SBRI Healthcare, an Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) initiative, in partnership with the Health Innovation Network, has awarded £1.3m for the development of 14 innovations that support women’s health.
Funded by the AAC, SBRI Healthcare 'Competition 25: Women’s Health’ was launched in July 2024 as a Phase 1 development funding competition.
The projects will run for up to six months to demonstrate whether the innovations are technically and commercially feasible.
The competition was open to single companies and organisations from the private, public, and third sectors, including large corporates, small and medium enterprises, charities, universities and NHS providers.
Under the overall theme of Women’s Health, innovations were sought that focused on:
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Gynaecological Conditions and Hormonal Health
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Mental Health
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Chronic Conditions and Long-term Health.
Dr Sue Mann, National Clinical Director for women’s health at NHS England, said:
“It’s fantastic to see new technologies evolving that could make a real difference to improving women’s health, from those experiencing gynaecological and fertility problems to supportive aids during childbirth. Innovations such as these can play more and more of a part in improving care for women.”
Verena Stocker, Interim Director of Innovation, Research, Life Sciences and Strategy, NHS England and Chief Executive Officer, Accelerated Access Collaborative, said:
“The SBRI Healthcare awards help the NHS to develop new technologies and solutions to address some of the biggest healthcare challenges facing society. We have selected these innovations because they have the potential to make a big difference to women’s health. By supporting the most promising innovations, the NHS will continue to evolve, helping to meet more patients’ needs and encouraging more innovators to come forward with innovative ideas that benefit all.”
Swapnil Gadgil, CEO and Co-Founder of Therapy Box and Harley Street Physiotherapy and Co-Chair of the SBRI Healthcare Women's health panel, said:
“As Co-chair, it was inspiring to see so many groundbreaking ideas backed up with industry partners. By supporting high-risk, high-reward solutions, this competition has aligned with the NHS’s vision for better care and outcomes for women.”
The programme will additionally sponsor awarded projects to undergo the NICE Metatool to help optimise their approach to addressing gaps in development plans and evidence generation, and to identify the potential next steps to bring their product to market.
The SBRI Healthcare 'Competition 25 – Women’s Health, Phase 1' awarded projects are:
BirthGlide Limited – awarded £99,836 – BirthGlide feasibility study
BirthGlide is developing a revolutionary device to prevent difficult birth in the pushing stage of labour and reduce the use of traumatic procedures such as forceps, vacuum or emergency C-sections.
DDM Health Limited – awarded £78,063 - Supporting women with long-term and chronic health conditions with an adaptive, personalised digital health tool to self-manage and improve health outcomes ("GroW")
Gro Health is a NICE-accredited digital platform empowering individuals with chronic conditions like obesity and type 2 diabetes through tailored health pathways, data insights, behavioral change tools and AI-driven engagement. Project GroW will enhance health outcomes by co-developing the solution with women in social housing to improve accessibility and personalisation.
ScreenIn3D Limited – awarded £99,655 - An organ-on-a-chip platform to model personalised embryo implantation and improve subfertility associated with chronic gynaecological disease
The technology uses engineering approaches to create cell-based models of human organs and disease. The aim is to develop a new understanding of the processes underlying embryo implantation, open new avenues for precision fertility, as well as creating technological solutions for producing better contraceptives and fertility treatments.
Peripear Ltd – awarded £90,779 - The Peripear Medical Device: An innovative, low-cost solution to reduce perineal injury during vaginal childbirth
Peripear is a wearable medical device for use during the second stage of labour. The product is purpose built to support and gently encourage the perineum to stretch, reducing the likelihood of perineal injury, pain and need for episiotomy.
The Essential Baby Company – awarded £77,098 - haPPIE™ SHE Cares
The haPPIE: SHE Cares project supports Black and Ethnically Minoritized women during the perinatal period by combining culturally sensitive digital tools with community services. It aims to address low mental health engagement rates, offering accessible, tailored resources to improve understanding, treatment, and timely support for those at higher risk.
Neotherix Limited – awarded £99,981 - Co-designing improved treatment for recto-vaginal fistula; investigating the needs of women and assessing the feasibility of a novel, cost-effective device
Neotherix is developing an innovative device for recto-vaginal fistula (RVF) treatment, combining drainage and tissue regeneration in a single solution. Designed to reduce surgical interventions, it may offer a less invasive and more effective alternative to current treatments for a painful and distressing condition.
Queen Mary University / Samphire Neuroscience – awarded £88,811 - Validation of a Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation Device (Nettle) to Manage Symptoms of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
Nettle by Samphire Neuroscience is a CE-marked non-invasive stimulation device that reduces symptoms of pain and low mood associated with PMS. The aim of the project is to prove Nettle’s efficacy to alleviate these symptoms in PMDD (a more extreme variant of PMS) and determine how to integrate Nettle into the NHS for treatment.
Lighthearted AI Health Limited – awarded £99,125 - LightHearted AI – an accurate, portable, rapid, non-contact means of detecting heart valve disease and other cardiac conditions in women
LightScope uses laser light to capture high-precision bio-vitals and deliver accurate AI-assisted diagnosis, without the need for a clinician. The project aims to demonstrate that LightScope is more accurate than current diagnostic methods at identifying sex-based differences in heart valve disease, to reduce the current gender diagnosis gap.
Signatur Biosciences Ltd – awarded £96,055 - Revolutionising breast cancer prognosis with “OncoSignatur Breast”: an innovative, cost-effective test for improved, personalised patient pathways
Signatur Biosciences is developing OncoSignatur Breast (OSB), a decentralised, cost-effective breast cancer prognostic test that addresses the accessibility limitations of current centralised tests. The project will support the advancement of OSB from its prototype status to a fully developed, user-friendly kit.
Holly Health Ltd – awarded £79,247 - Co-design of a personalised, scalable, wellbeing tool, targeting binge eating challenges in women
Holly Health is an intelligent, fully digital, health coaching service, supporting patients with psycho-education and sustainable habit and behaviour change. The project will involve the co-design (via user and clinician research) of a custom coaching experience to tackle binge eating symptoms and associated mental health.
Unravel Health Limited – awarded £99,725 - Developing a revolutionary hormone monitor to manage migraines and beyond
Unravel Health are helping women understand and manage hormone-related conditions like migraines. Done through a simple, at-home device that uses saliva to track hormone levels, the project will support the development of a migraine biomarker assay and algorithm development to predict migraines and determine suitability for preventive medications.
Liberum Health Ltd – awarded £99,942 - A Novel, Non-Invasive Alternative to Oral Therapies for Pelvic Pain caused by menstrual pain and/or Endometriosis
The project aims to innovate menstrual pain management by developing a tampon-like device that delivers pain medication to alleviate discomfort associated with conditions like endometriosis. The approach offers more efficient pain relief with reduced side effects compared to traditional oral medications, catering to many for whom oral administration is unsuitable.
Signal Enhancement Diagnostics Limited – awarded £99,221 - SEREN: Strategic Endometriosis Research for miRNA-Enabled Nano-diagnostics and therapeutics
The project focuses on global endometriosis diagnosis and treatment with a cost-effective blood-based test that uses biomarkers for diagnosis, disease progression, and management, creating comprehensive care and enabling new therapeutics.
Spryt Ltd – awarded £100,000 - Increasing cervical screening rates, to the national average, in North Central London
Asa is an AI receptionist that enables patients to book, cancel or reschedule medical appointments via WhatsApp in their preferred language 24/7, without requiring any new app/website. Asa reassures patients and can answer non-diagnostic questions. The project aims to increase the uptake of cervical screening in London.
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About SBRI Healthcare
SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative) Healthcare provides funding and support to innovators to develop solutions that tackle existing unmet needs faced by the NHS. The programme aims to improve patient care, increase efficiency in the NHS, and support the UK economy. The programme provides funding and support to early-stage projects enabling testing for business feasibility and technology development, as well as to more mature products to support real world implementation studies. SBRI Healthcare is funded by the Accelerated Access Collaborative and delivered in partnership with the Health Innovation Network.
About the Accelerated Access Collaborative
The Accelerated Access Collaborative is a unique partnership between patient groups, government bodies, industry and the NHS. It delivers ambitious programmes to ensure the NHS is in the best place to improve patient outcomes and reduce health inequalities through research and innovation. It does this by identifying the best new medicines, medical devices, diagnostics and digital products. It supports providers and integrated care systems to make them available to patients as quickly as possible.
About the Health Innovation Network
There are 15 health innovation networks across England, established by NHS England in 2013 to spread innovation at pace and scale – improving health and generating economic growth. Each health innovation network works across a distinct geography serving a different population in each region. As the only bodies that connect NHS and academic organisations, local authorities, the third sector and industry, health innovation networks are catalysts that create the right conditions to facilitate change across whole health and social care economies, with a clear focus on improving outcomes for patients.