Who we are
The SBRI Centre of Excellence, established in 2018 and funded by the Welsh Government, is hosted within Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. Its purpose is to identify and address unmet needs in health and care across Wales. Our goal is to drive innovation within the public sector, ensuring that innovators focus on solving the challenges we face – essentially, we act as a bridge between innovation and the needs of the public sector.
What we do
We do this by working with Public Sector colleagues across Wales, offering support to frame those persistent problems for which there is no readily available solution, framing them as an open competition, and inviting specialists across industry, third sector and academia to propose their innovative ideas.
The best and brightest applicants will receive funding to collaborate with us (and the challenge owners) as a team, to develop a tailored solution, guided by the Centre’s Project Management Office which oversees aspects such as contracts, deliverables, governance, and safety. By the end of the process, the solution will be successfully developed, evaluated, and prepared for scaling, commercialisation, and wider adoption.
How we can help at stages of the Innovation Framework
- Describe, Understand & Define – we work with colleagues to help them define and scope out the challenges they face, through sensitive and confidential conversations and workshops. Rather than focus on the solution, we work with the problem and what a good outcome would achieve.
- Explore & Identify Solutions – whilst we don’t identify solutions, due diligence will be carried out to ensure that there are no ‘off the shelf’ solutions that might be a suitable path than SBRI. Once established that SBRI is the correct path, the Centre will launch the competition and invite innovative proposals.
- Develop Solutions – the best applications will be developed further; some challenges might be based on very early-stage feasibility, others will be pilots and demonstrators – this depends on the specific need, market, and timescale requirements of the challenge.
- Creating Evidence, & Proving Value – innovations are thoroughly evaluated in collaboration with colleagues; Phase 2 and 3 challenges will prototype and demonstrate solutions, capturing real-world evidence for evaluation and improvement.
- Adoption, Adaption & Deployment Readiness – solutions are tested and refined, creating ‘fit-for-purpose’ products and services that have been developed through a partnership between colleagues and supplier, preparing the conditions and culture for change.
- Spread & Scale – ongoing collaboration with health boards and the wider Innovation Ecosystem across Wales ensures key stakeholder support and engagement, whilst the facilitation of multi-site trials contributes to the adoption and scaling of innovations.
