Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) has been chosen as the official partner of NHS England and NHS Improvement to nurture healthcare innovators from across the country and help them gain the commercial skills, knowledge and experience to make their ideas become a reality.
The NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme was founded in 2016 and has become the world’s largest entrepreneurial training programme in healthcare.
In the first four years of the programme over 500 clinical entrepreneurs were recruited. Between them, 247 life science start-up companies have been created, over £270 million of funding has been raised through investment largely from the private sector, and more than 30 million patients and users have benefited from the innovations.
ARU has drawn together a coalition of more than 60 cross-sector partners including NHS hospitals, multinational companies such as IBM, Deloitte and Unipart, research charities, and innovation and business support networks such as the Biocity group and Medilink Midlands to deliver the programme and create economic growth in the life science sector.
This network will provide opportunities for internships, access to NHS test and evaluation sites, academic and commercial facilities in Europe, America, Africa and Australia, access to funding and knowledge exchange and connection to customers.
International partners and organisations in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland will also be establishing Clinical Entrepreneur Programme Chapters to encourage home grown life science start-ups.
Professor Yvonne Barnett, deputy vice chancellor for research and innovation at ARU, said: “The global pandemic has demonstrated how important the UK life science industry is to our nation’s future. COVID-19 tests, vaccines and virtual medical appointments have been a key part of our battle with Coronavirus.
“Now we look forward to delivering entrepreneurial education to the NHS nationally, building on our reputation as a regional anchor for health training and one of the largest providers of HE provision for healthcare professionals in the UK.”