ICURe Engage — EPSRC Healthcare Technologies
A four-week part-time programme for healthcare technology researchers — who could benefit from your work, and is entrepreneurship a route worth taking?
What it is
The entry point to ICURe, and deliberately open to people who don't yet have an idea. Four weeks starting with a two-day training bootcamp covering ideation, design thinking and the Value Proposition Canvas, then weekly hour-long sessions with a mentor and a peer group, alongside around five hours of self-directed study. You finish by producing a short video reflecting on what you've learned and where the impact potential of your research might sit.
Run by Innovate UK. We're listing it because the entry bar is curiosity rather than a business idea, it's open to research students as well as staff, and four weeks part-time is a small commitment for what it opens up.
Key dates
- 9 October 2026 — applications close
- November 2026 — programme runs, four weeks part-time
Details
| Deadline | Friday 9 October 2026 |
| Funding | None at this stage — Engage is the free entry point to the funded ICURe programmes. |
| Cost | Free |
| Format | Online, four weeks part-time, including a two-day bootcamp. |
| Who it's for | Research master's students, first and second year PhD students, postdocs and technicians working in healthcare technologies. You don't need an existing idea. |
| What you get | Two-day bootcamp from impact experts, three weeks of mentor and peer group sessions, and an introduction to how a venture delivering impact might be funded. |
| What it leads to | Discover, Explore and Exploit — the funded stages of ICURe, from £2,500 upwards. |
| Organiser | Innovate UK |
Apply
Free, four weeks part-time, starting November 2026.
Applications close Friday 9 October.
Read the guidance and apply
