The national Medical Technologies Innovation and Knowledge Centre, funded by UKRI EPSRC, brings businesses together with world-class experts to accelerate the commercial development of new medical technology products and services.
The Medical Technologies IKC facilitates collaboration between companies, engineers, scientists and clinicians to develop innovative technologies that help the body repair and restore function.
Our mission
We work to reduce the risk and uncertainty associated with new technologies, with a strategic focus on the regenerative device sector. Our mission is to secure investment from the private sector to develop commercial products from world-leading research and deliver economic benefits. We work with incremental, disruptive and, increasingly, convergent technologies, to support companies and researchers through the commercialisation process.
Technology priority areas
Directly implanted regenerative devices: scaffolds, biomaterials and devices which deliver tissue repair and regeneration
Enabling technologies: enhanced simulation methods will improve design, development and pre-clinical evaluation of new products. The goal is to provide evidence of safety and efficacy at the pre-clinical stage, reducing the risk, cost and time in product development.
Companion technologies: advanced imaging and diagnostics can determine the disease state of the patient and their response to treatment. Companion technologies use these tools to deliver stratified and personalised interventions which can enhance precision of surgery.
Focus on regenerative devices
Regenerative devices (regenerative therapies delivered as Class III medical devices) is an emerging technology area with huge market potential. It belongs within the area of regenerative medicine in which the UK has the potential to be a global leader.
The Medical Technologies IKC is focusing on the regenerative devices sector because of the potential to commercialise technologies more quickly and cost effectively. Our experts take a strategic approach to selecting the right technologies to invest in – identifying cost effective healthcare interventions with shorter translation pathways and lower development costs. It takes, typically, fewer than 10 years to translate regenerative devices into the market-place and costs less than £10m – much less than all other forms of regenerative and cell therapies.
