Funding for medical devices

Funding worth up to £100,000 has been made available to eleven companies working to develop innovative devices, products and services to improve the health of the UK.

The investment has been awarded as part of the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) East funding programme launched by NHS East of England, the East of England Development Agency, and the Technology Strategy Board in April this year.

The scheme invited companies to put forward ideas that can be turned into practical solutions to make a substantial difference in the areas of long-term condition management, patient safety and keeping children active. All proposals also had to show that they can contribute to achieving a low carbon environment.

Lord Mandelson, business secretary, said that the initiative had been expanded to include other public sector bodies, including the TSB. ‘The level of interest is very high, with 11 SMEs awarded Phase 1 contracts,’ he said. ‘The proposed solutions were in many cases new and genuinely innovative. And all the more important in the current environment is that the potential savings to the NHS run into the hundreds of millions.’