Despite clinical evidence for its use, the cost and risk of implementing a new device into clinical pathways can make it difficult to get the product adopted into clinical practice. The NIHR has allocated £15 million over the next three years to the i4i Challenge Awards to help overcome these issues by identifying and supporting the application of emerging technologies which hold the potential to have a disruptive impact on clinical pathways.

The i4i Challenge Awards will hold one competition per year that will address a particular ‘challenge’ that is a priority for the NHS.

The programme will seek to identify those medical technologies with the greatest potential clinical benefit, along with how they might be integrated into clinical decision and treatment pathways and how they might be implemented on a large scale.

 The Challenge Award will seek to support a team capable in developing and supporting a programme of work for the further development of the technology's clinical utility, including its broader applicability.

Applications are sought in the area of implantable interventions for the treatment of sight or hearing loss. 

The i4i Challenge Awards are inviting applications from NHS organisations or other providers of NHS services in England, in cooperation with commercial and Higher Education Institution (HEI) partners as appropriate, developing non-pharmaceutical, implantable technologies for sight or hearing loss.

The programme is looking for disruptive technologies which have the potential to offer improved outcomes for patients with either total or partial loss of hearing or sight. Projects encompassing minor or incremental changes to technologies in current clinical use are outside the remit of the i4i Challenge Awards. Applications must be based around a working prototype or strong evidence base, with the potential for the generation of a range of associated or parallel products.

With the ultimate project outcome being adoption within the NHS organisation or provider leading the project, it is expected that project teams will encompass all relevant expertise required for clinical implementation, including (where appropriate) nurses, allied health professionals and commissioners. It is also anticipated that the leading NHS organisation or other service provider will work closely with any organisation(s) developing and commercialising the technology being utilised in the project.

Funding awarded will be used to demonstrate the usefulness of the technology in the clinic and its broader applicability.

There is no funding limit for projects - funding amounts are determined by the nature and scale of the research activity. i4i Challenge Award funding will cover up to 100% of eligible project costs.

Projects will be funded for up to three years.

Project teams will be led by a clinician based in an NHS organisation or other provider of NHS services in England only, in cooperation with commercial and Higher Education Institution (HEI) partners as appropriate.

Lead applicants must be based in England only.