Applications for the NHS England Clinical Entrepreneur Programme have opened! Applications for the 2017 intake will close on 9th December 2016 and interviews will be held in March 2017. Apply now via https://www.innovation.england.nhs.uk/clinical-entrepreneur

Welcome to the Clinical Entrepreneur Programme

25% of doctors completing foundation training in the UK each year do not immediately take up their specialist training posts and around 5% of junior doctors leave to pursue other opportunities. It is difficult for traditional clinical practice and training to keep pace with the drivers for change, and we need to engage these clinicians as future leaders of the NHS.

The Clinical Entrepreneur Training programme has been co-designed by NHS England and Health Education England to offer opportunities for doctors and the wider health professionals to develop their entrepreneurial aspirations. The wider partnerships supporting the programme are:

• Health Education England – (lead on behalf of the English Deans)
• National Institute for Health Research
• General Medical Council
• Cabinet Office
• UKTI/Healthcare UK
• Innovate UK
• AHSN networks
• NHS Providers
• NICE
• MoD
• Public Health England
• NHS Improvement

Establishing the first national level training programme for clinical entrepreneurs enables us to support and retain these clinicians, equipping them with the skills, knowledge, experience and leadership capacity needed to deliver on the promise of digital health, genomics, data analytics, advanced technology and social networks for the NHS. Retaining this talent pool drives up the quality of clinical care delivery and directly impacts the NHS’s contribution to the economic growth agenda.

The programme offers:

• Time for entrepreneurial activity – less than full time training, annualised job planning, time out from clinical duties for 3/6/12 months.
• Mentoring and coaching – from an acclaimed international faculty including commercial, financial, clinical, academic, managerial, third sector and public sector leaders and achievers.
• Entrepreneurial placements/internships – with industry, third sector, social enterprises and public sector organisations with both partner funded and self-funding options.
• Facilitation of relationships with commercial organisations to develop their business and procurement knowledge.
• Education – commercially relevant opportunities including expert webinars, video content, e-learning and flexible university interoperable/recognised accredited modules that can be used towards PGCert, PGDip, Masters and undergraduate/intercollated qualifications for interested students. Curriculum to include; overview of accounting, value creation and valuation, research, board meetings, teams, early failure, compliance and regulation, investors, intellectual property, sales and marketing, development cycle, funding rounds, the documents, case studies of entrepreneurs, overview of how to build a start up
• Educational ‘Pit Stop’ Events – bringing together complimentary high value programmes
• Funding – signposting, finding, connecting to investment sources.
• Networking events – regional and national events co-ordinated through AHSN and other organisations such as Anglia Ruskin University.

The programme is led by Professor Tony Young, the National Clinical Lead for Innovation, NHS England, with Professor Sir Bruce Keogh as the Senior Reporting Officer (SRO).

The recruitment of junior doctors started for the August 2016 training intake, with 104 Clinical Entrepreneurs now on the programme.

Eight educational ‘Pit Stops’ have been scheduled for the current cohort of Clinical Entrepreneurs.  Another eight will run throughout the next academic year, from September 2017.