Impact Acceleration Fund

Apply for funding to deliver impact through advances in rehabilitation technologies (RehabTech) by improving health outcomes, promoting wellbeing, and enhancing quality of life for individuals and communities, with a focus on supporting the growth of the East Midlands RehabTech economy. EMERGE RehabTech will accelerate the translation of excellent research with clear benefits tailored to meet the needs of communities.

We will fund two types of project through this opportunity:

1. Impact Accelerator

These larger, flagship projects should aim to take significant steps toward commercialising a RehabTech product or service, accelerate innovation through technology readiness levels (TRLs), develop proof-of-concept technology demonstrators, and conduct essential market validation.

2. Impact Primer

These projects will be smaller pieces of work that aim to demonstrate the potenital for accelerating novel RehabTech prototypes, establishing both the market need and unmet clinical requirements that will be addressed.

EMERGE RehabTech projects should aim to contribute to the growth of the UK’s MedTech economy by progressing RehabTech solutions toward commercialisation and/or viable products and services. They should also address at least one of three key challenges for the RehabTech pipeline in the East Midlands:

1. Widening health inequalities within the East Midlands

2. Engaging people, groups and communities who typically do not engage with rehab programmes and opportunities, with particular interest in at-risk groups

3. Disconnect between rehab research infrastructure and businesses in the region

Open calls