The Health Innovation Challenge Fund (HICF) is a scheme of up to five years supported by up to £100 million contributed in equal measure by the Department of Health (DH) and the Wellcome Trust (WT). 

The two funders are collaborating to stimulate the creation of innovative healthcare products, technologies and interventions, and facilitate their development for the benefit of patients in the NHS and beyond. The HICF will have a succession of thematic calls for proposals, each selected to focus on unmet needs in healthcare relevant to the NHS, and will support innovative developments that are within three to five years of launch or adoption.

The HICF is positioned as a translational funding mechanism.  Proposals will therefore be supported by the HICF to the stage where the product, technology or intervention has been sufficiently developed to be attractive for either:

1.       Follow-on development by 3rd parties, including both commercial and not-for-profit organisations or;

2.       Is ready for adoption, whether by procurement or other non-commercial route, national healthcare providers (including the NHS in England)

Funding is to be targeted at a later stage is the development pathway than is traditional for basic science projects. The objective of the HICF is to support successful applicants through the development pathway up to product and healthcare intervention launch and introduction into usage, thus overcoming the gap in the availability of development funding.

Key aims are:

1.       Encourage innovative products for patient benefit

2.       Improve the uptake of new technological advances into patient management pathways

3.       Integrate the clinical research, informatics and product development communities