The Healthier Lives Data Fund is a partnership between Nesta and the Scottish Government to support innovative digital technologies that make data available and useful to citizens, helping them lead healthier and more independent lives.

You can find further information here

Why are we doing this?

The Scottish Government’s Digital Health and Social Care Strategy sets out a bold vision for how technology can support person-centred care, and sets out to maximise the opportunities of digital technology to help improve the health and wellbeing of people in Scotland. As part of this strategy, the Government has an ambitious plan to develop a National Digital Platform through which real-time data and information from health and care records are linked and available to those who need them – clinicians, care workers and citizens.

As part of the overall strategy, the Scottish Government is also keen to showcase the “art of the possible” and fund digital exemplars to demonstrate what the future of health and care could look like if citizens could access and use data to lead healthier lives.

What are we doing?

We are looking for bold and ambitious people-facing projects that demonstrate innovative approaches to empowering Scottish citizens with data and information, and develop and showcase the potential of a new generation of data-driven, people-centred digital technology.
Funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by Nesta, grants of up to £30,000 are available for organisations delivering benefit to people within Scotland.

As well as grants, Nesta and the Scottish Government will provide capacity-building support to each of the projects including data access, data governance, access to networks etc.

Applications

Eligible projects are invited to submit an expression of interest (EOI) by 10am on the 14 December 2018. Find out more about our selection criteria and how to apply and submit your expression of interest.

Eligibility

To be considered, submitted projects must:

• Be delivered in Scotland for the benefit of people living in Scotland.

• Aim to deliver and pilot a digital technology prototype that makes data available and useful to citizens to help them lead healthier and more independent lives.

• Be from a legally constituted UK organisation, including health and social care organisations, private companies, social enterprises and charities. We regret that we cannot fund individuals.
Due the fund size, we anticipate the bulk of the innovations will be funded at Minimum Viable Product / early testing stage. However, we will also consider funding established technologies especially those that aim to repurpose a current solution to be person-centred, support a different patient group or condition, or use different data sets for example.

To be part of the fund we want to work with organisations who demonstrate they:

• Are passionate about the opportunities that new technologies and ways of working can bring to citizens living healthier lives.

• Have a commitment to actively taking part in workshops and events.

• Have the right team, or recruitment plan, in place, appropriate for the project’s stage of development and delivery.

• Have a clear idea of how the grant will be spent and what progress is achievable over the 9 months of project delivery.

• Are open to being challenged and supported to grow their idea.

• Are happy to share their learning more widely – the challenges as well as the successes.

• Work with open data / open source technology (desirable)

Key dates

1. Briefing workshops: Monday 3 December 2018 (Edinburgh and Glasgow); Tuesday 4 December 2018 (Inverness)

2. Online briefing webinar: Thursday 6 December 2018

3. Deadline for EOI submission: 10am Friday 14 December 2018: Submit your idea via the online Expression of Interest form.

4. Shortlist notified: Wednesday 16 January 2019

5. Workshop for shortlisted ideas in Scotland: Tuesday 22 January 2019

6. Deadline for full application: Wednesday 25 February 2019

7. Grantees notified: Monday 8 March 2019

8. April 2019 to December 2019: period of grant funding

Next steps

• Find out more about eligibility and how to apply

• Read the full terms and conditions and FAQs

• Register for a workshop or webinar to find out more about what we’re looking for

• Submit an expression of interest by 10am on Friday 14 December 2018.

For further information, please email us at: healthierlivesdatafund@nesta.org.uk.