Accelerating innovation across the South West
Powered by the Office for Life Sciences, our South West Innovation Exchange programme is focused on accelerating life science development across the South West region.
Impact
- 40+ high-potential companies aligned with our five priority missions received our tailored, high-impact support to accelerate their growth and impact.
- 226 business support interventions delivered.
- Nine innovators received support to design and deliver real-world evaluations, including finalising projects with three cancer innovations selected through a regional open call.
- Enabled seven innovations to enter real-world clinical settings.
- Universal signposting and guidance provided to over 100 health and care innovators across the UK, including ongoing support for innovations referred through the National Innovation Service.
- Supported multiple innovators in securing SBRI funding, including Lucida PI, CareLoop, and BRAVE AI (Berring Ltd).
- Sustained a successful long-term collaboration with Cornwall-based social impact funding experts Resonance.
Project summary
The Innovation Exchange is designed to support innovators to develop, test and implement solutions to meet the challenges faced by the health and care system. At Health Innovation South West, we work closely with health and care systems and providers, industry and academia partners to accelerate the design, development and deployment of health and care solutions within the South West region and beyond.
During 2024/25 our Innovation Exchange has:
- Played a key role in securing funding for several flagship innovations, including Lucida PI’s predictive analytics platform, Abbott Diagnostics’ point-of-care testing in primary care, CareLoop’s digital care coordination tool for mental health, and BRAVE AI’s advanced decision-support technologies—each addressing critical challenges in frontline health and care delivery.
- Convened three flagship innovation support events, bringing together national and regional partners to strengthen collaboration across the UK’s research and innovation ecosystem.
- Partnered with Health Innovation South London to deliver the MindSet XR programme, supporting over 60 XR companies advancing cutting-edge solutions for the mental health sector.
- Supported the establishment of the SPIN Dementia Network Plus (SPIN-D Network+), a new national network led in partnership with the University of Exeter, dedicated to advancing innovation in dementia prevention.
- Strengthened the local life sciences and health tech sector through targeted support, including co-funding and delivering a regional innovation roadshow in partnership with the NIHR.
- The South West Health and Wellbeing Challenge Fund has seen £5 million invested, 585 jobs created and 680,000+ people supported since its launch in 2017. Our partnership with Resonance has supported 50 social enterprises including Memory Matters, therapeutic approaches to memory loss for people living with symptoms of dementia, and Diversity Business Incubator to improve business diversity and support entrepreneurs in the South West to drive minority ethnic community engagement and reduce inequalities, The fund was made possible thanks also to the backing of the Growth Fund, a partnership of Big Society Capital and The National Lottery Communities Fund administered by Access.
Next steps
We are set to launch our new Local Implementation Plan for the 2025/26 Innovation Exchange, which will introduce a dedicated programme to accelerate innovation in social care, advance a regional economic development strategy in collaboration with key stakeholders, and further scale our high-promise innovation portfolio in partnership with our mission-led teams.
