NHIC LeapX

Background

The National Health Innovation Centre (NHIC) has launched the LeapX grant call to:

• support the development of late-stage, clinically significant healthcare innovations that are medium- to high-risk and commercially viable, enabling them to reach a value inflection point for commercialisation and adoption
• align stakeholder interests and leverage public and private sector partnerships to de-risk technologies and accelerate translation.

Focus areas (not limited to): Medical devices, Digital Health, Therapeutics, Diagnostics

• Note: Process innovation projects are not eligible to apply.

For more information about the grant call, please refer to the 'leapxfaq' Word file.

Eligbility Criteria

• Applicants must hold primary appointment in a public healthcare institution and be salaried by the institution in Singapore.
• Minimum 20% fresh funding commitment from co-funding partner(s) towards the total project quantum.Strong patentability in terms of novelty and inventiveness.

Note: Partner(s) may include local public healthcare cluster/institute, local public sector entity/national programme office (RIE entity), Industry, International partner

Funding Details

• NHIC’s funding quantum is capped at S$750,000 (inclusive of max. 30% indirect costs) and will be awarded to the public healthcare host institution on a reimbursement basis for expenses incurred under the approved proposed of work. 
• The duration of NHIC funding support is up to 2 years.

Funding Criteria

Funding is considered if the application satisfies the following criteria: 

• Well defined, quantifiable and clinically significant unmet healthcare need.
• Medium to high-risk innovative solution, i.e., emerging or deep-tech innovations with moderate to high development costs. For example, Class B-D or equivalent; therapeutics, clinical diagnostics, clinical decision-making tools among others.
• The technology has achieved sufficient maturity beyond early technical feasibility, supported by relevant proof-of-concept, preclinical, pilot, or early clinical data appropriate to the modality. The proposal should demonstrate readiness for late stage productisation/ clinical validation.
• Detailed plan outlining the project deliverables and short to long-term endpoints including but not limited to: competitive landscape, productisation, regulatory approval roadmap, clinical validation plan, commercial strategy, and deployment.
• The proposed project may include late stage productisation activities and clinical validation activities.
• The applicant team should possess the technical, clinical, operational, and commercial capabilities required to execute the proposed workplan and achieve key translational milestones.Potential to result in two or more of the below expected outcomes.

Submission

1. Applicants are to first pre-engage with NHIC cluster managers for SingHealth (Pauline Tay, Stephanie Lee, Smitha Velayil) before proceeding to submit an official application.

2. Following the pre-engagement, if the project and co-funding support are deemed suitable for LeapX by NHIC cluster managers, applicants will be requested to submit the official application (i.e. completed ‘leapx’ PowerPoint file) via email to the Grant Secretariat (grant@nhic.cris.sg) copying all key stakeholders (i.e. cluster/institute level offices and Co-funding entity).

Note:

• Endorsement is not required at Stage 1.
• Email subject is to reflect “NHIC LeapX Application: Add Name of clinical PI (PHI) – Add Co-funding partner”
• Applicants using the co-funding entity template are only required to complete the first two slides of NHIC’s LeapX template for Stage 1. Also ensure that the slide deck covers content associated with the guiding questions listed in NHIC template. Limit to 20 slides.
• All key stakeholders (i.e. cluster/institute level offices and Co-funding entity) who should be kept informed of the submission are to be included in the email distribution list.
  • In particular, the Co-funding entity should be copied, as this is a co-funding project and they need to be kept updated on the submission status and any subsequent developments. It can be any rep or officer-in-charge supporting the project team on their application (and post-award if funded); need not be senior management.
  • Cluster/institute level offices, which refer to the Industry & Enterprise Office (IEO), the HI Research Office, or both, should be copied during the application process to facilitate tracking of the submission.

Note: SingHealth Intellectual Property (SHIP) is the IEO Office for SingHealth cluster institutions.

Contact Person in SHIP

Email: SHIP@singhealth.com.sg

Contact Person in NHIC

NHIC I2D Grant Secretariat

Email: grant@nhic.cris.sg

NHIC Cluster Managers for SingHealth

Additional Information

Please refer to the NHIC’s website here (internet accessible link) and below attachments for more information. 

 leapx FAQ
 leapx