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NIHR Healthcare Technology Co-operatives

The NIHR infrastructure funding for Healthcare Technology Co-operatives (HTCs) enables NHS Organisations to act as centres of expertise that focus in clinical areas or themes of high morbidity and unmet need for NHS patients. Working collaboratively with industry, they develop new medical devices, healthcare technologies or technology-dependent interventions, which improve treatment and quality of life for patients.

The aims of the NIHR Healthcare Technology Co-operatives are to:

·      Act as a catalyst for NHS “pull” for the development of new medical devices, healthcare technologies and technology-dependent interventions.

·      Focus on clinical areas and/or themes of high morbidity which have high potential for improving quality of life of NHS patients and improving the effectiveness of healthcare services that support them.

·      Work collaboratively with patients and patient groups, charities, industry and academics.

New HTC Competition
The NIHR has launched a new competition for NIHR Healthcare Technology Co-operatives (HTCs). The new NIHR HTC scheme builds on learning from two pilot HTC’s.

A briefing meeting for potential applicants will be held on the 29 February 2012. The closing date for submission of the Pre-Qualifying Questionnaire by NHS Trusts in England, is 19 April 2012.

Further information about the HTC competition and how to apply.

Read the press release.


Pilot HTCs
Two pilot HTC’s were funded in 2008 by the NIHR, through the Invention for Innovation funding programme,  in partnership with the Technology Strategy Board, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council  and the Medical Research Council:

·      The Devices for Dignity (D4D) HTC – develop new healthcare products to empower people with long-term debilitating conditions that affect their dignity and independence.

·      The Bowel Function HTC – identifies and develops new devices and procedures to improve the lives of people with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, bowel cancer and other disorders affecting the way the bowels work.

Their innovations include a dignity bidet commode developed for stroke survivors which won an NHS Innovation Award in 2009, and the APPEAR and SMART surgical procedures and instrumentation for bowel surgery which was awarded the prestigious Cutlers’ Surgical Award in 2011.