Small Business Research Initiative for Healthcare (SBRI)
SBRI Healthcare is a cutting-edge programme that supports the development of new innovations which meet known NHS challenges. The Small Business Research Initiative for Healthcare (SBRI) programme runs competitions for innovations identified as an unmet need.
This demand-led approach enables industry to respond directly to healthcare challenges and feeds the innovation pipeline with products that have an existing demand from the NHS. This allows for faster adoption and spread of these products benefitting patients.
The aim of the programme is to:
- Improve patient care
- Enable the NHS to access new innovations through research and development that solve identified healthcare challenges and unmet need.
- Increase value for the NHS.
- Bring economic value and wealth creation opportunity to the UK economy.
Case study: Breath-based tests to detect cancer
Over 180 companies have been funded with NHS England support to create solutions. Nearly 30% of these new products have already made it to the life science market-place and 11% are selling abroad creating exports for the UK economy. Many more will come to market in the coming years.
One of the programme’s success stories is Owlstone Medical Ltd which produces breath based tests for the detection of lung and colorectal cancer raising £56m worth of investment to fund its breath biopsy since 2016.