September 2024 Newsletter

NHS laboratory specimens delivered by drone for first time by Project CAELUS

In the month of August, NHS laboratory specimens were delivered by drone for first time during live flight trials between the Edinburgh BioQuarter next to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Borders General Hospital in Melrose. These trials are part of Project CAELUS, a national innovation project aiming to test the use of drones as a way of delivering vital medical supplies, including essential medicines, blood, samples, and other crucial healthcare items throughout Scotland including to remote communities. HISES colleagues developed test scenarios to demonstrate validated real-life use cases and trialling what could be the UK’s first national distribution. This is an important milestone for the project, made possible through the regional Innovation Hubs, funded through the CSO, demonstrating that NHS Scotland has an innovation ready health service. HISES are proud to have been involved and now look forward to other regions testing more potential use cases by drone across Scotland in the coming months.

Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer says innovation can help address future challenges and drive sustainable healthcare

Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer has said innovation can help drive sustainable healthcare as the country faces rising disease levels and climate change. In his annual report, Sir Gregor Smith said healthcare innovation is ‘central to the pursuit of wellbeing, equity, and Scotland’s wider socioeconomic success’. The report further highlights Sir Gregor’s pride in Scotland’s network of innovation test beds which are translating discovery science into reality and improving lives. He also champions the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) pathway which “can ensure the quick and safe rollout of tech innovations” and the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) Innovation Academic Fellowships which will “help strengthen our innovation culture”.

Scotland’s First Minister puts innovators at the heart of economic recovery

First Minister John Swinney has vowed to “intensify” support for innovators and entrepreneurs to make Scotland a “start-up and scale-up nation”. Swinney argued this was a “critical” step to make Scotland “attractive to investors”, as he delivered his first programme for government to the chamber. The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2024/25 includes a section on the commitment to our national innovation programme in healthcare. This is set out in the “Ensuring High Quality and Sustainable Public Services” section.

“Transforming our approach to innovation across health and social care by building a new partnership between Government, the NHS, academic institutions, and industry. We will accelerate the ability to undertake commercial clinical trials, introducing new technologies through three Regional Innovation Hubs, providing new opportunities to grow Scotland’s cluster of life science businesses, and using our ANIA pathway to adopt research proven innovations.”

Techscaler partners with The Open University

Techscaler is to partner with distance learning pioneer The Open University on startup education – boosting learning opportunities for digital founders. The Scottish Government’s flagship £42 million tech start-up education and mentoring programme will work with one of the UK’s largest universities on supporting entrepreneurs. CodeBase – which runs the scheme on behalf of government – will work closely with the university to ‘accelerate co-learning opportunities, including co-creation of educational content and drive start-up and entrepreneurial activity’.

Edinburgh & South East Scotland City Region Deal Annual Report 2023 – 2024

The Edinburgh & South East Scotland City Region Deal Annual Report is out! 24% of Scotland’s population benefits from this transformative £1.5bn investment in the Edinburgh & SE Scotland City Region Deal. Designed to boost productivity & inclusive growth through infrastructure, skills and innovation, it’s already making a huge impact with £2.2bn added to the economy, 20,000 job opportunities created, 900 SMEs supported, and 500 apprenticeships & internships supported.

Open data in Scotland: a blueprint for unlocking innovation, collaboration and impact

The Scottish Government has the opportunity to unlock the potential of open data to drive innovation, foster collaboration and generate impact. To do this, it needs to set out a strong vision for open data in Scotland, then coordinate and promote its publication and use.

New webinar encourages healthcare innovators to look ‘beyond the idea’

After a summer break, formal NHS Scotland partner InnoScot Health is resuming its 2024 webinar series on Wednesday 25th September with an interactive ‘lunch & learn’ session from 12-12.45pm entitled Beyond the Idea: Business tools to support healthcare innovators in achieving success. It will be led by Head of Project Management, Gillian Henderson who will be introducing the lean canvas and business model canvas, showing their value in refining, and positioning a concept, and exploring market fit.

The webinar will further welcome well-known life sciences events speaker Alix Mackay, who will utilise her own hands-on experience to share what entrepreneurial tools for innovators look like in practice while providing an overview on the importance of elements that are instrumental in bringing a product to commercialisation and laying the foundations for further success.

HDR UK Scotland and CSO Joint Webinar

HDR UK Scotland and the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) will be hosting a joint webinar on Monday 23rd September 2024 at 12.00 on Zoom. This webinar will give an introduction to both the CSO and the CSO Innovation Fellowship Programme. Attendees will hear presentations from the CSO team, along with a talk from a current Innovation Fellow about their research in synthetic population data.

Drive Innovation in Women’s Health: Apply Now for the Accelerating FemTech Programme!

Accelerating FemTech helps UK-based, early-stage companies, university spinouts and entrepreneurial-minded academics focused on women’s health to gain the commercial and funding momentum they need for long-term success. Accelerating FemTech offers bespoke support, targeted workshops, and mentoring to enhance product development, entrepreneurship skills and stakeholder engagement across the NHS and academia. The programme is delivered by the Health Innovation Network (HIN) South London and partners across the UK. It utilises Innovate UK funding as part of the Biomedical Catalyst, in collaboration with the Medical Research Council. The second cohort will run between November 2024 and March 2025. Applications are open until midnight on 13 October 2024.

NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme Key 2024 Application Dates

Are you an NHS staff member with a flair for innovation and a vision for improving patient care? If you have a great idea but need support bringing it to life, the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme (CEP) could be for you! This free, 1-year long programme, is open to all NHS staff across the U.K. (both clinical and non-clinical). It provides learning, opportunities and experiences through which entrepreneurs develop the commercial skills to accelerate their innovations, in turn helping to transform patient care, as well as providing them with the entrepreneurial knowledge that will help them in their day jobs.

• Applications open:  8am on 1st October 2024
• Applications close: 6pm on 29th October 2024
• Review and assessment phase: November – December 2024
• Outcome notification: January 2025
• Programme starts: Late February / early March 2025

Secure your FREE place at Public Sector Cloud Services, Infrastructure and AI 2024

Holyrood’s annual Cloud conference will return to Dynamic Earth in central Edinburgh on 24th September 2024. The revamped event will delve into Public Sector Cloud Services, Infrastructure and AI, featuring speakers from the Scottish Government, Skills Development Scotland, SCVO, Digital Office for Scottish Local Government, Forestry and Land Scotland, Woxsen University and more!

Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing: Expression of interest

Innovate UK, part of UKRI, will work with the Department of Health and Social Care to invest up to £1 million in expression of interest (EoI) projects for Grand Challenges in sustainable medicines manufacturing. This funding is part of the Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Programme. This competition will help unlock potential by giving organisations the capacity to collaborate in developing new innovations, technologies, tools, data sets and approaches that can ultimately contribute to a sustainable medicines manufacturing sector. Grant funding requests for the EoI phase can be up to £100,000 with the competition closing at 11am on Wednesday 16th October 2024.

Latest funding opportunities for Invention for Innovation (i4i)

The NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme is a translational research funding scheme aimed at medical devices, in vitro diagnostic devices and digital health technologies addressing an existing or emerging health or social care need. The i4i Programme has 3 funding streams: Product Development Awards (PDA) (now with an expanded remit to include real-world evaluation), Connect and i4i FAST. The next i4i Product Development Awards funding call will launch on 10th October 2024 (PDA Call 29). The call will be supported by Orthopaedic Research UK. Check out the Latest funding opportunities for Invention for Innovation on their website and upcoming competition and webinar dates.

Heriot-Watt's Healthy Ageing Showcase

Join us on Wednesday 2nd October 2024, at Heriot-Watt University for an afternoon dedicated to research that promotes health and wellbeing as we age. The Healthy Ageing Showcase offers an opportunity to hear from the people leading and participating in a range of research projects. These include developing and trialling new and innovative technologies that support and enhance healthy lifestyles, to the ways our homes and urban environments can be designed to encourage opportunities for healthy ageing, to robotic and assistive devices enabling people with different needs to live independently for longer.

Holyrood Digital Health and Care Scotland Conference 2025

Holyrood’s flagship Digital Health and Care Conference returns to Dynamic Earth on 18th and 19th February 2025. Bringing together representatives from across the public and third sectors with those working in industry, Holyrood’s annual Digital Health and Care conference will consider the latest policy developments and technological advancements. Through a range of panel sessions, masterclasses and keynote addresses, delegates will have the opportunity to engage in discussions around remote monitoring, e-prescribing, AI and cyber security. It provides a platform to collaborate and share learnings as we look to drive innovation and speed up implementation of technology within the health and social care space.

Holyrood Annual Digital Health and Care Awards 2025 – Nominations Open!

As well as the Digital Health and Care Conference, Holyrood will be hosting the Digital Health and Care Awards on 18th February 2025. This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the achievements of those working within the digital health, care, and housing sectors, so if you know of any inspiring individuals or organisations, nominate now! Nominations will close on Monday 6th January 2025 at 23.59 and the shortlist will be announced on Monday 20th January 2025.

British Heart Foundation Healthcare Innovation Fund Round 3 Open!

Through the Healthcare Innovation Fund, The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is seeking to test and evaluate innovative approaches to the delivery of improved services for patients with cardiovascular disease. Round 3 closes on Monday 4th November 2024 at midday.

Previous calls have sought applications on ideas which:

• Identified an unmet need that required further scoping and consensus building around need and potential solutions.
• Had been scoped by an appropriate group of stakeholders and were ready to be tested and evaluated in practice.
• Had been tested locally by an appropriate group of stakeholders and were ready for early stage of scaling.

Applications must be supported by an NHS Regional Innovation Hub. An information webinar will be hosted on Wednesday 9th October 2024 from 4pm – 5.30pm. Please contact healthcareinnovation@bhf.org.uk to register.

Public Sector shortlist unveiled for Futurescot AI Challenge

Three public sector bodies have been unveiled on a shortlist for the first Futurescot AI Challenge. The three selected entrants will receive a workshop from Storm ID to develop ‘proof of concepts’ (POCs), which will be showcased at Digital Scotland on 26th November in Edinburgh. For further information visit here and stay tuned to hear about the Futurescot AI Challenge 2025 – launching soon!

DigitalScotland 2024 Conference Launch – Registration open!

Registration for DigitalScotland 2024 is officially open which will take place on 26th November 2024, at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. DigitalScotland 2024 is the leading forum to hear about how digital and data are transforming the way our public services operate and fulfil their mission to be modern, responsive, and designed around the needs of citizens.

Designed to bring together digital and data professionals from across the public sector, the full-day event is a must-attend and features a fantastic line-up of 50+ speakers, 50+ industry partners and 1,200+ attendees to explore the latest trends, share insights and showcase innovative solutions to the challenges facing Scotland’s citizens.

Announcing Public Sector Data Summit 2025

Holyrood Connect’s annual Public Sector Data Summit is returning to Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh for another year! Join us on 13th March 2025 to hear about the latest developments in data and AI, and learn how to maximise their potential. Through a variety of session formats, including keynote addresses, interactive panel discussions and masterclasses, you will hear valuable insights on making the most of your data, how to store it securely, and how to address concerns around AI and ethics.