Now Accepting Applications for our Challenge Accelerator:
Mental Health, Wellbeing & Happiness
Create real world impact from your research and turn your MedTech idea into a commercial reality with the MedTech SuperConnector™
MTSC Challenge Accelerator
Mental health problems can affect all sectors of society and at any point accounting for a quarter of all ill health in the UK. One in four of us will experience mental health problems each year with mental illness being the single largest cause of disability at an estimated annual economic and social cost of £105 billion*.
The MedTech SuperConnector Challenge Accelerator welcomes applications from individuals with fresh new ideas and solutions that demonstrate the potential to help alleviate the current pressures on mental health services, healthcare professionals and supports the mental wellbeing of the population. Areas of particular focus are; diagnostics, therapeutics, robotics, service/user experience redesign and data driven led solutions.
* The Five Year Forward View For Mental Health, Feb 2016.
Accelerator Programme Offer:
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Each successful participant will receive a monthly stipend*
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Each team will have access to:
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- Up to £60,000 for consumables and product development
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- Dedicated advisor support and facilitation
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- A structured product development plan, and milestones
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- Mentoring support
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- Industry pitches
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- Entrepreneurship training
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- Masterclasses
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- Networking opportunities
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- Partner incubator/accelerator facilities
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- Access to a Coworking space
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*Tax will be the responsibility of the individual
Who we are looking for
- Research Fellows, Early Career Researchers (ECRs), Postdocs, PhD & Master’s students at one of our partner Institutions
- Research Fellows must have written support from their P.I. to be on the programme
Specific academic disciplines or technical expertise is not a requirement though the following skill-sets are desirable:
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Business Professionals
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Finance Experts
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Branding / Communications / Marketing Specialists
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Psychologists / Social Scientists / Behavioural Scientists
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Performers / Storytellers
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Software Developers
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Computer Scientists
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Data Scientists
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AI Specialists
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Roboticist’s
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Product Designers
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Service Designers
How it Works
The six month ‘MTSC Challenge Accelerator’ programme will give participants the opportunity to work within and build a multi-disciplinary team to fast-track the development of early stage MedTech concepts and technologies.
Applicants will be invited to take part in a collaborative 2 day ‘Innovation Lab’ hackathon forming teams to develop novel solutions tackling mental health and promoting wellbeing & happiness. At the end of the hackathon each team will have the opportunity to pitch their idea to a panel of judges & a live audience to win a place on the 6-month accelerator programme. The programme offers’ access to specialist facilities, networks, and a range of masterclasses, helping to develop a set of entrepreneurial skills. The accelerator is part time with a minimum expected commitment of 15 hours per week.
This programme is open to research fellows, postdocs, PhD candidates & master’s students from our partner institutions; this means we’re not just looking for applicants with technical expertise but individuals with a passion for building teams, businesses, operational skills, design disciplines and everything in between – people with the driving force to create solutions and successful ventures from just an idea.
How to Apply
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Step 1: Submit a completed application (closing date 20th Jan 2019 11:59pm)
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Step 2: Join the hackathon weekend (Starts Fri 1st Feb 6pm, to Sun 3rd Feb 6pm)
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Step 3: Pitch your team’s solution to a panel of judges (Sun 3rd Feb 2019)
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Step 4: Winning Teams start the six month accelerator programme (Mon 4th, Tue 5th & Wed 6th Mar 2019)
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Step 5: Check key programme dates to ensure you’re available!
MTSC Cohort One
Launch of London’s pioneering MedTech accelerator
“Together we will build enduring value in medical technologies. The benefits will be felt by patients throughout the UK and around the world.” – Professor Nick Jennings, Vice-Provost (Research & Innovation)
MTSC Insights: Knowledge Exchange
The MedTech SuperConnector is an open experiment in acceleration, bringing together talented early career researchers (ECRs), academic discoveries and pooled know-how from 8 academic institutions with 3 bioscience incubators, industry expertise, NHS patients and enabling partners (investors, service providers, mentors etc.) to determine the most effective methods for the translation of MedTech discoveries into clinical practice and consumer use.
Since April 2018, we have worked hard as a consortium to develop a series of tools, resources and methods helping us to successfully launch the inaugural MTSC Cohort in June 2018. We are now sharing our early findings to allow for the open reporting of processes and outputs that will form a valuable pool of hard evidence on best Knowledge Exchange (KE) practice, helping enable real-time learning across the HE sector.
Design
- Project governance structures, Working Groups, Steering Board and Reporting Mechanisms Setup and Deployed.
- HEI Consortium Agreement drafted, signed and implemented.
- Mechanisms and processes in paces for the disbursement of funds for Ventures and HEIs.
Accelerator Planning
- Accelerator Programme design, structure and delivery.
- Application, selection, recruitment and On-boarding of participants.
- Branding, marketing and communications.
Industry Engagement
- Launch Event, June 2018
- Setup of MTSC Venture Mentor Service (MVMS).
- Leveraging existing networks and contacts from across the consortium to engage with Industry; from Corporates, Investors, Service Providers and Mentors.
Key Documents, Templates & Resources
Funded by Research England, MTSC is an initiative from a consortium of eight dynamic London universities with interest in nurturing talent, ideas, and entrepreneurship. MTSC will focus uniquely on a new route for Post-Docs and graduate students, to translate MedTech discoveries from academic labs into startup companies, proposing more solutions to today’s health challenges.
