Contracts for Innovation: READ-OUT Digital Cognitive Dementia Assessments (UK)

The competition is a demonstrator and aims to accelerate innovation in dementia based digital cognitive assessments (DCA). High maturity DCA innovations will be deployed and assessed as part of the READ-OUT (REAl-world Dementia OUTcomes) blood based biomarker study and feed into the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative System Preparedness project.

Your proposed DCA must demonstrate significant accuracy and specificity to the progression and correlation of diseases that can cause dementia. The University of Oxford will support and facilitate the real world use of the DCA test at READ-OUT clinical sites.

You must demonstrate how proven DCA technologies can be integrated into an NHS environment for the first time as ‘first of a kind’ demonstrations. This competition will support innovative suppliers in preparation for market readiness.

Specific Themes

• Your proposed DCA should evaluate the key cognitive domains, including:
  • processing speed
  • episodic memory
  • recognition memory
  • executive function
• Variations or extensions to this list of cognitive domains will be considered but would require strong justification.

Research Categories

• Prototype development and evaluation
  • This can include prototyping, demonstrating, piloting, testing and validation of new or improved products, processes or services in environments representative of real-life operating conditions. The primary objective is to make further technical improvements on products, processes or services that are not substantially set.

Funding Information

• A total of up to £1.2 million, inclusive of VAT, is allocated to this competition. The contract is for up to 20 months and they expect to fund two projects.
• The total funding available for the competition can change. The funders have the right to adjust the provisional funding allocation.
• The contract is completed at the end of the competition and the successful organisation is expected to pursue commercialisation of their solution.
• Value Added Tax (VAT)
  • You must select whether you are VAT registered before entering your eligible project costs.
  • VAT is the responsibility of the invoicing business. They will not provide any further advice and suggest you seek independent advice from HMRC.
• VAT registered
  • If you select you are VAT registered, you must enter your eligible project costs exclusive of VAT. As part of the application process VAT will be automatically calculated and added to your project cost total. Your total eligible project costs inclusive of VAT must not exceed £600,000.
• Not VAT registered
  • If you select you are not VAT registered, you must enter your eligible project costs exclusive of VAT and no VAT will be added. You will not be able to increase total project costs to cover VAT later should you become VAT registered. Your total project costs must not exceed £600,000.
• Research and development (R&D)
  • Your application must have at least 50% of the contract value attributed directly and exclusively to R&D services, including solution exploration and design. R&D can also include prototyping and field-testing the product or service. This lets you incorporate the results of your exploration and design and demonstrate that you can produce in quantity to acceptable quality standards.

Ineligible Projects

• They will not fund projects that:
  • are not original in scope and duplicates someone else’s work
  • cannot evidence capacity and preparedness to participate
  • do not have a detailed plan to utilise the data resources in the READ-OUT study
  • do not have appropriate regulatory approvals in place
  • do not have a robust plan to commercialise
  • are not likely to be successfully exploited by the NHS to deliver benefits in clinical practice
  • are not within 24 months of being ready for market
  • are for initial exploration of ideas or low technology readiness prototypes
  • do not have DCAs
  • have a DCA test that cannot be completed by people with mild to moderate dementia
  • do not demonstrate the required scientific specificity or sensitivity
  • have a DCA that cannot be administered by non-experts
  • are not accessible to people with mild cognitive impairment or mild to moderate dementia and their carers
  • are not acceptable to the PPIE group and do not pass their assessment

Eligibility Criteria

• Your project
  • Your project must:
    • start on 1 August 2025
    • last up to 20 months
    • end by 31 March 2027
    • have total costs of no more than £600,000 inclusive of VAT
• Applicant
  • To lead a project, you can:
    • be an organisation of any size
    • work with the subcontracted skills and expertise of others from business, research organisations, research and technology organisations, or the third sector (charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups)
  • Contracts will be awarded to a single legal entity only. The majority of the project work and key deliverables must be completed by the applicant and be carried out in the UK. Subcontractors can be used, but only for specialist skills.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.