Collaboration Guidance

Introduction

We are excited to explore potential collaboration opportunities with innovators working in the mental health and technology space. This document outlines the types of collaboration requests we expect to receive, the areas of interest we focus on, and the support we can provide.

Types of Collaboration Requests

We welcome collaboration requests for research. This might include:

  • Grant Applications: Invitations to collaborate on grant applications that align with our research interests.
  • Commercial Research: Pre-funded research projects where you are seeking clinical or academic research expertise.
  • Consultancy: We contribute to key policy and guidance documents in our areas of expertise.

Areas of Interest

Please review our website to understand the condition areas we are interested in. These include:

  • Adult mood disorders
  • Children and young people's mental health, including neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD and autism
  • Depression in children and young people
  • Self-harm
  • Suicide
  • Tics and Tourette's
  • Anxiety disorders

Support We Provide

We offer a range of support to innovators, including:

  • Advice on Product Development: Guidance on developing products that meet market needs.
  • Signposting to Relevant Resources and Events: Information on relevant events and resources.
  • Product Market Fit: Guidance on ensuring your product fits market needs.
  • Regulation and Value Assessments: Information on regulatory requirements and value assessments by government bodies.
  • Collaboration Opportunities: Potential collaborations with clinical academics and expert researchers.

Involving People with Lived Experience

We emphasise the importance of involving people with lived experience of mental health conditions at all stages of research. We can provide signposting and, in some cases, support with engaging patients in developing your research.

Capacity

Due to capacity limitations, we regret that we cannot engage with every opportunity presented to us. Priorities will be informed by the potential of each technology to address the unmet needs of patients and end-users (including underserved communities) and improve healthcare outcomes and service efficiencies.

Expectations

As our team bring significant experience and knowledge of the mental health technology landscape, we expect that innovators approaching us are able to offer something of their own to any suggested partnership. This might include business acumen or technical knowhow. We work well with teams that bring experience of commercialisation.

We also expect innovators approaching us to have at least a functioning prototype of any software/technology in development.  

Any collaboration is a partnership, and we would expect that teams approaching us have capacity to contribute their time to any research projects we collaborate on.

Next Steps

The first step in any collaboration is to make contact with our Industry Engagement Manager, Jake Andrews.

Get in touch