NICE News for Life Sciences

Unlock NIHR funding with a NICE early use recommendation

Do you have a new healthtech innovation that shows promise but lacks the robust evidence needed for NHS adoption? A NICE recommendation for early use opens the door to the NHS while further evidence is gathered. Technologies with this recommendation can now apply for dedicated National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funding to support evidence generation. This could help you build the evidence base NICE and NHS commissioners need, moving your technology from early use to routine NHS adoption and reaching more patients who could benefit.

Join NIHR's free webinar using access code NIHR on Wednesday 15 April 2026, 1pm to 2.30pm to find out more about the funding opportunity and ask questions.

Better data, better decisions: what adopting the new EQ-5D-5L value set could mean for NICE

When deciding which treatments the NHS should offer, we need to understand not just whether a medicine works, but how much it improves people's lives. That's where the EQ-5D-5L value set comes in. It’s a questionnaire that captures how someone's health affects their daily life.

Join us on Wednesday 29 April, 10:30am to 11:30am as we discuss the new value set, explore what its adoption means for NICE decision making and how you can have your say in our upcoming consultation

GetReal Conference 2026 – translating real-world data into decision-ready evidence

The GetReal Conference is taking place from Monday 29 to Tuesday 30 June 2026 in Utrecht, Netherlands. This annual event brings the life sciences community together to tackle a shared challenge: generating real-world evidence that regulators and health technology assessment bodies can act on. From data quality to decision-maker expectations, the programme focuses on the practical questions your evidence generation teams face every day.

How we're backing the healthtech that changes lives

Forward view – our priority topics for 2026 to 2027

Our forward view aims to ensure we focus on the areas that matter most to the health and care system. 

A significant part of our strategic focus this year is the update and maintenance of our guidance content into topic suites. Our topic suites are the priority health and care areas that we focus guidance on over the coming year. The first 4 will include:

• cancer
• cardiometabolic health
• mental health
• women’s and reproductive health.

Funding boost for new technologies and medicines tackling drug and alcohol harm 

The Department for Health and Social Care is offering innovators across the UK £20 million in grants for technologies designed to reduce harm and death from drug and alcohol addiction. Delivered through Innovate UK, the grants will support the development and deployment of new technologies designed to improve treatment, strengthen recovery and reduce harm.  

Successful applicants will also receive exclusive access to an education session from NICE and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, helping innovators navigate evidence requirements and the pathway to UK certification, approval and roll‑out. 

Applications are open until Wednesday 6 May 2026. 

Changes to our healthtech reference guidance numbers

We've changed all healthtech guidance reference numbers starting with DG, IP and MTG to start with HTG. This is because we now only have one healthtech evaluation programme (HTG), when previously we had 3 including, Diagnostics (DTG), Interventional Procedures (IP) and Medical Technologies Evaluation (MTG).