Our mission
The Health Innovation Hub is led by the University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) and the Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Academic Health Partnership (LNAHP) with support from external partners across the region. The Health Innovation Hub’s mission is to create a single, centralised platform for healthcare innovation by bringing together clinicians, academics, industry experts, and system partners to enable faster, better and more equitable healthcare innovation across Leicestershire and the wider East Midlands.
Why we exist
Healthcare innovation is often fragmented and slow to progress meaning innovation ideas can struggle to find the right expertise and governance to move forward. As a result, many promising innovations struggle to access the appropriate pathways and support required to progress, leading to missed innovation opportunities for system-wide benefit
The Health Innovation Hub exists to address these challenges by providing a clear and coordinated route for innovation by operating on a single triage system that introduces structure and consistency to the way innovations are identified, assessed, and progressed.
This approach, delivered in close partnership with our system wide partners, enables timely decision-making and supports innovations to be developed, tested, and commercialised efficiently delivering meaningful benefit for patients, services, and the wider health system across Leicestershire and the wider East Midlands region.
What we do
The Health Innovation Hub provides a structured process to move innovation from idea to real-world impact.
The Health Innovation Hub:
- acts as the single point of entry for innovation across Leicestershire and the wider region
- triages innovation opportunities to the most appropriate route, including research, digital development, clinical innovation, and commercial pathways
- rapidly connects innovators to the right clinicians, academics, technical specialists, and commercial partners for expert guidance and delivery
- identifies and supports access to relevant funding opportunities, including research funding, innovation grants, and investment pathways
- provides research support, including study design, evaluation, evidence generation, and navigation of approvals
- supports commercialisation opportunities, including IP protection, licensing, spin-out models, and industry partnerships
- ensures innovation activity is aligned to strategic priorities, appropriately governed, and evidence-led
- supports the adoption, spread, and scale of high-impact innovations across services and organisations
Who we support
The Health Innovation Hub supports innovation-led work only. We work with individuals, teams, and external organisations who have:
- a healthcare challenge that could be addressed through new approaches
- a new idea, technology or service with potential to improve patient outcomes, experience or system efficiency
- an innovation opportunity requiring research, digital development, commercialisation or system-wide coordination
- a product or solution seeking an NHS partner to test, evaluate, adopt or scale
Whether you are a clinician, academic, innovator, industry partner, or organisation the Health Innovation Hub provides a central route for innovation across Leicestershire and wider region.
Get involved
If you have an innovation or an innovative solution, please submit your idea via the email below. Our team will review and triage your submission through the most appropriate pathway
For external enquiries, partnerships, or general questions, please contact the Health Innovation Hub team at: [email protected]