Medical Devices Fund

In the 2021-22 financial year the Medical Devices Fund has over $8 million available.

Applications for round 9 will close on 1 March 2021 at 5pm.

Please submit one copy of the application electronically to MOH-OHMRGrants@health.nsw.gov.au.

Application guidelines

Information about eligibility, selection criteria, assessment process and other guidelines is outlined further below in the Medical Devices Application Kit and Program Guidelines.

Applications are called for once a year, and there is a two stage application process. To be eligible to be invited to submit a Full Application, applicants must first submit a preliminary application.

• Preliminary Application – this is an early screening document of no more than 8 pages that allows the Medical Devices Fund Expert Panel to determine eligibility, review the opportunity and assess the quality of the application.
• Full Application – the Medical Devices Fund Expert Panel will determine if a Preliminary Application will proceed to a Full Application. This is a more detailed document of 15-20 pages that covers all aspects of the opportunity. This stage is by invitation only.

Watch the following video to understand the Medical Devices Fund eligibility criteria.

Watch the following video to understand what evidence and/or trial information you need to provide.

Watch the following video to understand what you need to address from an IP perspective.

Watch the following video to understand what you need to address in your regulatory plan.

Watch the following video to understand the importance of having a reimbursement strategy.

Watch the following video to understand the importance of building a well-rounded team.

Watch the following video to understand the Medical Devices Fund Business Canvas Model as part of your application.

The following principles apply to the Medical Devices Fund:

1. The project must be capable of potentially:
   • improving patient care and/or health wellbeing
   • generating, economic, social and/or environmental benefits to NSW.
2. Funding will be open, competitive and merit-based, while maintaining commercial-in-confidence requirements.
3. Funding can be used for purposes including:
   • proof-of-concept, prototyping and piloting studies
   • manufacturing samples for product trials
   • conducting market and product assessments
   • engaging a consultant to locate other national and international trials and research relevant to the product under development
   • and conducting clinical assessments.
4. The fund will support a cross-section of products across a range of applications throughout the medical device product life-cycle (technical device concept demonstrated to marketing).
5. The fund will not support activities which are deemed to be research.
6. The Medical Devices Fund Expert Panel will have sufficient flexibility to tailor funding support according to what it believes is required to assist the development and commercialisation of a medical device.

Background

The Medical Devices Fund will help encourage and support investment in the development and commercialisation of medical devices in NSW, to accelerate the development of medical devices by removing barriers to commercialisation, and to leverage other funding. The innovations supported by the Fund will be rigorously and transparently assessed by an Expert Panel and have the potential to impact on health outcomes, be cost effective, and be of economic benefit to NSW. The Expert Panel will have sufficient flexibility to tailor funding support according to what it believes is required to assist the development and commercialisation of a medical device.

Purpose

The Medical Devices Fund will help encourage and support investment in the development and commercialisation of medical devices in NSW. In doing this it will:

• building on existing state and federal programs and initiatives
• encourage linkages between NSW device companies, research hubs, commercialisation offices and domestic and offshore investors in medical devices
• streamline clinical assessments and trials of innovative medical devices to assist greater uptake of NSW innovations by the NSW health system, and drive sales and exports to other markets
• build on the previous investment in the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) as a source of expert advice and significant investment
• align with Commercialisation Australia processes
• foster collaboration with NSW Trade and Investment, for commercialisation expertise, technical assistance and complementary programs.
• identify and support teams or individuals who are likely to be successful.

The Medical Devices Fund Expert Panel will review applications for investment in the development and commercialisation life-cycle of medical devices and make funding recommendations with a view to creating outcomes which are of health and economic benefit to NSW.

Approval of the Expert Panel’s recommendations for grants will be in line with existing delegations for Deputy Secretary, Secretary and Minister for Health and Medical Research.

Reporting and accountability

The Expert Panel reports to the Minister for Health and Medical Research through the Secretary or their delegate.

Membership

Membership to the Expert Panel will be by appointment by the Minister for Health and Medical Research. It will include individuals who are distinguished experts, who collectively have skills, experience and expertise in; scientific research, medical devices commercialisation, financial management and consumer advocacy. The number of members will be at the discretion of the Minister. The Minister will appoint the Chair of the Expert Panel

If further expertise is required to assist with the assessment of an application, it will be sourced by the panel on a case-by-case basis. This will include advice from Medical Research Commercialisation Fund and NSW Trade and Investment.

Tenure

Appointment of Expert Panel members and Chair will be up to 3 years with the option to extend for a further period of up to 3 years, at the discretion of Minister for Health and Medical Research, but the appointment must not exceed 6 years in total.

Code of conduct

All members will abide by and display behaviour consistent with NSW Health Code of Conduct.

Conflicts of interest

Members must declare conflict of interest matters in regard to applications. Management of conflict of interest will be undertaken by the Chair and the Office for Health and Medical Research (Secretariat).

Confidentiality

All members will treat meeting proceedings, discussions and recommendations and all documents tendered as commercial-in-confidence.

Employment checks

Appointment is conditional on a satisfactory outcome of a National Criminal Record check and a NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet Lobby Register check. (Employment Screening Policy PD2008_029)

Remuneration

The Expert Panel will be remunerated sitting fees: Chair at $342 full day or $171 half day and Member $207 full day or $104 half day as per the Department of Premier’s and Cabinet Guidelines for NSW Boards and Committee members: Appointments and Remuneration. This excludes minor out of pocket expenses as per Ministry of Health policy directive.

Secretariat

The Office for Health and Medical Research will provide all the administrative support for the Medical Devices Fund processes and the Expert Panel.

Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte (Chair)

Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte is the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer. He is known for his pioneering work on probabilistic methods for robotics and is an expert in autonomous robots. Professor Durrant-Whyte previously held a senior research post at the University of Sydney (as director of the Centre for Translational Data Science) and before that was the head of National ICT Australia, which is now embedded in the CSIRO as Data61. He was also named NSW scientist of the year in 2010.

Professor Gemma Figtree

Professor Figtree is a Professor in Medicine at the University of Sydney and is an interventional cardiologist at Royal North Shore Hospital. She works in the field of oxidative signalling and translational cardiovascular research. Professor Figtree is committed to improving the care for patients who have heart attacks and discoveries in her laboratory have been published in leading journals. Professor Figtree is supported by a Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship and a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship.

Dr John Parker

Dr Parker is the Founder and CEO of Saluda Medical. Dr Parker founded the Implant Systems team at NICTA that developed the closed loop feedback technology. He has over 20 years of experience in medical devices, including 13 years at Cochlear Limited, where he served in the role of Chief Technology Officer / executive member of the board of directors.

Mark Phelps

Mr Phelps is the Head of Business Development- Mergers and acquisitions, Investments, Partnerships at Cochlear Limited. This role is responsible for developing and coordinating strategic growth initiatives to improve the end-to-end customer experience across major markets; working with clinical partners, country GM’s and functional heads to coordinate the development and execution of new clinical care models based on connectivity and digitisation of data flows.

Dr Katherine Woodthorpe AO

Dr Woodthorpe is an experienced non-executive director serving over 20 years on numerous boards. She has experience in a broad range of technology orientated industries including healthcare, mining and data analytics. Dr Woodthorpe has been cited in various media as one of Australia’s most influential people in innovation. She has been Chair of three CRCs and on the boards of several others. Dr Woodthorpe is currently Chair of ACE where she has chaired the board for 15 years.

Kelly Constable

Ms Constable is a senior business executive offering 20 years of life science experience, including eight recent years leading the commercialisation of breakthrough digital/mobile applications in the healthcare arena. She has a proven track record driving innovation within a top global biotech organization, including formation of two entrepreneurial digital start-ups. Demonstrated ability to “own” the full concept-to-launch development process for digital solutions to empower healthcare stakeholders, improve patient outcomes, increase market access, and reduce bottom-line healthcare delivery costs.

Dr Greg Keogh

Dr Keogh is a Senior Staff Specialist Surgeon and Head of General Surgery at Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and Clinical Stream Director for Surgery, Anaesthetics and Peri-operative Medicine for South Eastern Sydney Local Health District. Dr Keogh is a member of the Surgical Services Taskforce (under the Agency for Clinical Innovation), and has recently assumed the role of Surgical Champion of NSQIP at Prince of Wales Hospital.

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