Innovation Pipeline funding

What is the funding program?

The innovation pipeline will provide in-depth tailored training to Digital Innovators working on “real” problems. This pipeline will guide the innovators from ideation through to pilot funding.  

We will hold regular ‘Call for problems’, where applicant Innovators will receive support clarifying and defining the problems they identify could be solved with Digital Health Data by applying the double diamond process.

We will help innovators form multidisciplinary teams through an in person ideas-development invitational sandpit hosted at the AWRC in Sheffield. Innovators will scope the problem, identify necessary expertise, discuss with patient/public representatives, consult expert clinician, industry and software developer groups, and map potential solutions and strategies. By the end of the event the teams will have shaped their initial ideas and have a plan to develop a full proposal. 

Following the sandpit each team will be assigned a mentor to help and guide them through the process. Innovators will be signposted to training resources and concept test with PPIE panels and gain feedback to build innovative solutions and strong proposals.

After a two month period of development Innovators will be invited to apply to the Digital Health Hub for pilot funding. A written application detailing the innovation, its impact, the suitability of the team and how PPIE has shaped the process, will be accompanied by a live pitch to the funding panel.

What is the process?

The initial cohort will be guided through the innovation pipeline throughout 2024.   

• 21st December (2023) - Call for participants
• 25th January -  Webinar 12-1pm
• 1st - 15th February Sandpit applications open
• 4th March - Sandpit
• April - Concept testing with PPIE
• June - Funding Panel applications

What are we looking to fund?

Through our regular "Calls for problems" we will support project teams and train them in Digital Health, providing the most promising ideas with initial project funding to help take these towards potential commercialisation. All funding will be subject to EPSRC and UKRI rules and all projects will be audited.

Who is eligible?

We expect to be able to fund:

• Staff time for those working in University, or NHS roles linked to Universities.
• Consumables, but not large pieces of equipment
• Travel for visits (e.g. to companies) or conferences to present data.

We do not expect to fund companies directly, but may be able to fund products or services.

What is the training?

We will produce sixty hours of training in Digital Health for researchers, clinicians, patients and the public, freely available and accredited through our partnership with YouTube's authoritative health content programme

The Digital Health training materials we produce will be freely available internationally with an unlimited reach, and will benefit all researchers in fields related to Digital Health. The outputs from our projects including innovative ways to engage end-users such as patients and clinicians will be widely disseminated to influence and benefit other researchers. Our training materials will be relevant not just for researchers; they will train patients and the public in how to engage with research, and will be applicable to a wide range of areas outside Digital Health.

How does PPIE guide our work?

At the South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub, actively engaging and involving members of the public is a central part of our mission. 

The goal and underpinning values of our work focus on supporting the development of digital health technologies and tools that should be of relevance to and direct use for diverse communities and engaging the communities directly to be co-creators of these tools.

We involve patients and members of the public in our work in several ways: 

We hold three Citizens' Juries in different parts of South Yorkshire to understand the public and patients' views of Digital Health and to help design our research. The outcome of our first Citizens Jury in Sheffield in November 2023 is available here. We will hold two more Citizens Jury in 2024-2025 in two other cities in South Yorkshire.

We co-prepare and co-deliver training materials for public, communities and public organisations, about how organisations and individuals can engage with projects on digital health funded by the Hub.

We identify and support the development of a Public and Patient Network and Citizens Panel to guide and evaluate the applications for funding for digital health tools by members of the public from a PPIE perspective and to ensure they follow the aims, priorities and recommendations of the Citizens Jury.