Launched in 2009, NHS East and NHS Midlands were the first regional health authority to develop Small Business Research Initiatives (SBRI) scheme to find solutions for identified healthcare problems.
Going forward SBRI East worked to bring together business, health, technology and government partners to deliver a series of competitions for businesses to address major unmet health needs.
Unlike many Research and Development projects which offer grant or match funding, SBRI contracts are 100 per cent funded and the inventor retains the Intellectual Property.
As part of Innovation Health and Wealth, the SBRI Healthcare programme sets industry the challenge in a series of health related competitions which result in fully funded development contracts between the awarded company and the NHS.