Funding for innovation

We’re looking for projects that:

• relate to one or more of Imperial Health Charity’s strategic objectives to:
  • enhance patient experience throughout the care and treatment journey
  • expand the Trust's capacity to deliver outstanding care and improve health outcomes
  • support better health and wellbeing for patients in our surrounding communities.
• develop and test an innovative approach to improve patient care
• address a problem that is concise, defined and measurable, and that explains how your project will be more effective than current practices or approaches
• describe fully the evidence underpinning the problem
• identify and describe the most appropriate methodology to deliver your project including a robust evaluation plan (for examples of methodology, go to the Trust's QI resources)
• accelerate progress (rather than supplement funding for established practice or approach)
• can be delivered within 24-months, including set-up and evaluation phases, with a realistic budget
• provide a plan for disseminating your project results, and a plan to scale the innovation
• are team-led.

We’re looking for projects that:

• are outward looking, community-centric and inter-sectoral, (i.e., working across the Trust's departments, and/or, with local health and care partners in north west London). Your partner(s) can be, for example, clinical commissioning groups, other primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare providers, and community providers
• focus on equity and on reducing health inequalities or variations in accessing healthcare, and outcomes and experience of receiving care by different patient groups
• focus on improving patient flow
• replicate/repurpose existing work/system, provided these benefit, for example, a different group of patients, speciality, or industry
• focus on a new app, device or platform technology, provided you can demonstrate that it has the potential to be widely used, and/or benefit a unique group of patients that are significantly underserved. You must also secure prior approval from the Trust's ICT team with your Stage 2 application

Projects that include a new role to be funded by us must be justified (e.g. a full job description is required with your Stage 2 application). The salary cost must include a breakdown – basic salary, high-cost area supplement, and employer’s pension and National Insurance contribution.

If an existing Trust role is to work on your project and you would like us to fund that role for the duration, you will need to provide a full justification including how the role will be backfilled.

We will not consider applications that:

• are purely scientific and/or bench-based medical research
• supplement a fellowship or active research projects, or the salary of a current/new research fellow or research nurse.

Click here for more on the projects we've supported to date.

• Innovate at Imperial is open to all permanent Trust clinical and non-clinical staff. You can be the lead applicant or co-applicant
• Lead applicants (and any co-applicants) with an honorary contracts with the Trust are also eligible to apply, provided their roles at the Trust include directly delivering or supporting services to the Trust's patients (e.g. running clinics at one of the Trust's hospitals, delivering operational functions such as ICT). Your honorary contract must NOT have an end date
• If you’re employed by another NHS Trust but your Trust has a service level agreement with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and 80% of your role is dedicated towards directly delivering or supporting services to the Trust's patients, you can be a co-applicant on the application, but not the lead applicant
• You can only submit one application, either as the lead applicant or as a co-applicant. 

You are not eligible to apply if:

• you have a fixed-term contract or any other type of contract with the Trust outside those mentioned above
• you are employed by Imperial College London (ICL)*
• your team have previously been awarded an Innovate at Imperial grant that is still active.

*If your project is co-located at ICL, we are supportive of ICL employees being part of the project team. If you would like to include an ICL employee’s salary in the project cost, you must discuss this with us before submitting your Stage 1 application.​​​​

Your project must have the support of your Clinical/Divisional/Deputy Divisional Director and your line manager. This is to assure us that your project and its potential impact are well understood within the non-clinical/clinical service in which it is located.

Please read the Guidance Notes carefully to be signposted to additional support you may need for your proposed project.

You can apply for up to £85,000 (minimum £1,000).

We can support:

• a new role (breakdown to include salary, high-cost area supplement, and employer’s pension and National Insurance contributions). You must provide a full justification for the role (e.g., a full job description is required for Stage 2)
• if the salary cost is intended to support an existing role within the Trust and is essential to delivering your project, you must provide a breakdown and tell us how the role will be backfilled. We will not pay towards current/new research fellows or research nurses.*
• reasonable focus group costs, including room hire and refreshments**
• reasonable travel within Greater London for project team members’ attendance at meetings with north west London partners**
• reasonable volunteer expenses and/or consumable for Patient Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) studies**
• reasonable open access publication costs
• non-medical equipment that is essential to delivering your project and provided it not of high value. At the end of your project, the equipment must remain the property of the Trust.
• We will not pay towards servicing, maintenance or insurance associated with that equipment, or equipment or any item that should be paid from core NHS budget or the Trust's departmental budgets

*Please see our separate Research Fellowships programme, which supports the academic and research careers of the Trust's staff.

**Please read the Guidance Notes for more information about the specific costs we can and cannot support.

Your application should include a detailed breakdown of all your costs, quotations for any items over £500, and a full justification for each cost. You must ensure you understand and comply with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust's procurement guidelines or Imperial College London's purchasing regulations for any purchases, especially those over £5,000. You can find more information on the intranet. Your purchasing department will also be able to support you.

Stage 1 opens to applications on Tuesday 1 April 2025 and closes on Friday 12pm, 30 May 2025.

Stage 2 opens to shortlisted/invited applicants on Friday 18 July 2025 and closes on Thursday 12pm, 2 October 2025.

There is one call for applications each year, and two stages to the application process.

Stage 1 applications must be completed using our online grants system, Flexigrant. 

If you’re shortlisted, you will be invited to submit a full Stage 2 application on Flexigrant.

• Our infographic, Your Application Journey will guide you through the application process step by step.
• Our Guidance Notes have comprehensive information to help you with your application.
• Download our Sample Application Form (Stage 1) and Same Application Form (Stage 2).
   

For further support, please see the following key contacts at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust:

Intellectual property team

Dr Brunel Eiliazadeh,
Senior Business Planning Manager:
[email protected]

Strategy, Research and Innovation team

Hannah Franklin, Strategy,
Research and Innovation Programme Manager:
[email protected]

For any other enquiries or additional support, please contact our Grants Manager, Philip Howard: [email protected]

For more information, please read our Guidance Notes and the Stage 2 Sample Application form.