Special University of Portsmouth programme is helping 250 healthcare tech companies

The SIGHT programme - Supporting Innovation and Growth in Healthcare Technologies - is at its half-way point and already celebrating successfully engaging with 250 companies

SIGHT is a programme funded by the European Regional Development Fund, run by the University of Portsmouth in partnership with Portsmouth Technologies Trials Unit and the Wessex Clinical Research Network.

The programme engages with start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the healthcare technology sector to support their growth through advice and guidance, events, grants and by fostering a dialogue between the entrepreneurs and clinicians and academics.

Typically, SMEs find it difficult to navigate the NHS approval process and are unable to verify the usefulness and relevance of their products in a clinical setting after a long way into their development, which means the products may not meet the end users’ needs.

Ninety per cent of SIGHT members are micro enterprises and just over a third are start-ups (less than 12 months old).

To date, SIGHT has provided more than 1,000 hours of direct business support and given away £110,000 in direct funding awards.

According to a recent SIGHT member survey, the programme directly contributed to a creation of 17 new jobs and safeguarding of 21 posts.

As many as 48 per cent of member companies were able to enter or continue a collaboration with a research institution as a result of their SIGHT membership.

A SIGHT programme member said: ‘The SIGHT Business Development and Programme team have been very collaborative, providing valuable input and ideas that have opened up new themes that we can now consider in our product and customer engagement plan.’

Another member added: ‘We would not have been able to achieve what we did without SIGHT. Very accessible, knowledgeable and supportive. Have recommended it to numerous other companies.’

If this has inspired you to find out more about the programme, please get in touch via email at [email protected].

To find out more about any of our Business Services, visit www.port.ac.uk/businessservices or email [email protected].

Providing premier training for the Premier League

The University of Portsmouth is helping academy managers of football clubs at all levels of the game (including Arsenal, Man City and West Ham) with their financial management skills.

Christina Philippou, Director of Postgraduate Curriculum in the Accounting and Financial Management subject group, was initially contacted after the Premier League, which was already working with the University’s School of Sport Health and Exercise Science, asked if the University could deliver a course in football finance for its Elite Academy Managers programme.

The course provides an overview of financial and management accounting, as well as exploring finance in relation to more specific football-based topics such as transfers, budget changes due to relegation and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Get support for your business from our students

We’re looking for local companies to support final year student teams develop valuable employment skills including teamworking, project management and presentation skills under an initiative called the Business Consultancy Project.

TThe Business Consultancy Project allows your company to use the expertise of our students on specific business-focussed projects at no cost. Visit www.port.ac.uk/bcp