Cancer Innovation Challenge – United Kingdom

Improving how they diagnose and treat cancer is a national and regional priority, therefore they are looking to support innovations tackling any cancer type, from across the care pathway and/or supporting cross cutting themes such as health equity. Up to three teams will be awarded with a real world evaluation, and business support over a six-month period to support innovators to maximise learning about the implementation of their innovations.

The Cancer Innovation Challenge aims to provide evaluation and business support for up to three innovator-implementation site teams working in the field of cancer in the South West region. The Cancer Innovation Challenge aims to:

• Identify promising innovation in cancer in the South West region.
• Accelerate and support the learning and knowledge base around cancer innovation.
• Support innovators to understand the conditions for success in scaling and spreading their innovation.

Areas of Interest for the Cancer Innovation Challenge

• Early Detection & Diagnosis
  • Identification and early detection in high-risk populations and those experiencing barriers to access.
  • Early detection awareness and education programmes.
• Cancer Management
  • Personalised care plans including treatment, monitoring, information and support.
  • Data analysis solutions such as risk stratification, and personalised screening.
• Reducing Inequalities
  • Closing health equity gaps in access to care, quality of care, opportunities for a healthy life and agency in managing individual health.
• Improving Systems
  • Supporting the workforce.
  • Recovery of services and improving productivity following the COVID-19 pandemic.

They therefore invite innovators to apply for this exciting opportunity which include

• Full funding for a six-month (approximately 50 days) real world evaluation, delivered by the Health Innovation South West Evaluation and Learning team. Real world evaluations are an important step in an innovation’s journey. They offer evidence building of the impact of innovations and can support implementation. They can either deliver stand-alone evaluations or support with enhancing an existing evaluation. Full evaluation plans and resource will be confirmed with successful teams to best meet the needs of specific innovations.
• Enhancing an existing evaluation could for example, expand an existing evaluation to consider health equity, such as the impact of the innovation on rural and coastal communities.
• Successful teams will also receive a range of funded support such as business case development advice and guidance (approximately 10 days) from the Innovation Challenge delivery team.
• Innovators will be selected though a competitive process to identify high promise innovations that would benefit from the support offered to take their innovation to the next stage. Projects will run from August 2024 completing no later than March 2025. The awards are funded though the Health Innovation South West UK Office of Life Sciences commission.

Who can apply?

• Innovations where the impact is in NHS, social care and/or voluntary, community, social enterprise sector (VCSE) in the South West region inclusive of Devon, Somerset, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
• Applications must be led by an innovator. Lead organisations must be registered in England and could be: SME’s; Industry partners with small or medium-sized businesses; NHS and or Social Care organisations; Higher education institutions such as Universities (provided they are the innovator); Voluntary, community social enterprise sector organisations.
• There is no limit on the number of applications a lead applicant can submit; the innovations must be distinct. Lead applicants may only hold one Cancer Innovation Challenge award.
• The project team must be well-developed including a strong partnership between the innovator and implementation sites to ensure deliverability of the project within the timeframe of the Cancer Innovation Challenge. This would include the teams already working together or having a working agreement in place between innovators and relevant implementation sites.
• Applications must contribute match funding. For example, the applicants must fund the delivery of the project that it is seeking to be evaluated. This includes project costs such as the innovation, innovator and implementation site staff time to participate e.g. clinical backfill, project management. They encourage all partners in the application to consider their capacity to deliver on the proposal in the available scale and timeframe.
• Proposals contingent on unconfirmed funding (e.g. a current grant application where the outcome has not been confirmed) will not be eligible.

For more information, visit Health Innovation South West.