Up to half a million pounds of funding available for NHS digital projects

NHS organisations are being invited to apply for funding of up to £500,000 to support digital projects that can support patients at home.  

The third round of the Digital Health Partnership Award aims to promote the value of partnership working in delivering and accelerating digital health technology in the NHS.

The award cover three categories of funding:

• Projects requiring support of up to £100,000
• Projects requiring support of up to £250,000
• Projects requiring support of up to £500,000

NHS organisations can bid for capital funding, revenue funding or a mix of both for projects that support people at home. For example, the self-management of long-term conditions; diagnostic support and treatment; and system inefficiencies related to care pathway transformation.

The awarded funding can be used to support the deployment of digital health technologies – including their development; initial feasibility with a plan to build a project; and innovation scaling within clinical pathways.

According to the NHS Transformation Directorate website: “We know that delivering digital health solutions to support patients and improve outcomes is a focus of many NHS organisations across the country, however the management, resourcing and delivery of these projects can often prove challenging.

“A partnership approach to the development and delivery of digital projects can help unblock the barriers and leave a lasting legacy in implementing these technology solutions.”

In particular the award is encouraging: “proposals where NHS organisations are looking beyond traditional customer or supplier relationships, and geographical boundaries, and can demonstrate how they can best leverage the expertise and experience of each partner to deliver a sustainable solution.”

The funding is available to support projects as a whole including the technology, change funds and evaluation. NHS organisations must also provide some match funding to prove their commitment to the sustainability of the project.

In addition to the funding available, the Innovation Development team for each award will provide expert advice, strategic support and work with the projects to identify those that could be scaled to national level.

NHS organisations will need to identify a technology partner to support their project, as well as an evaluation partner.

The winners of the first phase of the Digital Health Partnership Award were announced in October 2021, where the focus was on digital technology to improve remote care.

Entry to the awards closes at 5pm on 24 June 2022. Awards will be announced by the end of July 2022.