The Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) for healthcare is a programme championed by Academic Health Science Networks, and funded by NHS England to develop innovative products and services which address unmet healthcare needs.
The SBRI Healthcare programme sets industry challenges through a series of related competitions which are mainly targeted at SMEs and early stage businesses. These competitions can lead to a fully funded SBRI contract between the awarded company and the NHS, while allowing the company to retain all Intellectual Property behind their ideas. These competitions support economic growth, and enable the development of innovative products and services through the public procurement of research and development. The fund had a £20m budget in 2015/16. Phase 1 grants of £100,000 are allocated to test the feasibility of the proposed innovation, with further funds of up to £1m per project being made available in Phase 2 to prototype the idea. Projects that successfully complete this stage can then be commercialised, and put through the NHS procurement process.