Some of the world’s most important drug discoveries have been made by Scots - salbutamol to relieve asthma attacks, beta blockers used to treat heart conditions and the world’s first artificial vaccine against hepatitis B infection, to name a few. Medical techniques and devices including ultrasound scanning and MRI were also developed in Scotland.

Through SHIL and our affiliate NHS Research Scotland (NRS), our role is to encourage this spirit of ‘innovation’ throughout NHS Scotland. We work to harness the talents of all our staff to improve the quality of healthcare, develop new and improved treatments and devices for our patients and ensure NHS Scotland remains at the forefront of global medical advances.

Innovation is key to this and SHIL is committed to supporting innovation across NHS Scotland by:

• Driving a culture of innovation harnessing the talents of all NHS Scotland staff to improve the quality of healthcare and develop new and improved treatments and devices for our patients
• Providing expert services to NHS Scotland including intellectual property advice and protection, project management, idea incubation, development and commercialisation, funding advice, and post-commercialisation monitoring
• Accelerating development of concepts and prototypes enabling innovative ideas to be assessed for commercial success, suitable partners identified at an early stage and facilitation of trials to demonstrate clinical utility and affordability
• Advocating the value of innovation in healthcare and provide a clear route to access expert advice, hands-on support, training and information
• Supporting collaboration across the Scottish healthcare innovation ecosystem
• Supporting financial sustainability and generate an income stream to NHS health boards through financial returns on co-development projects.