BHF Innovation Fund

Open for Funding

BHF has established a Healthcare Innovation Fund to support the testing and evaluation of innovative approaches to the delivery of improved services for patients with cardiovascular disease.

The way the Fund will operate will be through Expressions of Interest (EoI) in the first instance. The proposals outlined in the EoIs can range in scale of maturity from a problem statement that is yet to be defined through to ideas/solutions that are ready to be tested.

The criteria for the Fund are described below. BHF will work with the applicants to co-develop selected EoIs so that they are suitable for implementation funding at a later date.

The EoIs will be sought in 2-3 Rounds per year with a closing date for assessment of applications published for each Round.

Round 1 will open on October 12th 2022 and close at 09.00am on December 5th 2022

Summary of BHF details:

  • BHF is seeking to test and evaluate innovative approaches to the delivery of improved services for patients with cardiovascular disease.
  • BHF are seeking expressions of interest for proposals ranging in scale of maturity from a problem statement that is yet to be defined through to ideas/solutions that are ready to be tested.
  • BHF will work with the applicants to co-develop ideas/solutions so that they are suitable for implementation funding.
  • BHF are seeking expressions of interest (EoIs) for round one from October 12th 2022 until 09.00am on December 5th 2022, so that ideas can be explored in the next quarter with a view towards implementation funding being awarded at a later stage.
  • The process for awarding implementation funding to selected EoI applicants will be discussed at a later stage once the proposal has been worked up the required standard.
  • Funding will range from £50K to £300K to test the implementation of worked up proposals and will be subject to a formal application for funding to be assessed by peer reviewers. Further information on this process will be shared later as BHF work with selected applicants.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • This fund cannot be used to fund biomedical research, such as a clinical trial.
  • The fund can only be used to improve services where the focus of that service is to treat people with cardiovascular disease.
  • Funding will not be awarded for projects where the NHS is already awarding funding (please check the NHS funding programmes available within each nation before applying).
  • If you’d like an informal chat about the process or your idea, please contact Healthcare Innovation at BHRS

If you feel this may be of interest to your area of work, please do let Alysson Arnold at BHF know and she can put you in touch with the relevant person for this particular funding call.

Fund Criteria

1

PROBLEM TO BE SCOPED

Please note that all criteria must be met 

  1. An unmet clinical problem that impacts the provision of services for patients with any type of cardiovascular disease.
  2. There is consensus among a multidisciplinary team (MDT) that services need to be developed or redesigned to address the clinical problem.
  3. The intended impact is an improvement in patient outcome.
  4. The intended solution must be scalable.
  5. There is a clearly articulated agreement supporting the need to explore a solution now (e.g.it is an emerging clinical situation with no specific pathway tested, no other funder is addressing it, the clinical issue is increasing in scale, severity, or urgency).
  6. The lead applicant must be a registered clinical professional and employed by an NHS organisation

Examples

A relatively new classification of a disease (e.g. HFpEF) where standardised clinical practice, based on medical research outcomes, have yet to be agreed or established nationally. There needs to be consensus amongst the MDT on which service level issues need to be addressed and on the types of ideas that could be implemented.

2

PROBLEM SCOPED, POTENTIAL SOLUTION(S) TO BE TESTED

Please note that all criteria must be met 

  1. Scoping has already been carried out, by an MDT, of an unmet clinical problem that impacts the provision of services for patients with any type of cardiovascular disease.
  2. There is a consensus among the MDT on the potential solution(s) that should be tested.
  3. The MDT included service users (patients, family, carers).
  4. The intended impact is an improvement in patient outcome.
  5. The solution to be tested must be scalable in principle.
  6. There is a clearly articulated agreement supporting the need to test the implementation of potential solutions now.
  7. The intervention(s) to be tested is/are not established practice in other parts of the UK already.
  8. The lead applicant must be a registered clinical professional and employed by an NHS organisation.

Examples

An MDT has developed a consensus statement on a significant clinical issue (for example, The Shock to Survival report on cardiogenic shock) with recommendations for future clinical practice. Ideas that are not already established practice could be worked up as a fundable proposal for testing in more than one clinical setting.

MORE INFO
EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FORM
SLIDE DECK