Important information - 8th April 2013

Please be aware the dates for the interview process have changed. All applicants will be informed by email of new dates and information in the near future. We apologies for any inconvenience caused.

This Competition is now closed

The Department of Health has opened two new SBRI competitions with a total of £5million funding available to develop technological and innovative solutions that can:

• Improve experience for people with mental health illnesses; or
  
  
• Improve experience for people at the end of their life.

This funding is part of the Government’s commitment to help improve care for patients with long-term conditions and ensure high quality care and support offered to dying people in their final days and hours.

The competitions are open to single companies or organisations from the private, public and third sectors, including charities and will be run in two phases. Developments will be 100% funded and winners for each project will be selected in an open competition process and retain the intellectual property rights (IPR) generated from the project, with certain rights of use retained by the NHS and Department of Health.

Phase 1 is intended to show the technical feasibility of the proposed concept. The development contracts placed will be for a maximum of 6 months and £100,000 (inc. VAT) per project. In Phase 1 we expect to select around 8-12 projects, with a total sum of funding available of up to £1.2m across both competitions.

Only those projects that have completed Phase 1 successfully will be eligible for Phase 2. Phase 2 contracts are intended to develop and evaluate prototypes or demonstration units from the more promising technologies in Phase 1.

The projects will be selected primarily on their potential value to the health service and on the improved outcomes delivered for patients.

The competition closes for entries on 28 February 2013 but you can attend one of the Briefing Events being arranged in January to hear more details about the scope of the challenge and the application process. You can download the competition documents, including the application form and guidance notes, from the link on the left hand side of this page.