A key aim of the Medical Technologies IKC is to accelerate company growth by increasing wealth generation in industry. We do this by increasing the capacity for innovation in the companies with which we work.

Helping companies to access relevant expertise is critical to this: we engage with companies in a variety of collaborative projects to help access and exploit technologies. We recognise that, increasingly, companies are focusing on projects with shorter term returns at higher technology readiness levels (TRLs), and they are also investing in lower risk projects. Through our Proof of Concept funding programme, we are creating a pipeline of projects that meet these requirements. This approach enables us to support early stage technology development and reduce the risk for companies considering investment in these technologies.

We support late stage innovation projects too, where a company directly accesses our expertise to help develop their own IP – for example by supporting product development through regulatory approval stages. Our industry partners fund these activities and we support the partnership through contractual and follow-up support. Skills provided by the Medical Technologies IKC include preclinical testing and simulation, smart clinical trials design, patient studies, MRI imaging and clinical function assessments on new technologies.

A rich programme of networking opportunities draws all these skills and services together. The networks we have developed across the supply chain help companies connect with partners in the academic and clinical sectors. These networks help companies to gain valuable insight into clinical need – particularly valuable for smaller companies who can find it challenging to develop these relationships. Activities such as networking events and workshops are targeted at clinicians, company directors and investors and focus on developing an understanding of current clinical needs and we are working continually to develop and expand this community at local, regional and national levels.