A new Manchester Sandbox will allow innovative technologies to be deployed and tested in NHS settings, generating evidence safely on how they perform with patients and clinicians in their day-to-day practice.  

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust chief executive, Mark Cubbon, said: ‘By creating a clearer route from innovation to safe adoption, we can help people gain faster access to developments that have the potential to improve care, while maintaining the high standards of safety that patients rightly expect. 

‘The learning we generate here at MFT could help shape how effective innovations are adopted across the wider NHS, and we are excited to share it more widely at the right time.'

MFT and MHRA will convene a roundtable later this year, bringing together the regulator, healthcare providers, innovators, researchers, and patient and public representatives to explore future opportunities of the programme and help shape the next wave of projects. 

The MHRA will also invite expressions of interest from medical device developers interested in taking part in the next phase of the programme.