We bring clinicians, citizens, academics and technology companies together to collaborate and help solve health and social care challenges. Our aim is to improve health and well-being for citizens, address system challenges and support the productivity of SMEs and economic growth.
The Surrey Heartlands Health Tech Accelerator is an innovation and accelerator partnership, drawing on the research, clinical, commercial and business accelerator expertise of the founding partners.
Our initial infrastructure was supported by a significant capital investment from Enterprise M3*, the Local Enterprise Partnership, and generous resource contributions from founding partners.
We aim to:
Accelerate the development of the most promising healthcare innovations from start-ups and SMEs
Improve the spread of well-evidenced, beneficial and good value healthcare solutions
Develop a unique capability in the engineering and testing of digital health tech
Create an evidence base to enable the accelerated adoption of tech in health service provision.
Partners
The strength of the HTA lies in its partners, each experts in their own field and with the knowledge, commitment and contacts needed to drive innovation.
University of Surrey
The University of Surrey is a world-class, research-led university committed to research excellence. Its research seeks to answer global challenges, drive innovation and deliver real-world impact.
Within the University of Surrey there are a variety of healthcare facilities and research infrastructures that are set up to reflect current health providers in the real world. This allows for a more realistic portrayal of scenarios when research is taking place. These include:
- Surrey Clinical Research Facility;
- Surrey Clinical Simulation Centre;
- School of Health Sciences
- Surrey Sleep Research Centre;
- Dementia Research Institute Facility;
- Surrey Clinical Trials Unit
The School of Biosciences and Medicine comprises four departments, including the Clinical Research Building which houses both a Clinical Research Facility and a Clinical Trials Unit. The school accommodates 80 academic staff and c1400 students, from undergraduate to PhD. Research expertise includes performing clinical trials of new medicines in humans. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF2014) the School contributed 75% of its staff to a return to Unit of Assessment 3 (Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy) as part of a Faculty-wide submission that ranked eight out of 93 institutions, with 93% of its research rated as world leading or internationally excellent.
The Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP) is a leading UK research centre in audio-visual signal processing, computer vision and machine learning. The Centre is one of the largest in Europe, with over 150 researchers and a grant portfolio in excess of £23 million, bringing together a unique combination of cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning expertise. CVSSP’s aim is to advance the state-of-the-art in machine perception, combining AI and multi-modal sensing to enable machines to see, hear and understand the world around them. The Centre has an outstanding track record of innovative research leading to technology transfer and exploitation in biometrics, creative industries (film, TV, games, VR, AR), mobile communication, healthcare, robotics, autonomous vehicles and consumer electronics.
The Centre’s research on machine learning and healthcare technologies has received several awards including: The Most Outstanding Innovation at Guildford’s Innovation Awards, HSJ 2018 Award for Improving Care with Technology, a Regional NHS Parliamentary Award and the Best Mental Health Initiative Award, at EHI 2017.

University of Surrey
Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Partnership
Surrey Heartlands (SH) is a partnership of health and care organisations working together – with staff, patients, their carers, families and our citizens – to transform local services and support people to live healthier lives.
SH was one of the very first Integrated Care Systems in the country and brings together NHS organisations, local authorities and other partners to take joint responsibility for improving the health of our local population.
When it comes to the health and wellbeing of its citizens, SH has ambitious plans and wants the 1.1 million people who live in Surrey Heartlands to have the best opportunities to start well, live well and age well.
Its Academy provides a virtual network to support clinicians to adopt, share and evaluate innovation, research and best practice, matching clinical need to near to market health innovations and products which can be trialled in a real world testing environment.
You can see the difference Surrey Heartlands is making to people’s lives in these patient stories.

Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Partnership
KSS AHSN
Health and social care needs innovation to improve patient care and outcomes, but healthcare workers can find it hard to know what new products or services are out there, let alone which ones will make most difference for patients. It’s also difficult for industry innovators to know exactly what the system needs and who to talk to. Equally, it’s challenging for best practice or solutions to travel effectively from one NHS organisation to the next or for health research to find a route into real world implementation.
That’s where AHSNs come in – we guide people from all parts of the health and care system to make the right connections to solve problems, make best use of innovation and ultimately transform lives for patients and citizens.
Established in 2013, KSS AHSN is 1 of 15 Academic Health Science Networks that cover the whole of England.

KSS AHSN
Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SABP) is the leading provider of over 140 health and social care services (rated ‘Good’ with the Care Quality Commission) across a range of services in Surrey Heartlands and Frimley. SABP employs 2,600 staff serving a population of 1.3 million, mainly within community settings, hospitals and residential homes.
SABP leads communities in improving their mental and physical health and wellbeing for a better life. SABP has led on and contributed to a range of projects related to digitally-based healthcare intervention, and maximising opportunities to improve digital proficiency as well as securing in excess of £25 million in funding since 2017.
SABP jointly with the University of Surrey, KSS AHSN and Howz a UK based SME, leads the UK’s only NHS Internet of Things (IoT) project – TIHM for Dementia. The project is multi-award winning and has been running since 2015.

Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
SETsquared
SETsquared is a unique enterprise partnership and a dynamic collaboration between five leading research-led UK universities, including the University of Surrey. Ranked as the Global No. 1 Business Incubator, SETsquared provides a range of highly acclaimed support programmes to help turn ideas into thriving businesses.
Founded in 2002 to develop enterprise and innovation opportunities from its knowledge base across the South of England, since then the Partnership has developed its expertise and resources in Research Commercialisation, Business Incubation and Student Enterprise and provides a proven model for unlocking commercial and societal value from university research and know-how in the growth market of SME-led research, development and innovation. Since launching in 2002, SETsquared have supported over 5,000 entrepreneurs helping them raise £2.72bn investment.
The combination of company membership growth and high levels of investment attracted by SETsquared member companies contributes to the economic growth of our region. Independent research carried out by Warwick economics has estimated the economic impact of SETsquared supported companies to be £8.6bn, with the creation of 20,000 jobs; by 2030 this is set to grow to £26.9bn.
Over the last four years, SETsquared has developed and delivered the highly successful Health Innovation Programme in partnership with the two Academic Health Science Networks in the Enterprise M3 region (Wessex and Kent Surrey Sussex). This immersive and interactive four-day training course has supported over 150 companies to develop their business ideas, analyse their markets and potential customers, develop a compelling pitch and look at funding strategies.

SETsquared
Network
The HTA’s influence extends beyond the core members to include national and international network partners, bringing fresh new perspectives and opportunities to our work.
South East Health Technologies Alliance
SEHTA is a health technology network organisation, providing business support for the benefit of our members who represent health technology SMEs, health professionals, care providers and academia.

South East Health Technologies Alliance
Wessex AHSN
Wessex AHSN exists to strengthen collaboration between industry, academia and the NHS to improve health and economic prosperity. They run a range of programmes to transform lives through technology, articulating local people’s needs, supporting innovators to meet those needs and evaluating their impact on people’s lives, inward investment and job creation.

Wessex AHSN
Royal Surrey County Hospital
The Royal Surrey County Hospital is based in Guildford and serves a population of 500,000 it delivers integrated community services and also acts as a Tertiary Oncology centre with nearly 50% of the patients receiving either a cancer diagnosis, treatment or monitoring. It is also the largest provider of radiotherapy for Sussex and Surrey. They have strong Clinical Research Network (CRN) links and an established R&D team.

Royal Surrey County Hospital
MedCity
MedCity is the cluster organisation for the world-leading health and life sciences sector in London and the Greater South East of England. It was set up in 2014 by the Mayor of London and the region’s Academic Health Science Centres to drive growth and investment in the sector for the health and wealth of the population.
MedCity act as a convener, connector and catalyst – identifying opportunities and pathways for businesses and researchers to work together to develop and commercialise the best innovations.

MedCity
Frimley Health and Care
Frimley Health and Care is a partnership of local health and care organisations. Representatives from each organisation sit on the different boards of the Integrated Care System and help to make decisions about our shared priorities, how funding is used, and what we can do to make the biggest difference to local people.

Frimley Health and Care
Enterprise M3 Growth Hub
The Enterprise M3 Growth Hub helps healthcare, medtech, digital health and life sciences companies to establish themselves and to grow rapidly by offering tailored commercial and sector-specific support. We achieve this via our business experience and our extensive network of contacts – regionally and nationally – across the NHS, industry and academia. Our Healthcare, Digital Health and Medtech Lead is Steve Parr, who has a wealth of experience in the sector.
At the core of our offering are bespoke support and introductions in the following areas:
- Strategy, business planning and commercial
- Sales, marketing and business development
- R&D and commercial development grant applications to NIHR, Innovate UK et al
- Value propositions and the Go-to-Market
- Market access incl. navigating the NHS and the healthcare system
- Product commercialisation
- Company funding and investment
- Coaching and mentoring
- IP protection

Enterprise M3 Growth Hub
Public Intelligence
Public Intelligence is a consultancy headquartered in Odense that focuses on welfare innovation in Denmark and internationally. They excel in creating unique results in a collaboration with citizens, businesses and health professionals, focusing on:
- Health and Welfare Innovation projects with the public sector, to create better services for the citizens within health care, social care and other service areas
- Testing technologies for private sector companies, to create better products and technologies for the market.
They collaborate internationally including Japan, England, Scotland, Germany, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway, Iceland and Spain.

Public Intelligence
WelfareTech
As a national cluster in Denmark, Welfare Tech operates as a hub for innovation and business development in healthcare, homecare and social services. We strive to promote business opportunities and collaboration between members and business partners from the private industry, public organisations, and research and education institutions.
The core of Welfare Tech comprises innovative Danish companies and public institutions. The coherence between the members makes Welfare Tech a national entry point for companies who wants to enter the Danish and European market, and Welfare Tech conveys new ideas and insights into demands and requirements pertaining to hospitals and municipalities.
Welfare Tech is supported by the European Regional Development Fund and Syddansk Vækstforum (Growth Forum of Southern Denmark), and The Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation under the Danish Ministry. In 2014 Welfare Tech was awarded The Gold Label of the European Cluster Excellence Initiative (ECEI).

WelfareTech
Healthcare Denmark
Healthcare DENMARK is a public-private non-profit partnership and the international gateway to Danish healthcare and life science expertise and innovation. They organise delegation visitor programs for foreign decision-makers and press delegations with an exclusive opportunity to experience innovative Danish solutions in practice.

Healthcare Denmark
Leadership team
The HTA is led by a Partnership Board which is chaired by Professor Helen Rostill, and supported by seven executive members.
Professor Helen Rostill
Deputy CEO and Director of Therapies, Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; Executive Director for Mental Health, Surrey Heartlands; Frimley SRO for Mental Health
Arjun Sikand
Leading the Innovation Unit across Surrey Heartland’s Integrated Care System (ICS), ensuring it continues to be at the forefront of transformation and seen as a test bed for new, innovative solutions to complex social issues and the root causes of health inequalities.
Professor Simon Skene
Simon has 20 years’ experience teaching and research in medical statistics and clinical trials. He leads Surrey CTU and has a portfolio of grants supporting the evaluation and implementation of digital health solutions.
Jenny Ritchie
Jenny is responsible for the University of Surrey’s Enterprise Programmes, with a strong focus on growing the portfolio of SME programmes to encourage knowledge exchange and create impact.
Jenny Ritchie
Senior Business Manager, Enterprise Programmes Innovation Strategy, University of Surrey
Dr Samaneh Kouchaki
Lecturer and lead researcher in machine learning for healthcare within the Centre for Vision, Speech, and Signal Processing at the University of Surrey.
Peter Carpenter
Peter is responsible for delivery oversight of the portfolio of programmes for KSS AHSN, including the quality improvement and patient safety collaborative portfolios, as well as the programme activity to spread and adopt innovation into practice.
Rachel Crossley
Rachel has worked in Surrey since 2003, in a range of local government roles before being appointed to the Joint Executive Director for Public Service Reform role in May 2021. In this role, Rachel is accountable to both Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System and Surrey County Council for driving the continuous improvement of a public service model that supports the delivery of our integrated health and social care strategies. Key areas within her portfolio include public health, population health management, reducing health inequalities, strategic business intelligence and analytics, estates and driving innovation through the Surrey Heartlands Academy.
Delivery team
Lisa James
I have worked in healthcare for over 20 years holding leadership positions at national, regional and local level and within the voluntary sector. I am employed by KSS AHSN a core partner for the HTA to lead the operational team at the HTA to mobilise its support offer to industry, academia and healthcare. I enjoy working collaboratively to improve patient outcomes using innovations, transformation and new technology. My role also supports ICs in Surrey with their clinical and system priorities.
Ginny Common
As well as managing the day to day running of the HTA my role involves engaging with stakeholders, ensuring the HTA remains safe and operational and making sure that those who use the centre are provided with the support and service required to get their work done. I have a background in running Innovation Centres and a wealth of experience in customer service which makes me best placed to aid the users of the HTA get the best out of the accelerator.
Dr Ewa Jakubczyk
My Role is to strengthen the University of Surrey’s collaboration with existing HTA partners, maximise the use of the HTA and build relationships with new SMEs and industry partners that engage with the HTA.
Thanks to my knowledge, multi-directional education, experience, and transparency, I can easily communicate in a complex and diverse environment. I have a background in Engineering, material science, innovation, chemistry, human movement, medicine, consulting, leadership and over 15 years of Disability and Neurodiversity experience, with extensive experience in mental health issues and awareness.