SBRI 20 Health Inequalities in Maternity Care

Fund Details

Under the Health Inequalities in Maternity Care challenge, three categories have been identified via consultation with clinicians, nurses and midwives, as well as other stakeholders working in the provision of care across the maternity care spectrum.

Applicants are expected to respond to one of the three categories:

• Perinatal Mental Health
• Support to Women post-discharge
• Risk identification, stratification and intervention

The competition is open to single companies or organisations from the private, public, and third sectors, including charities. The competition runs in two phases (subject to availability of budget in 2022/23):

• Phase 1 is intended to show the technical feasibility of the proposed concept. The development contracts placed will be for a maximum of 6 months and up to £100,000 (excl. VAT) per project.
• Phase 2 contracts are intended to develop and evaluate prototypes or demonstration units from the more promising technologies in Phase 1. Only those projects that have completed Phase 1 successfully will be eligible for Phase 2.

Those submitting applications will need to provide information on the following key criteria:

• How will the proposed solution impact the care system and how will the system need to be changed (including people, processes and culture) in order to deliver system-wide benefits?
• How will you ensure that the innovation will be acceptable to patients (and their families and wider support network) and to health and social care workers? How could these groups be involved in the design of a solution and its development?
• How will you ensure that the innovation is affordable to the NHS and wider systems such as
• Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) both immediately and throughout the life of the product? What evidence, both health economics and delivery of true impact will the NHS and wider system require before the technology can be adopted?
• How will you ensure that the innovation enhances equity of access (e.g. takes account of underserved ethnic or economic groups) and increases engagement with vulnerable groups?
• How will your innovation support the NHS commitment to reach net-zero carbon? You will be asked to provide information on the steps you have taken to identify the carbon pathway and the consequences of the proposed solution on carbon emissions

Eligibility

The competition is open to single organisations (contracts are executed with individual legal entities) based in the UK or EU from the private, public, and third sectors, including companies (large corporates and small and medium enterprises), charities, universities and NHS Foundation Trusts, as long as a strong commercial strategy is provided. Organisations based outside the UK or EU with innovations in remit for this call can apply as subcontractors of a lead UK/EU based organisation or via a UK or EU subsidiary.

Collaborations are encouraged in the form of subcontracted services as appropriate.