Launched in 2015, the NIA is commissioned by the Accelerated Access Collaborative at NHS England. It is delivered in partnership with the 15 Health Innovation Networks, hosted by UCLPartners, and chaired by Sir Stephen Powis, National Medical Director for NHS England. 

There are currently 33 Fellows and 76 Alumni on the NIA. Fellows have been recruited annually since 2015 – 17 in the 1st cohort, 8 in 2nd, 11 in 3rd, 13 in 4th, 11 in 5th, 12 in 6th, 10 in 7th, 17 in the 8th and 12 in the 9th.  

Our Impact

The NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) is an award-winning NHS England initiative. The NIA delivers on the commitment detailed within the Five Year Forward View – creating the conditions and cultural change necessary for proven innovations to be adopted faster and more systematically through the NHS, and to deliver examples into practice for demonstrable patient and population benefit. More recently the NIA was highlighted in the NHS Long Term Plan. 

The NIA is committed to sharing learning about innovation adoption and spread with the wider health and care system. Our evaluation stream is helping to broker real-world validation using insight, learning and experience from the Fellows and adoption sites. 

Year One’s research (2015/16) evidenced some of the common conditions for success in innovation scaling, whilst the Year Three evaluation in partnership with The Bayswater Institute (Understanding how and why the NHS adopts innovation, 2017/18) examined how NHS sites successfully take up NIA innovations for greater patient and staff benefit. Our 2020 research in partnership with the Nuffield Trust (Achieving scale and spread: Learning for innovators and policy-makers) looked at what needs to happen for innovation to achieve scale, particularly for later stage adopters. 

In 2021, we commissioned the Centre for Healthcare Innovation Research – City, University London to develop a set of reports on health inequalities and innovation. The first (Key areas for targeting innovations to tackle health inequalities in the English NHS), was published in May 2021. The second ( Needs and strategies targeting health inequalities in the adoption and spread of healthcare innovations – a rapid scoping review), was published in September 2021. 

Further learning is shared through our quarterly INSIGHTS newsletter which features the latest blogs and news from the NIA and our Fellows.