Three UCL-led projects and one UCLH-led project have been selected to join a unique health accelerator programme that will invest in early-stage social ventures in order to stimulate innovation and create positive change in healthcare, it was announced today.
The Health Social Innovators’ Programme (HSIP) is a partnership between UCL Business, Healthbox, Numbers4Good, Trafford Housing Trust and Janssen Healthcare Innovation, with backing from the Cabinet Office's Social Incubator Fund.
The National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) has provided funding to support this initiative.
UCL projects selected in this round are:
- HeLPDiabetes, headed by Professor Elizabeth Murray from the UCL Research Department of Primary Care and Population Health, delivers a web-based self-management programme and structured education for NHS patients with type 2 diabetes.
- RetVas is medical image analysis technology that screens for diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness in both the working age and elderly population and builds upon world-leading and patent protected research from the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.
- Sensewheel, designed by the BIG @ PAMELA team based within the UCL Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, is a lightweight wheel for wheelchair users with embedded technology to measure how the wheelchair is being utilised, thereby gathering data to refine the individual’s rehabilitation programme using movement metrics.
The UCL project, called the Listening App, allows children with cochlear implants to listen and learn sounds and distinguish between sounds post implant.
Minister for Civil Society Rob Wilson said: “Our investment in the social economy is helping to create jobs and growth, with the UK now leading the world in this market. Health Social Innovators', which we supported through our Social Incubator Fund, is primed to support dozens of new social ventures in the health sector which will add to our economy and help solve some of the most difficult social problems.”
Over the next two years HSIP will be selecting more promising, health-focused ventures that can create social impact. Investing £40,000 into each of the chosen entrepreneurs, HSIP will take them through a 16-week structured accelerator programme. Through the programme ventures receive seed capital, access to mentors, educational sessions, collaborative workspace and the opportunity to present at investors’ days.
Dr Steven Schooling, UCL Business Director of Physical Sciences, Engineering, Built Environment and Social Sciences said: “UCL Business is committed to the development of social ventures as a further mechanism to support the translation of UCL and UCLH innovative knowledge base into products and services that can deliver substantive benefits to society. We look forward to receiving proposals from ventures whose activities are seeking to address significant health and wellbeing challenges.”
To register interest visit www.healthsocialinnovators.org
Applications will be invited for the next funding round in 2015, with more details to follow on the BRC website.
For more information contact Ana Lemmo Charnalia on a.charnalia@uclb.com
