A project may address either a single theme within the current call or may span several themes.

The target of achieving patient readiness within 5 years is likely to preclude projects which focus on de novo drug development, vaccines and certain regenerative medicine technologies.

The HIC Fund will not fund:

• Early stage or basic research
• Large scale clinical efficacy trials
• Health delivery research by the NHS where the focus is on the broad adoption, dissemination and uptake of products, technologies and interventions within the NHS
• Delivery or provision of health services by or within the NHS
• Projects that are already at a stage of development where funding from industry or venture capital could reasonably be secured (since the purpose of the HIC Fund is to provide funding to support projects and de-risk technologies to the point at which they become attractive to commercial sources to complete the path to market)

The following types of organisation are eligible for funding:

• Stock market listed or privately owned companies
• SMEs and start-up companies
• NHS organisations (including NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts), and equivalent UK authorities
• Universities, research institutes and not-for-profit organisations

A collaboration between two or more of the above is eligible and is actively encouraged where it strengthens the overall proposal.

Project teams should feature strong clinical representation.

Preliminary Applications should include the following:

• An outline of the work packages that are to be undertaken via the HIC Fund including details of specific milestones, objectives and deliverables
• Current validation of the concept, how it addresses a medical need, position on patient management pathway or disease algorithm
• Downstream route to launch, market introduction and adoption
• Sensitivity or risk analysis for the major hurdles
• An overview of IP and regulatory approval issues
• Eventual financial sustainability of the product line
• An approximate breakdown of costs
• If a company, justification for requesting financial support from the HIC Fund
• Details of all information which an applicant considers commercially sensitive or confidential

Universities:

• Universities should calculate the Full Economic Cost of their bids
• The Department of Health will fund Universities up to 100% of FEC
• The Wellcome Trust will fund the directly incurred costs and other allowable costs

Companies:

The intention of the funders is to provide project funding, not core support or working capital. Research costs will be supported for the specific project only.

All proposals for funding under the HIC Fund programme will be assessed against the following criteria:

1. The evidence of clinical need and healthcare relevance of the proposed technology/solution
   • What is the clinical need for the proposed technology/solution within the NHS and globally?
   • How will the proposed technology address healthcare priorities within the NHS and beyond?
   • What benefits does the proposed technology provide to both the NHS and patients? E.g. healthcare improvements and/or cost savings
   • How will clinical practice be affected by using the technology and will this lead to constraints in adoption?


2. The strength of the project team
   • Does the project team have a strong track record in relevant areas?
   • Does the project team have the right skills and experience to deliver the identifiable benefits?


3. The strength of the project plan
   • Are the aims and objectives realistic within the timeframe and within the resources proposed?
   • Does the project plan adequately address the aims and objectives?
   • Have the main technical barriers and key risks to successful completion of the project been identified and will the appropriate steps be taken to mitigate these?
   • Are the arrangements for managing the project adequate?
   • Are the arrangements for involving patient/user representatives appropriate?


4. The innovative nature of the technology/solution
   • What is innovative about the proposed technology/solution and what advance is there over current science and technology?
   • Will any new intellectual property arise from this project?
   • What are the competitor clinical practices and technologies and how strong is the market competition?
   • Is there freedom to operate in this area?
   • What are the market opportunities, both domestic and global, and the expected impact of the proposed technology/solution?
   • What are the key stages and challenges on the route to market? Is the commercial strategy for the technology appropriate?


5. The value for money provided by the proposal
   • Are the requested resources, including staffing, clearly justified? Are they essential for the work proposed?
   • Taking into account the expected benefits of the work proposed and the level of resources requested, do the proposals promise good value for money?