September 2023 Newsletter

Accelerating innovation in Medtech: Techscaler & NHS Innovation Hubs

Techscaler and the Regional Innovation Hubs are embarking on a new collaboration to inspire NHS colleagues, startups, and life science academics alike to get involved and find solutions for the biggest health challenges.

An event will be taking place at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh from 1 – 3pm on Friday 22nd September 2023 to discover more about how the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientific Office and the Techscaler programme are working together to support the development of skills that will fast-track ideation and growth of innovative health solutions.

Reducing Drug Deaths CSO Innovation Challenge - Tackling Drug-Related Harm Across the UK

12 projects have been successfully awarded contracts in a £5 million fund to develop innovative solutions to reduce rates of fatal drug overdoses. As part of the Reducing Drug Deaths innovation challenge, run by the CSO in partnership with the UK’s Office for Life Sciences, these innovative projects will aim to reduce drug-related deaths and harm across the whole of the UK and help people who use drugs and their support networks to work together to save lives.

The winning projects will operate across all 4 nations of the UK and range from AI technologies to detect overdoses, to emergency systems using drone technology to deliver antidotes, and wearable technologies such as smart watches or breathing monitors to detect overdoses and alert healthcare professionals, family or members of the community to the need to intervene.

NIHR & OLS Cancer Mission: Early Cancer Diagnosis Clinical Validation and Evaluation Call

The NIHR i4i Programme, in collaboration with the Office for Life Sciences (OLS), is inviting applications to the Cancer Mission: Early Cancer Diagnosis Clinical Validation and Evaluation Call. The funding competition of up to £12 million intends to provide funding for the clinical validation (assessing that the approach does what it is intended to do, accurately and reproducibly in real people in a clinical setting) and evaluation (assessing whether the approach informs clinical practice in the intended way and/or has clinical impact on patient outcomes) of innovations with the potential to increase the early detection and diagnosis of cancer.

An online briefing for the call, including the application and assessment process will be held on 6th October 2023.

Applications open on 24th October 2023 and close on 12th December 2023.

Heriot-Watt contributes to £4.6 million sustainable design project for health services

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University are contributing to a health sector sustainable design project that has just been awarded more than £4.6 million in funding. The Design HOPES project – standing for Healthy Organisations in a Place-based Ecosystem, Scotland – is led by researchers at the Universities of Strathclyde and Dundee and has been awarded the funding by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

The £4.625m award is one of four Green Transition Ecosystem investments, which aim to address distinct challenges posed by the climate crisis including, but not limited to, realising net zero goals.

NHS Lothian Nominated at the AHSN Innovate Awards 2023

NHS Lothian is a finalist of this year’s AHSN Innovate Award for Outstanding Collaboration with Industry for their integration of vCreate, a secure online healthcare communication tool, used by NHS Lothian to share photos and video clips of patients in adult critical care and staff to family members.

Winners of the awards will be announced at a ceremony to be held on 21st September 2023

vCreate Test of Change Project

The second intake of applications for test-of-change pilots of the vCreate system from services across Scotland allied to neurology are now being welcomed including all core adult and paediatric neurological services. Applications are now being considered from clinical services who feel that they may be able to benefit from this service and are happy to collate evaluation data from their use.

This will involve the clinical service using vCreate for a period of up to 12 months, collecting and analysing usability data that can be used to evaluate the next steps for the vCreate Neuro project.

The deadline for applications is 15th October 2023.

Exciting Opportunity: CSO Innovation Academic Fellowship for NHS Scotland Early Career Innovators

We are excited to announce the launch of a new round of the CSO Innovation Academic Fellowship, aimed at empowering early-stage innovators within NHS Scotland. This fellowship presents a unique opportunity for NHS Scotland clinicians (non-consultant grade doctors, dentists, NMAHPs and healthcare scientists) early in their careers to pursue a higher degree (MD or PhD) with 100% funding, including university fees. Up to 3 places will be available across Scotland.

Applications close at midday on 12th October 2023.

Applicants can carry out projects in one of these impactful themes:

1. Innovation in Cancer Pathways

2. Innovation for Long Term Conditions Optimization

3. Innovation for Long Term Conditions Diagnostics

Lothian, Fife, and Borders colleagues interested in applying can contact Innovations@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk for informal enquiries.

NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme – Applications opening soon!

Are you a problem solver, creative thinker, or innovator working in NHS Scotland? Do you have an idea you wish to develop and scale for patient benefit? The NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme (CEP) may be for you! The CEP is a one-year entrepreneurial workforce development programme which is open to all NHS staff.

Applications open on 2nd October and close on 29th October 2023, with cohort 8 starting in March 2024.

Several online sessions are available to join via the following link to help applicants through the process.

Empowering healthcare professionals to transform services through innovation webinar

Introduced and led by InnoScot Health’s Head of Project Management Gillian Henderson and Project Manager Paula Sweeten, the next webinar will be a fantastic chance for attendees to learn more about the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme (CEP), hear first-hand experience of participants, and be inspired to get involved in driving forward healthcare innovation.

The webinar will take place on 17th September from 12 – 1pm.

The Scotsman Data Conference 2023

How will data and artificial intelligence (AI) shape the way we live and work in the future? How will they shape future healthcare, future energy supplies, the future workforce and more? And how is Edinburgh leading the way as it seeks to be Europe’s Data Capital of the future?

Join the Scotsman Data Conference 2023 on 27th September 2023 at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh find out more.

DigiFest2023 - Registration & Abstract Submission closing soon!

DigiFest23, Scotland’s annual digital health, housing, and care event, will combine a programme of free-to-attend, virtual and in-person satellite sessions from October 2023, with a one-day in-person event on Thursday 14th December 2023. The in-person conference on 14th December 2023 is taking place at the University of Strathclyde, Technology & Innovation Centre, Glasgow.

Registration is open and the deadline for abstract submissions is 5pm on 9th October 2023.

Clinical Academic Fellowships - Applications Open

The Clinical Academic Fellowship Scheme is now open for applications! This scheme aims to build research capacity in the Scottish NHS as such it provides the opportunity for clinical professionals early in their career to undertake a PhD. The eligibility for this scheme includes doctors and dentists in training, GPs, GDP’s, NMAHPS, Healthcare scientists and Pharmacists.

Applications close at 12pm on 12th October 2023.

Latest funding opportunities

Check out all the latest health and care funding opportunities from across the sector on the funding section of our website.