Hardian joins £20m Immersive Technology fund for mental health therapeutics
Developers of immersive technology for mental health to benefit from £20m MindSet XR Programme
A new supportive ecosystem for UK innovators working on immersive digital mental health therapeutics is being launched.
The UKRI Mindset XR Innovator Support Programme is going to be led by the Health Innovation Network (HIN) South London.
The full Mindset extended reality (XR) for digital mental health programme 2022- 2026 is a £20m investment which aims to treat more people with mental health needs by investing in Extended Reality (XR) and other immersive technologies; achieving transformation through the development and scale-up of emerging digital mental health therapies.
Through collaboration with experts across the UK, the HIN will deliver a programme of innovator support including:
Creating a networking and information sharing platform for potential collaborators.
Providing advice and expert support to existing and future competition applicants.
Delivering a programme of outreach and engagement activities to cover the whole of the UK, including the devolved administrations.
Facilitating knowledge sharing across a community of practice.
Providing tailored support for larger scale industrial research projects and smaller feasibility projects.
Delivering a learning package on a range of key topics.
Driving the conditions for change through industry-wide and health system-wide roundtables.
The collaboration brings together UK wide reach and a set of complementary skills - service user engagement, clinical research design, regulation and digital therapeutics - critical to address the challenge of bringing immersive tech to our population and staff. The Health Innovation Network will collaborate with networks across the country, including Health Innovation North West Coast, Health Innovation South West and Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria. As well as these they will also collaborate with:
Hardian Health
Hill Dickinson LLP
The Health Innovation Research Alliance Northern Ireland (HIRANI)
King’s College London
MQ Mental Health Research
XR Health Alliance
Dr Rishi Das-Gupta, CEO of the HIN said: “Immersive technology has the potential to dramatically improve the treatment of those with mental health conditions, which is an area we know has seen increased demand and widening health inequalities.
“Working with Innovate UK and our collaborators across the UK presents an exciting opportunity to make a wide-scale difference.”
Quotes from MINDSET XR Partners’ Spokespeople
Dr Hugh Harvey, Managing Director, said: “Hardian is excited to be working with innovators at the cutting edge of healthtech to ensure that their novel extended and virtual reality devices are as safe, effective and performant as can be when applied across a range of medical purposes. We look forward to stretching the boundaries of what is possible with the Mindset cohort.”
Dr Nicola Hutchinson, CEO of Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria, commented: “We are delighted to be a partner on this important project, which will help to mobilise groundbreaking immersive innovations to address the mental health challenges facing many people in our communities. Through the Mindset programme, we’re looking forward to working with innovators in the immersive technology space in our region to support the development of solutions that will hopefully result in people with mental health needs being treated more quickly through immersive digital mental health therapies.”
Dr Phil Jennings, Chief Executive of Health Innovation North West Coast, said: “We’re really excited to be involved in a project that promises to deliver tangible improvements in patient outcomes.
“The challenges are as acute in our region as anywhere in the country but there’s also an abundance of talent and creativity we can draw on. The Mindset programme will help us bring that creativity to bear on one of our most enduring challenges.”
Jon Siddall, Chief Executive Officer of Health Innovation South West, said: "This is an exciting opportunity to build upon the existing novel technologies developed in, and deployed across, the South West to support those with mental health needs. We are working with our partners in the South West to maximise the impact of research and innovation in mental health care. Mindset’s innovative therapeutics offer promising digital solutions to the mental health challenges experienced by people living within our rural and coastal communities, and will enable us to drive a digitally-enabled health and care sector across our Peninsula.”
“In Northern Ireland there is a distinctive mix of capabilities in digital technology and the creative industries, coupled with expertise in mental health research – so we are delighted to partner with Health Innovation Network South London to support the Innovate-UK Mindset XR programme network in this region to support innovators to unleash their potential to forge new collaborations to develop and test XR technology solutions for mental health” Joann Rhodes CEO of HIRANI.”
“MQ is excited to be a capacity development partner, alongside the Health Innovation Network, supporting innovators in the creation of digital therapeutic Extended Reality (XR) solutions in mental health. Specifically, and in line with what MQ stands for and strives to achieve, we look forward to helping these passionate individuals ensure people with lived experience and their needs are at the heart of their innovations and to help them along their pathway to impact.”
“We desperately need to bring together science, storytelling and innovation to solve some of society's greatest challenges. The XR Health Alliance are utterly elated be part of the Mindset program, which has the bold goals of doing exactly that. We are particularly excited to be supporting and bringing together a transdisciplinary community of patients, XR creatives, healthcare professionals and researchers to create powerful new solutions for mental health and wellbeing.”
Hardian Health is a clinical digital consultancy accelerating Software as a Medical Device technology into healthcare markets through clinical strategy, scientific validation, regulation, health economics and intellectual property.
