i4i - Invention for Innovation What is i4i?
Launched in July 2008, i4i has introduced new funding opportunities such as the i4i Future Product Development (FPD) funding streams to provide investment in, and improved identification of, promising healthcare technologies in order to accelerate the development of new healthcare products for the 21st century.
i4i funds translational research, extending between basic research and pre-clinical trials or health technology assessments. This part of the innovation process is an area of high technological and business risk, and the projects funded by i4i reflect this.
Closer links are being established between the existing product funding streams and a range of ‘ideas generators’ – including the Research Councils, Biomedical Research Centres, the NHS National Innovation Centre, the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), healthcare companies, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) – and with organisations who can take products to market including individual companies, UK Trade and Investment (UKT&I) and venture capital groups.
Two pre-existing product development programmes – New and Emerging Applications of Technology (NEAT) and Health Technology Devices (HTD) – have migrated to i4i. (NB Closed for new applications.)
Structure of i4i
Activities under the umbrella of i4i include:
- Future Product Development (FPD)
- Small Business Research Initiative
- Pilot Healthcare Technology Co-operatives (HTCs)
- Challenge Fund for Innovation (CFI) supporting:
- NIHR involvement in Assisted Living Innovation Platform
- NIHR involvement in Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme
- NIHR involvement with Medical Futures
- NIHR involvement in MATCH PLUS project
