Global Business Innovation Programme in Singapore - MedTech and Diagnostics

A GBIP has three stages:

Prepare for the market

Preparing for the market includes the cohort being briefed by sector and market experts on, for example, cultural aspects of conducting business in that country. Delegates receive help to find business partners and arrange meetings and are advised on best practice including the management and protection of their intellectual property.

Visiting the market

Visiting the market provides opportunities to attend pre-arranged meetings and activities in order to better understand and maximise the opportunities that the visit presents.

Exploiting the opportunity

Exploiting the opportunity is arguably the most important aspect of the programme. To maximise the opportunity, participating companies are given bespoke one-to-one support from an Innovate UK EDGE innovation and growth specialist to help develop and implement an action plan.

The Global Business Innovation Programme operates on a competitive basis and businesses selected are required to participate in all three stages (some or all of which may be online).

To apply you must:

• Be a UK-based innovation-led company with ambitions to grow and internationalise
• Be a company with fewer than 500 employees
• Be able to attend and complete all activities

Singapore’s Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 Plan aims to better transform and protect health, advance human potential & create economic value for Singapore. Priorities include transforming and protecting health through (i) shifting the focus towards both health promotion & disease prevention as the population ages (ii) supporting the health system to become more data-driven and patient-centric to deliver value-based care through the innovative use of both technology and digital solutions at scale (iii) using data analytics to support public health actions & telemedicine to deliver quality care to the wider population and (iv) expanding the national precision medicine research programme. A further priority is maximising economic value by growing a vibrant mix of start-ups and scale-ups with a strong translational ecosystem, with a particular focus on biotech companies.

With the Asia-Pacific Medical Technology (MedTech) market expected to grow to US$225 billion by 2030, Singapore is strategically placed to enable companies to tap into these regional opportunities, and Singapore’s network of top universities, research institutions and innovative start-ups also enable MedTech companies to fully engage with a vibrant open innovation ecosystem.

Singapore has an advanced digital economy and is consistently ranked as one of the world’s most innovative cities. Building on the strong mutual interest in co-innovation between Singapore and the UK, Enterprise Singapore and Innovate UK will be opening the latest round of their bilateral R&D grant funding call, coinciding with the timing of this GBIP visit to Singapore.

Applications will be considered from a wide range of innovative MedTech & Diagnostics companies that focus on, but not limited to:

• Medical Technologies
• Diagnostics including but not limited to In Vitro Diagnostics (IVDs)
• Medical Imaging
• Wearables

Areas of focus that are not being considered are:

• Patient Management Software
• Digital Health
• Formulated Therapeutics (* therapeutic delivery devices may be considered)

Innovate UK will fund and organise flights, accommodation, in-market travel, and conference fees for successful applicants. Innovate UK will also pay for any reasonable adjustments throughout the initiative. One representative from each company will be funded. On acceptance to the initiative a commitment fee of £500 will be obtained from each delegate, which will be refunded on completion of the full activities and agreed action plan. Non-completion after formal acceptance may result in forfeiting some or all the commitment fee.

Register for the applicant briefing on 25 March here

Closing date for applications: 21 April 2024

Pre-visit briefing(s): 20 & 21 May 2024

Innovation visit: 1 – 5 July 2024

Post-visit workshop: September 2024