SBRI Healthcare, which is an Accelerated Access Collaborative initiative, in partnership with Greener NHS and the AHSN Network, have launched a new call for innovations to both reduce carbon emissions and drive improvements in care for patients.
The Delivering a Net Zero NHS: Clinical Innovation Competition launched on 24 August and will provide £1 million in funding to support innovative solutions to meet known NHS challenges and areas of opportunity.
The competition is open to single organisations based in the UK or EU from the public, private and third sectors, including companies charities, universities and NHS organisations (see SBRI website for more details).
Innovations are particularly called to address four areas: decarbonising surgical pathways, reducing waste in surgery and critical care, providing personalised care that supports the NHS to reach net zero and developing tools to support the workforce to move to a greener NHS.
The previous competition of its kind held last year has led to a number of new innovations being tested across the NHS including tools to manage the delivery or capture of anaesthetic gases in clinical environments; supporting patients at home and improving clinical pathways; reusable surgical textiles and gowns and the use of drones to deliver medicines to patients – which are cutting carbon emissions and reducing delivery times for patients.
Climate change has been identified as a major threat to health, with more than 13 million deaths around the world each year due to avoidable environmental causes and air pollution contributing to one in 20 deaths in the UK. In 2020, the NHS was the world’s first healthcare system to commit to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2040. Innovations are critical to achieving this goal, while driving improvements in patient care.
The deadline for applications is 5 October 2022. For more details, please visit the SBRI Healthcare competition page.