Advancing innovation on an international scale Phil Shelton, Head of Industry Partnerships and Net Zero Lead, shares how Health Innovation East is working with partners to advance innovation internationally. Health and care is all of our responsibility. No matter who we are and where we are from, we will all, at some point in our lives, be affected by a health challenge. Because of this and because we want to implement great ideas for those who need them most, we are widening our horizons to introduce transformational technologies from around the world to the UK and to enable the best home-grown innovations to succeed in international markets. Landing in the East of England We are ideally positioned to help companies explore the UK market space for their products and solutions and support the decision process to pursue the NHS as a viable market. Once the decision has been made, we then guide international companies to set up their UK operations in the region through our network of specialist legal, tax and investment partners. In partnership with the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) we delivered a series of International Innovator Masterclasses (IIMs) to help innovators from Australia and the Asia-Pacific region to understand the requirements for incorporation in the UK. The IIMs covered essential topics including how to access finance and funding and how to network and scale organisations in the UK. 21 companies joined the masterclasses representing a wide variety of innovative healthcare products and services. In October 2023 our exploratory trade mission, in partnership with the Department for Business and Trade in Argentina, identified and built new relationships with strategic stakeholders and organisations to help secure opportunities for export and import wins in Latin America. Since the trip we have developed a partnership with Globant, a global digital transformation company located in Argentina. Together we are exploring digital use-cases with our local health and care systems in the Cogniss to Cambridge areas of AI and net zero. There was also an opportunity to Cogniss, is an Australian no-code app development connect with venture capital investors Cites, who support the company that with our support has made the transition to set development of scientific and technological startups. Our up its base in the UK. Now situated at The Bradfield Centre partnership enables companies to assess and access the UK on Cambridge Science Park, the company plans to create 45 market and, where appropriate, to incorporate. Following the new skilled, high-value jobs within the next three years. success of our IIMs with Austrade, we will host an IIM series in partnership with Cites for Argentinian companies in April 2024. Health Innovation East is rapidly establishing itself as a credible partner for Argentinian companies seeking to enter the UK health and care market. We also developed relationships in the Asia-Pacific region in the last year, partnering with Malaysias central research & innovation commercialisation agency (MRANTI) and the Department of Business and Trade in Malaysia. The partnership connects life sciences innovations to develop a bilateral innovation exchange and commercialisation pathway. We are delighted to establish Cogniss in the East of England and we are grateful to Health Innovation East for connecting us with their partners in the region and helping to ensure a seamless transition to the UK. The vibrant health and life sciences ecosystem is one of the reasons we chose to establish ourselves in Cambridge so that we would be closely positioned with world-leading, innovative partners. Dr Lloyd Humphreys, Cogniss, UK managing director Supporting outbound innovation We attended the ABHI US Accelerator Trade Mission Programme in Florida to help promote UK HealthTech companies and represent the wider NHS. Florida is the second largest employer for medical device manufacturing in the whole US, and a major state for HealthTech companies entering the market with a foundation of more than 45,000 healthcare establishments (1). The trade mission provided the ideal platform for 25 innovative companies to establish their presence in the US and begin upscaling their business. One of the participants, Definition Health, was subsequently invited to join our Scale Up: expansion programme, the intensive growth strategy development programme we offer in partnership with the Triple Chasm Company. Building on our work to establish relationships in the Asia-Pacific region, our first life sciences forum in Tokyo provided a platform for seven UK companies to connect with Japanese senior healthcare leaders, investors and ministries. The event was supported by the British Embassy in Tokyo and sponsored by Glocal Solutions Japan. Following the forum, we are working collaboratively with AstraZeneca and the Department of Business and Trade to support the introduction of UK life sciences companies into the Japanese market and Japanese innovations into the UK. The team also joined Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber to represent the Health Innovation Network at Arab Health, the largest healthcare and medical trade show in the Middle East. As a result, we have supported five companies with export programmes with the opportunity to pitch to PureHealth the largest integrated healthcare network in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Furthermore, we connected with Dubai Health (the main public sector healthcare provider in UAE) and Mediclinic (a rapidly growing private healthcare provider in UAE) with the aim of providing even greater coverage for selected innovators wanting to expand into the Middle East and attend Arab Health 2025. Share this article Return to About Us Find out how we can help you to go international, email philip.shelton@healthinnovationeast.co.uk or visit our website Up next: Read how we are working with organisations to support the NHS in achieving its net zero ambitions. References 1 ABHI. (2023). ABHI US Accelerator. [Online]. ABHI. Last Updated: 2023. Available at: www.abhi.org.uk/media/4l2fjste/us-accelerator-overview-booklet.pdf [Accessed 20 April 2024].