A collaboration in the West of England between Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, the University of the West of England, Sirona Care & Health, and Health Innovation West of England, has launched a £50k innovation grant fund designed to support improvements across the region.
The Research, Innovation, Climate, Education and Equalities (RICE²) partnership is based on a new agreement between the organisations for cross-sector collaboration, and will establish a shared platform to address system demands, workforce challenges, and health inequalities.
“RICE² provides an open, inclusive environment where health and care providers, innovators, researchers and academics can co-develop solutions that can be evaluated and scaled across the region,” BFT shares. In an approach designed to reduce duplication and “unlock collective capacity”, the partnership creates a streamlined pathway from early challenge identification to practical application.
The £50k innovation grant fund forms a further part of the collaboration, with innovators able to apply for up to £5,000 to support small-scale initiatives piloting healthcare solutions. It is reportedly open for projects involving feasibility studies, proof-of-concepts, co-design initiatives, service improvement, pathway redesign, tech development in health and care settings, and workforce innovation.
Support will be offered to successful project teams on securing further funding beyond their participation, BFT states, and there is an expectation that learnings and outcomes will be shared to help build evidence for future regional investment.
“We know that local problems often require a local solution that can take into consideration an area’s unique health landscape and population needs,” says Sanjoy Shah, founding member of RICE² and medical director for innovation at BFT. “It is our hope that this fund will allow colleagues and partners to test, develop and implement innovative new solutions that best meet the needs of their teams, patients and communities.”
Those interested in accessing the grant fund are encouraged to apply using a designated online form, which asks questions around proposed timescales, aims and objectives, alignment with the NHS 10 Year Plan, and future priorities.
Applications close at 12:00pm on Friday 27 November 2026, with funding decisions expected early in December 2026, and project delivery to take place from January to July 2027.
Wider trend: NHS innovation
With the publication of the latest budget for 2026, the government has reaffirmed its commitment on AI for productivity, increasing opportunities for sovereign AI, AI for biosecurity, and exploring quantum technologies. For health specifically, the government will launch the Chancellor’s AI Challenge Prize as an annual competition, with the first round to offer a top award of up to £2.5 million for promising solutions to priority healthcare challenges. Among other initiatives included in the budget are £60 million for the 2027-28 Sovereign AI Fund to invest in UK AI companies with a focus on robotics, autonomous systems, and advanced manufacturing; and £23 million for the AI Economics Institute (AIEI), which will focus on the AI impact on productivity and growth.
An AI project from PharosAI, a collaboration between Barts Health NHS Trust, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), and King’s College London (KCL), has received funding from Innovate UK to explore the potential to develop digital twins of human tissue. The project, DESTINY, aims to understand whether AI can predict complex biological information from routinely collected tissue data, with the hopes of helping researchers better understand cancer, discover new drugs, and develop more personalised approaches to diagnosis and treatment.
In its newly published 2030 strategy, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has vowed to reduce regulatory barriers for UK start-ups and SMEs, develop a modern regulatory framework for AI as a medical device, and move forward with plans for the use of AI in transforming medicines development. Introducing the strategy, MHRA chief executive Lawrence Tallon said: “We are in the midst of a period of extraordinary scientific and technological discovery, which is helping to reshape how diseases can be prevented, diagnosed and treated…These ground-breaking developments challenge traditional regulatory models and require innovative approaches to evidence generation, clinical research design, manufacturing oversight and safety and surveillance.”
HTN is delighted to launch the HTN Now Awards – for health tech innovators, healthcare teams, partnerships and suppliers to showcase how they’re making an impact! Providing a platform for innovations, solutions, case studies, collaborations and projects that have made a difference, the awards showcase those who are helping to improve services and systems across healthcare.
