On the 18th November 2025, the UK government published the Intellectual property (IP) guidance for the NHS in England. The guidance aims to facilitate how intellectual property (IP) is managed within the NHS and overcome some of the challenges faced by innovators and other key stakeholders striving to develop their ideas and bring new innovations to the market for the benefit of patients and the NHS.
Key actions for NHS organisations to take in this guidance include:
- assign a Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for IP management and set up effective IP decision-making processes
- review and update their IP policies in line with the good practice principles
- explore and evaluate accessing Technology Transfer Capabilities (TTCs)
- make IP policies and TTC arrangements publicly available (for example, publish on their website)
- provide rolling training to staff on the importance of effective IP management
Karen Law, Head of Innovation at Health Tech Enterprise, offered her perspective on the new guidelines, explaining their crucial role in NHS innovation based on her experience with numerous NHS trusts.
While patient care remains the paramount priority of the NHS, clinical staff and patients are uniquely positioned to identify unmet needs and conceive inventions that could deliver care more effectively or efficiently.
Currently, innovators often lack clear guidance or support within their own organisations to develop their ideas. Under pressure from the demands of service delivery, developing new innovations often appears to be a lesser priority. However, the 10-year Health Plan for England, the government’s strategy to reinvent the health service, relies entirely on new innovations to achieve its three radical shifts, hospital to community, analogue to digital, sickness to prevention.
Training and fostering a culture of innovation will be a key step in making these care shifts a reality. By acknowledging that innovation can be driven by any member of staff within the NHS, and by implementing proven processes, policies, and good practice, more innovations can be created, captured, supported, and exploited to deliver system-wide patient benefit.
Health Tech Enterprise has successfully engaged and led NHS trusts in this area for years. I’ve seen firsthand the difference in IP support, development, and commercialisation, when UK government recommendations such as appointing a Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for IP management, are implemented. HTE has long provided comprehensive Technology Transfer Capability (TTC) support, acting as an SRO/TTC in totality or supporting existing innovation teams on less familiar aspects of medical technology development.
This extensive engagement provides us with a understanding of NHS innovation needs and grants us a larger volume of IP for negotiating license deals with commercial manufacturers, who typically take the final step in bringing new innovations to market. I believe the potential pool of healthcare paradigm-changing innovations will grow significantly as this guidance is more widely implemented across the NHS. While AI naturally generates massive opportunities for service improvement, there remains a huge amount of scope for physical and digital medical technologies to have a beneficial impact on how we all receive care.
Health Tech Enterprise has greatly improved the support we are able to offer our innovators. Their depth of knowledge, strong analytics, and responsive support team make them an outstanding innovation partner. We highly recommend them to anyone looking to develop their innovation services.
Richard Gregory
Head of Commercial Strategy, Commercial & Contract Management, UCLH
HTE Services for NHS IP Management
At Health Tech Enterprise (HTE), we advise and support healthcare organisations in identifying and developing innovative ideas that address unmet clinical needs. With extensive experience in IP management and the commercialisation of new medical technologies including devices, diagnostics, and digital health, we help foster a culture of innovation within NHS Trusts and other public sector organisations.
HTE has over two decades of experience working with the NHS and successfully commercialised numerous technologies. We currently provide technology transfer capability to numerous NHS organisations across England. Our technology transfer services include:
- Access to training programmes and events
- Support for review of IP policies
- Innovation due diligence reviews
- Market research
- Support finding and applying for funding/investment
- Identification and management of IP rights
- Prototype/product development network and support
- Commercialisation strategy advice
- Commercial deal negotiation
- Business plan development
- Regulatory advice
- Health economics modelling
We are well placed to support NHS organisations will all aspects of IP & Commercialisation activities and help NHS organisations align themselves with the recent IP guidance developed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England.
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust has worked closely with HTE for the past eight years. Throughout this time, their expertise in intellectual property management and business development, particularly within the medical device sector, has been invaluable.
For an NHS Foundation Trust, accessing this level of specialist knowledge without the need to resource a full in-house function is both financially prudent and operationally efficient. HTE provides the flexibility to draw on expert support when required, ensuring that innovation projects progress at pace and with the appropriate governance.
Their team has consistently offered high-quality assistance across a range of areas, including innovation grant applications, ISO accreditation, and navigating the complex regulatory landscape associated with medical device development.
Their capability in conducting landscape and IP scanning, and translating these insights into robust commercialisation and business development strategies, has been of significant benefit to the organisation. I can thoroughly recommend the services of Health Tech Enterprise to any NHS Trust seeking to strengthen its innovation and commercialisation activity.
Dr David Chapman-Jones, Deputy Theme Lead, Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre: TREAC (Translational Research & Enterprise Accelerator), Innovation and Business Development
For more information about HTE’s services please contact Dr Karen Law, Head of Innovation, karen@healthtechenterprise.co.uk
