the ownership of intellectual property (IP) and the arrangements for revenue sharing.

Industry partnership: Collaborations with industry partners are highly encouraged, with the expectation that these partners will provide matching funding, thereby extending the scope and impact of the projects.

Funding preference: Applications that have secured or are in the process of securing matched funding will be given preference.

Project duration and monitoring: Projects funded will typically last between 6 to 12 months, with a maximum duration of 12 months. Progress will be monitored against agreed-upon milestones and outputs.

Funding management: Funding will be administered to the lead organization and managed by Surrey AHCP. Funds can be drawn upon based on the achievement of agreed milestones within the project plan.

Ethical approval: All health and care research projects must obtain (or clearly state their intention to obtain such approvals) necessary ethics approvals before starting and strictly adhere to UK data protection laws to ensure secure and ethical data handling.

The aim of the funding is to generate real-world evidence to support rapid local or regional roll out of the innovation. Awarded proposals are expected to demonstrate some of the following exit points upon project completion:

• Implementation effectiveness demonstrated and a defined implementation guide produced where appropriate.
• Evidence of health and financial impact: health economics analysis (i.e., cost benefit analysis, budget impact model).
• Innovation independently evaluated to demonstrate its impact in real-world settings.
• Projects should also demonstrate how they are addressing both the “Delivering a net-zero NHS” as outlined by the Greener NHS national Programme and The NHS Long Term Plan and The People Plan. 
• Equality and Health Inequalities impact assessment.
• Partnership developed for implementation in multiple sites.
• NHS Business case (e.g., procurement business cases to support transition into
• business-as-usual via standard commissioning routes, inclusion for national commissioning initiatives, inclusion on procurement frameworks, etc).
• Defined commissioning or procurement approach.
• Other relevant evidence to ensure local adoption following project completion, and plans for further spread and adoption (e.g., scaling-up plan and strategic plan towards adoption and spread, marketing tools development).
• Feasibility studies should aim to directly align with national research priorities, such as those specified in the UK research strategy. An endpoint would be the articulation of how the project contributes to these priorities, potentially influencing policy or shaping future research directions.

• The programme supports innovations that plan to meet relevant regulatory standards, compliances and generate a strong evidence base. These may include CE marking, UKCA, relevant ISO certifications, etc.
• Where relevant, the NICE Digital Health Technology Framework and the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC) should be consulted and your application should evidence your plan to meet the appropriate evidence guidelines.
• How will the proposed solution impact the care system and how will the system need to be changed (including people, processes and culture) in order to deliver system-wide benefits?
• How will you ensure that the innovation will be acceptable to patients (and their families and wider support network) and to health and social care workers?
• How will you ensure that the innovation is affordable and sustainable to the NHS and wider systems such as Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) 
• How will you ensure that the innovation enhances equity of access, such as different demographics and geographies?
• All proposed technologies should take into consideration interoperability i.e. appropriate integration with electronic patient records (EPR) systems.