News
North West Patients to Benefit from £580,000 ‘Good Ideas’ Award
Patients across the North West will benefit from a major funding award designed to help NHS staff turn good ideas into exciting new treatments and services.
TrusTECH, the North West NHS Innovation hub which helps NHS staff to develop ideas which could benefit patients, has been awarded £580,000 by the government’s Public Sector Research Exploitation (PSRE) fund. It made one of 33 successful bids to the £68 million fund, which provides money to support the initial stages of commercialising research.
The money will provide pump-priming funding for research into new products, treatments and services by NHS staff. Awards of between £5,000 and £25,000 will be given to staff to help with product trials, filing patents and setting up commercial collaborations. The PSRE funding runs for two years from 2009 to 2011, with £100,000 a year available to staff entrepreneurs. The remaining money will be used to recruit specialist technology and business development staff. They will be responsible for transferring successful new products, technology and treatments from the lab or ward into commercial production.
“Frontline NHS staff have some great ideas for improving patient care and developing new treatments, and it’s our job to provide the practical support to make their ideas a reality,” explained Dr Richard Deed, Innovation Unit Manager at TrusTECH.
“We already have a number of exciting developments in the pipeline, including new surgical devices, clinical training materials and patient monitoring software systems. We estimate that licensing activity and the creation of spin-out companies will return around £1.4 million over five years to the NHS in the North West, to fund even more research and innovation.”
This is the second recent major funding win for TrusTECH. It has also been awarded significant funding through the National Innovation Centre (NIC) by the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA) to run the national Smart Solutions project. This is a programme targeting SMEs across a wide range of sectors who may be able to use their expertise to help the NHS develop products to beat bugs like MRSA and C.difficile.
Science and Innovation Minister Ian Pearson announced the successful bids at an event in London today (June 23 2008).
Mr Pearson said: “Public sector organisations are involved in innovative research that could lead to more effective tests for diseases and improved health care for patients. That’s why the Public Sector Research Exploitation fund is so important in taking great research and turning it into great business ideas.”
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) has provided £30m in funding for the PSRE. An additional £38m has come from over a dozen other organisations, including government departments, research councils, charities and others.
Ends
Notes to Editors
TrusTECH is the North West NHS Innovation Hub and helps NHS staff in the North West to identify and protect innovative technologies, ideas and services that could be commercialised or shared to improve patient care.
TrusTECH also facilitates collaborations between commercial organisations and the NHS to develop innovative technologies and improve healthcare.
The 33 bids from across the UK were assessed by an Advisory Board, which made a recommendation to Ministers on which bids should be funded. Click here to view the names of the Advisory Board.
For more information, please contact:
- Emma Smith, Communications Officer, TrusTECH, on 0161 276 6964
- Rhys Stacker, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) press office, on 0207 300 8105.
Full list of bids receiving funding
Bid |
Funding |
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (Northern Ireland) |
£990,000 |
Commercialisation of research in BBSRC Institutes |
£1,576,740 |
Commercialisation of research in NERC institutes |
£964,680 |
Commercialisation of research in six Government Laboratories led by Central Science Laboratory |
£1,535,800 |
Commercialisation of research in three Government Laboratories in the South West led by Plymouth Marine Laboratory |
£998,444 |
Commercialisation of research at Dstl (ex MoD research agency) and Atomic Weapons Establishment |
£ 780,072 |
Development of an online museum game by the National Museums Liverpool and the Royal Air Force Museum |
£182,305 |
East of England NHS Innovation Hub |
£898,000 |
Environment Agency |
£470,000 |
Forest Research |
£865,000 |
Health Protection Agency |
£544,000 |
London NHS Innovation Hub |
£1,500,000 |
| Moredun Research Institute, Institute of Animal Health and Scottish Crop Research Institute | £1,168,780 |
National Museums Liverpool |
£100,000 |
National Physical Laboratory |
£987,000 |
Natural England |
£670,000 |
Natural History Museum forensic entomology consultancy service |
£278,733 |
NHS Innovation Hub for the North West of England |
£580,662 |
Proof of Concept fund led by Central Science Laboratory and covering six Government Laboratories |
£1,460,000 |
Roslin Foundation Stem Cell Commercialisation Unit |
£614,000 |
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew |
£360,000 |
Scottish Association of Marine Science |
£477,200 |
Scottish NHS Innovation Hub |
£1,300,000 |
Sea Mammal Research Unit |
£823,500 |
Seed fund for the London NHS Innovation Hub |
£2,000,000 |
Seed fund lead by Moredun Research Institute and covering ten Government Laboratories |
£3,000,000 |
South East NHS Innovation Hub |
£700,000 |
STFC led bid to fund entrepreneurs in residence in spin out companies supported by the Rainbow Seed Fund (which covered eleven Government Laboratories and Research Councils) |
£1,500,000 |
Tate |
£582,865 |
Forensic Science Service |
£703,150 |
Veterinary Laboratories Agency |
£405,000 |
West Midlands NHS Innovation Hub |
£986,000 |
Yorkshire and the Humber NHS Innovation Hub |
£593,300 |