Health Innovation East helps support the transformation of promising ideas into solutions that deliver real impact – reaching the people, places, and problems where they are needed most.
As part our work with the Office for Life Sciences, the industry partnership team provides tailored support to innovators developing solutions to improve health and care, helping them successfully navigate the implementation challenges within the NHS.
Support is delivered through a ‘universal offer’, which includes reviewing and assessing innovations, providing advice and guidance through 1:1 sessions, and signposting to relevant toolkits and resources. Innovations that meet a defined readiness criteria and align with local integrated care system (ICS) priorities can also access enhanced support, designed to provided tailored support based on gap analysis to help accelerate adoption. This enhanced level of support includes brokering connections with NHS and social care, business case support and collaborating on grants and bids.
In 2025-26, the team has continued to go further to evolve this offer – developing new approaches that strengthen and extend the support available for innovators.
Health Innovation East plays a pivotal role in accelerating the development and adoption of digital health technologies through the Health Innovation East Digital Health Hub programme, delivered in partnership with Cogniss. This programme provides a structured, fully funded pathway for innovators to develop, test, and validate their digital health solutions.
Between 2025 and 2026, the programme supported its third cohort of 12 innovators, equipping them with a six-month package of technical development, clinical insight, and real-world validation. As a result, participants were able to significantly advance the maturity of their solutions, bringing them closer to deployment across healthcare settings and improving readiness for adoption within the NHS and wider care systems.
The programme creates tangible routes to market. Following completion, solutions can be launched as standalone digital products via the web or app stores. Alternatively, they can be securely maintained within the Digital Health Hub environment while innovators pursue further investment and scaling opportunities. This flexible model ensures that innovations are not only developed but sustained, reducing the risk of early-stage attrition.
Innovators also benefit from support aligned to the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC), including free access to our Self-Cert DTAC tool, and, where appropriate, health economic evidence gap analysis, value proposition development workshops, and access to 14 curated toolkits designed to support route-to-market activities. Support continues through to the final month of the programme, with dedicated guidance to help refine and strengthen their value proposition.
By accelerating time-to-market and strengthening the quality and credibility of digital solutions, the Digital Health Hub is directly contributing to improved patient care, increased system efficiency, and the growth of a robust digital health innovation pipeline.
Over the past year, Health Innovation East has expanded its international engagement, building strategic relationships with innovators and partners in Japan and India. These collaborations are enabling UK-developed innovations to scale globally. Furthermore, the collaborations facilitate the introduction of high-potential international solutions into the UK health and care ecosystem.
In November, Health Innovation East hosted senior representatives from HekaBio K.K., MEDISO (Japan’s Medical Innovation Support Office), and JETRO (Japan External Trade Organisation) to launch a new UK–Japan collaboration with HekaBio. This partnership supports UK companies to access Asian markets while enabling Japanese innovators to navigate and establish within the NHS.
Building on this momentum, in December 2025 Health Innovation East welcomed the 2025 UK–India HealthTech Accelerator cohort to Cambridge. The visit showcased the strength of the East of England ecosystem, creating direct opportunities for international companies to engage with NHS organisations, industry, and academia.
The programme demonstrated strong potential for meaningful collaboration, with several cohort companies exploring partnerships, pilot opportunities, and routes to market within the region.
Together, these initiatives demonstrate Health Innovation East’s growing role in convening international partnerships that accelerate adoption, drive economic growth, and deliver measurable benefits for patients and health systems worldwide.
Following the December event, the Department for Business and Trade India is now preparing to launch the fourth edition of the UK–India Health Tech Accelerator – this time hosted in India – with Health Innovation East’s Business Analyst contributing as a UK expert.
Two Clinical Innovator Forums were delivered in September 2025 and February 2026, in partnership with HealthTech Enterprise (HTE). These forums provide a structured and supportive environment for early-stage NHS clinical innovators to present their ideas and receive expert feedback.
Each forum combines formal pitching opportunities with tailored one-to-one mentoring from a multidisciplinary panel of experts, enabling innovators to refine their solutions and address key challenges. In addition, keynote sessions from more advanced NHS clinical innovators offered valuable reflections on their own journeys, sharing practical insights into overcoming barriers and achieving impact at scale.
Across both forums, 18 innovators were supported, contributing to the acceleration and maturation of high-potential innovations and enhancing their readiness for real-world implementation and wider adoption across the NHS.
Health Innovation East’s Insights to Impact Masterclasses are a series of online webinars and workshops designed to support innovators at every stage of their journey. Central to the programme is direct access to expert insight – equipping participants with the knowledge and skills needed to successfully integrate innovation into the NHS and wider healthcare system.
Over the past year, four masterclasses were delivered, each led by subject matter experts and focused on addressing common barriers to scaling healthcare solutions.
This year’s topics included:
• NIHR Funding and Support
• Navigating DTAC
• Why Good Ideas Fail – Applying a Behavioural Science Lens
• Speaking Investor – Understanding the Language that Shapes Your Deal
A total of 372 individuals registered to attend these sessions, with recording available online to ensure ongoing access to learning. These sessions are continuing into 2026/27, with another four more learning sessions scheduled.
For many healthtech SMEs, the key growth bottleneck lies between developing a minimum viable product (MVP) and achieving sustainable adoption within the NHS. Despite addressing clear unmet needs, startups at this stage often lack clarity on the evidence required to support NHS decision-making, how to articulate a compelling system-level value proposition, and the most effective route to securing pilots and commissioning.
To address these challenges, the programme, delivered throughout March, provided a structured pathway to developing a robust value proposition and evidence plan. This was supported by expert input, peer learning, and feedback from experienced stakeholders.
The programme was delivered through a blend of virtual and in-person sessions, supporting five healthtech, medtech, and life sciences companies at TRL 3–4. These companies were seeking a clear route to scale and to engage effectively with the NHS in securing pilot opportunities.
Sessions covered key topics including generating clinical evidence, understanding health economics, and gaining insight into the practical realities of securing an NHS pilot. In addition, expert clinics were delivered by partners including NIHR, EPSCOT Consultancy, Barclays UK, Mills & Reeve, and Imed Consultancy.
The programme gave me something I hadn’t found elsewhere – genuine clarity. As a neurodivergent founder, I often leave high-pressure environments more overwhelmed than when I arrived. This programme was different. The expert sessions in particular gave me a crystal clear path forward that I’m still building on. I’ve attended sessions with NHS Innovation Services and Imperial College Health Partners, and nothing has come close to the value I took away from the programme. Truly invaluable.
Amal O, Founder, NeuroCharge Medical Devices
Taken together, these initiatives reflect a maturing and increasingly connected approach to supporting innovation – one that recognises the need for tailored, end-to-end support across the entire pathway. Through a combination of expert guidance, practical development opportunities, and strategic partnerships, Health Innovation East is helping to create the conditions in which innovation can move more effectively from idea to impact. This integrated model not only supports individual innovators, but also strengthens the wider ecosystem- enabling high-potential solutions to reach patients, deliver system value, and contribute to long-term improvements in health and care.
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