NHS Innovation Accelerator
The NIA is delivered by UCLPartners on behalf of NHS England, in partnership with the Health Innovation Network.
Since the NIA’s launch in 2015, we have supported 107 fellows through the accelerator programme. This represents 95 novel solutions being adopted in 3,478 NHS sites across the country, the creation of 1,244 jobs, and securing over £226 million in external investment.
The 2024/25 NIA cohort have reached over 5.6 million patients with their innovation-based solutions, created 81 jobs, achieved over £23 million in UK revenue and over £3 million in investment. The innovations have entered 207 new NHS organisations and won 34 awards.
The programme went from strength to strength over the past year, seeing a 78% in the number of patients reached by NIA solutions and a 23% increase in fellows revenues. Our annual callout also saw a 37% increase in applicants to our recruitment call, and 200% increase in the number of applicants taken to interview, demonstrating an increase in quantity as well as quality of applications.
In March 2025 we announced our new intake of fellows, comprising 28 innovators who will be supported to develop, accelerate and deliver solutions to enhance the NHS. This brings the total number of fellows currently supported by the programme to 53.
We are really proud that this year the NIA was named as a Leading Start-up Hub in Europe by the Financial Times, Statista and Sifted, providing international recognition of the value the programme brings.