Category: Medical Technology

Meet the CSEP Team Series: Dr Nigel Steward

 

Welcome to the CSEP team! Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your professional background?

I have recently joined the CSEP team after spending 36 years in industry where I worked in the fields of R&D, Energy and Climate Change, Supply Chain, and Technical Capability building, as well as Operations Leadership and Management where, I ran global businesses in Technology Transfer and Equipment Manufacturing, Electrode manufacturing for the aluminium industry, and Copper and Diamonds production. I am a Materials Scientist by training and studied for my degree and doctorate here at Imperial.

What projects are you working on currently and what part of your work is most exciting for you right now?

At CSEP we have been studying the HealthTech, Aerospace, Fine Chemicals, Telecom, Cyber Security, Automotive, BioPharma, Clean Energy, Data Centre, AI Assurance, and Insurance sectors. What I find exciting is learning about these sectors that are very new me, the new breakthroughs that are being made in technology, and business models and the market disruptions and opportunities that they bring. What I especially enjoy is learning from the brilliant academics and business leaders all over the country who are making these things happen. If all this wasn’t enough what brings the greatest satisfaction is seeing our business-led, sector growth strategies come to life and be delivered. Our first sector strategy plan has been created with the HealthTech Sector in collaboration with the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) and we have recently had success in seeing one of our growth actions being implemented. Making a difference in the world is what is most exciting.

What attracted you to working at CSEP?

When I retired from industry earlier this year, I was looking for something to do where I could put my skills and experience to good use for a greater good. The role of CSEP is to see how science, technology, market and business model disruptions can be used to find new growth pathways and competitive advantage for key sectors of the UK economy, all with the overarching goal of stimulating more growth for the UK economy. The work is very much aligned with the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy goals and aligned with my own goal of contributing to society in a meaningful way.

What specific research topics or areas are you most passionate about?

What I have always been most passionate about is learning and discovery and implementing what I have learned to make the World a better place. The work at CSEP offers these possibilities in bucket loads!

 

UK HealthTech Roadshow Unites Industry, Academia, and Government to Shape MedTech’s Future

The government has placed growth at the heart of its mission and in June of this year
published its Industrial Strategy. One important issue raised by the Industrial Strategy is
the need to better understand the relationship between national sector strategies and
the regional areas where firms are located.

The high-level Sector Plans identified the most important city regions and clusters for
the given sector. In addition, regional authorities are developing ambitious Local Growth
Plans which are supposed to dovetail with the Industrial Strategy Sector Plans. These
local plans need to tackle the critical issues that are constraining growth across sectors
including poor transport connections, skills shortages and housing.

If a sector is to drive growth, it will need to scale up across the regions which means
there needs to be some consistency across locations. For example, there should not be
a diFerent export strategy for HealthTech firms in Yorkshire compared to those in
Scotland; there needs to be one national export strategy for the sector. However,
national sector strategies will have to consider the advantages and disadvantages faced
by each location which will impact multiple sectors. Hence it is critical that national
sector strategies dovetail with regional strategies to support growth across multiple
sectors rather than generating a host of competing strategies which has sometimes
been the case across the UK.

With that in mind, a nationwide series of regional roundtables, jointly hosted by the
Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) and the Centre for Sectoral
Economic Performance (CSEP) at Imperial College London, has brought together
leaders from industry, academia, and government to address the challenges and
opportunities shaping the UK’s £13.5 billion HealthTech sector.

Spanning events in Edinburgh, Oxford, Manchester, and Cardiff, the roadshow
highlighted the sector’s economic strength, innovation potential, and pressing need for
structural reforms to boost productivity, manufacturing, and global competitiveness.

 

A Sector with Global Potential – and Persistent Barriers

According to CSEP’s research, the UK HealthTech industry employs more than 150,000
people and contributes £13–15 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) annually—on par
with the biopharma sector, despite receiving 15 times less research funding.

University spinouts in HealthTech rival those in pharmaceuticals, underscoring the
sector’s innovation eFiciency.

However, productivity per employee lags global leaders such as Singapore and
Denmark, and the UK remains a net importer of medical technologies. Much of the
country’s manufacturing capacity has migrated overseas, particularly to the US and
Switzerland, limiting domestic economic returns.

 

Three NHS Strategic Shifts Driving Urgency

Speakers, including ABHI’s Richard Phillips and Imperial’s Professor James Moore Jr.,
stressed that NHS sustainability hinges on three strategic shifts:

1. Care closer to home and in the community
2. Digital transformation
3. A stronger focus on prevention

Delivering on these priorities will require rapid adoption of innovative health
technologies—an area where the UK has historically excelled in invention but lagged in
deployment.

 

Policy and Investment Reforms Proposed

Daniel Green, a MedTech entrepreneur and policy adviser, outlined a set of cost-neutral, sector-specific proposals to stimulate growth:

• Expand SEIS/EIS limits for life sciences, raising the SEIS cap from £250,000 to
reflect the capital intensity of MedTech ventures.
• Reform EMI share schemes so tax benefits remain valid after employees leave,
accommodating long development timelines.
• Enhance R&D tax credits for UK-based clinical trials to reverse the UK’s decline
in global rankings (from 4th to 10th).

Attendees agreed these reforms would improve access to capital, attract talent, and
encourage companies to conduct trials domestically.

 

Local Insights from the Regions

• Edinburgh: Participants called for better alignment between NHS priorities and
HealthTech innovation, with a focus on health equity and sustainability.
• Oxford: Discussions stressed the UK’s need to match its scientific strength with
faster adoption and value realisation in the health system.
• Manchester: Stakeholders showcased integrated health data initiatives and the
CityLabs innovation hub, which has created over 800 jobs and £150m in GVA.
• Cardiff: Former Welsh Economy Minister Vaughan Gething urged embedding
innovation as a core NHS function, with empowered local leadership and clear
priorities.

 

ABHI’s Role as the Sector’s Voice

ABHI, representing over 400 members (80% SMEs), acts as a bridge between industry
and policymakers, advocating for regulatory clarity, market access, and international
trade growth. Its trade missions span the US, Middle East, and beyond, helping UK
firms access new markets and align with global regulatory standards.

 

Next Steps – From Discussion to Delivery

The roadshow’s findings will feed into a collaborative HealthTech strategy co-authored by ABHI and CSEP, focusing on government policy reform, industry scaling
commitments, and academic innovation pipelines. Attendees were urged to provide
feedback to refine the roadmap.

“This is about more than funding requests,” Moore emphasised. “It’s about a shared
commitment—industry, government, and academia each playing their role—to make
the UK the best place in the world to develop, scale, and export health technologies.”

Using Sector Evidence and Expertise to Improve Medical Technology Regulations, Achieve Better Health Outcomes, and Grow the Economy: CSEP and the UK’s Life Sciences Sector Industrial Strategy

The Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance (CSEP) is a new institute based at Imperial College and funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. CSEP strives to contribute to the UK’s Economic Growth by employing rigorous academic research, the latest scientific and engineering knowledge with bottom-up business informed analysis to create innovative, meaningful and actionable sector strategies to create growth in jobs and economic value add.

CSEP analysis has shown that the UK’s HealthTech sector is one of the country’s hidden gems. The UK HealthTech Sector contributes £13.5 Billion of Gross Value Add (GVA) to the UK economy annually and, since 2016 has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19%. Wages, turnover and exports associated with the sector have also grown over the 2016-2020 period at CAGR’s in the 14-19% range. Working in partnership with the Association of British HealthTech Industry (ABHI) and the broader HealthTech businesses community, an industry led strategy to further grow the sector has been created. The sector strategy contains a 6-point delivery plan, with clear actions, timelines and goals that ABHI with CSEP support have been executing this year. Roadshows have been held up and down and across the country to share the strategy and to seek further refinements and guidance from the sector.

This year, following the publication of that strategy and subsequent engagement with multiple departments across Whitehall, including briefings to policy teams and roundtables with decision-makers, it was heartening to see the Government in its landmark Life Sciences Sector Industrial Strategy incorporate three of the report’s key recommendations.

1) utilisation of the NHS as a strategic innovation partner

2) provision of greater export support for HealthTech SME’s

3) streamlining regulation and market access.

Of particular importance was the regulatory streamlining where there is an urgent need to reform the UK’s processes for regulating, approving and adopting medical technology and this was a key component of the CSEP/ABHI report. These changes will ensure that NHS patients will have access to the best life-saving technologies as soon as possible, and they also eliminate the need for duplicate approval process that introduce delays and additional costs to the sector and drive an accelerated growth of the HealthTech sector in the UK.

However, though significant and ambitious, and a welcome step from Government, demonstrating its commitment and intent with regards to the Life Sciences sector, the Life Sciences Strategy is just a roadmap. CSEP and ABHI are now engaging with Government and its relevant policy teams, as well as industry more broadly, to support the development of the implementation of the Sector Strategy and its specific proposals. CSEP researchers and academics are in regular dialogue with policy officials to provide evidence and expertise to inform the practical, real-life application of the changes that Government wants to see and will continue to carry-out cutting-edge research into the sector to monitor trends and performance metrics.

Together, these strategies signal a new era of collaborative, sustainable, and inclusive growth — where HealthTech doesn’t just treat illness, but powers national prosperity.


Authors: Dr. Nigel Steward and Professor James Moore, in collaboration with ABHI

Unleashing the Potential of UK MedTech

Authors: Professor James Moore Jr, Yunus Kutlu

We have no shortage of innovative ideas or talented people in MedTech in this country. But in my eleven years as a professor of medical device design at Imperial, I’ve seen countless good ideas go to waste. At the Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance, we are investigating why this is and what industry, government and academia can do to change it.

MedTech’s outsize contribution to the UK economy

MedTech is any technology that a clinician might use to improve or to save a patient’s life – from pacemakers to prosthetic limbs, MRI scans to plasters. The UK sector, which is mostly SMEs, employs 163,00 people and has an annual turnover of £36 billion.[1]

Despite being half the size of Biopharmaceuticals in terms of jobs, MedTech contributes £13.5 billion to the UK economy annually, about the same as Biopharma’s £15 billion. Its annual growth rate between 2016 and 2020 was 19% – far higher than Biopharma’s 3%.[2]

But the MedTech sector’s remarkable vitality is in spite – not because – of government policy. Regulatory uncertainty, scarce funding, and ineffective NHS procurement processes make it extremely difficult for MedTech inventions to develop into viable businesses.

The Peezy: a breakthrough device now withdrawn from the UK

Forte Medical’s Peezy device, invented in the UK but now only available in the US, is a dispiritingly typical example.[3]

NHS GP Dr Vincent Forte invented the Peezy and founded Forte Medical with his sister Giovanna in 2002. The Peezy is a cheap-to-produce device which makes midstream urine samples easier to collect. Forte Medical made a prototype, secured a patent, then ran real-world trials which showed that the Peezy radically reduces the risk of contamination, and therefore the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics. The potential benefits to the NHS were enormous.

Yet twenty-two years since the invention of the Peezy, NHS doctors are still sending female patients – sometimes heavily pregnant, sometimes elderly and frail – to surgery toilets with tiny sample vials and near impossible-to-follow instructions. Due to siloed budgets, resistance to change and lack of incentives for adoption, Forte Medical has withdrawn completely from the UK NHS market.

I see similar stories time and again. In just over a decade at Imperial, I have helped ten spinout companies form out of my department. One has been highly successful at securing investment. Two or three are just about managing. The rest have foundered. This doesn’t inspire our students to pursue biomedical engineering and develop MedTech devices.

The policy solution: certainty, funding, and procurement

But it’s a story we can change. With focused industry/government interventions, the UK can unleash the full potential of UK MedTech.

First and most pressingly, MedTech companies need regulatory certainty.

Because the UK represents only 3% of the global market, UK MedTech companies prioritise exports. Post-Brexit, the UK adopted its own regulatory framework, based on the EU’s Medical Device Directive (MDD) and overseen by the MHRA. But the EU’s ongoing transition to the Medical Device Regulation (MDR) means that 70% of UK-made devices will soon be noncompliant. It may also lead to some life-saving technologies being unavailable to NHS patients.

The MHRA should align regulations with those of the MDR and the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Outside those frameworks, there are opportunities to make the UK a more desirable destination for clinical trials of cutting-edge technologies. The Treasury should increase MHRA’s budget to that end.

Second, MedTech companies need better access to funding.

While the MedTech sector produces more university spinouts than Biopharma, the underlying research funding base for MedTech is only one fifteenth the size of the funding available to Biopharma. Sources of grant funding for MedTech SMEs are limited to Innovate UK and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), where only about half of the applications determined to be viable actually get funded. Private investment is scarce and concentrated towards established companies.

So the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) should increase funding for NIHR and Innovate UK to a sufficient level that all viable projects can receive funding.

Finally, MedTech companies need the NHS to overhaul its innovation and procurement culture. The NHS’s ineffective procurement processes make it difficult for MedTech firms to access the UK market. It also prevents UK patients from reaping the benefits of the NHS’s position as an ideal testing ground for new technologies.

Universities must push for tailored support for MedTech spinouts

The government must do more to support the UK’s special position as a market primed for MedTech innovation. There are more MedTech spinouts than any other type of university spinout.

University innovation and entrepreneurship programmes should also provide tailored support for MedTech spinouts. Imperial’s new venture fund, Science Capital, will provide Imperial’s entrepreneurs access to capital and proof-of-concept funding to realise the full potential of their businesses.

MedTech is a key research area for both the White City Deep Tech Campus and the Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance, who sponsored our analysis of the UK MedTech sector.

The detailed policy recommendations in the resulting report should form a central input to a government wishing to develop a growth strategy for the country – they show how these industries could increase the UK’s global competitiveness and value added per capita. If the recommendations are implemented, there’s almost no limit to the good that MedTech can do – not only for the UK economy but for patients all around the world.[4]

Professor James Moore is the Bagrit Chair in Medical Device Design at the Department of Bioengineering, and co-author of ‘Sectoral Systems of Innovation and the UK’s Competitiveness: The UK MedTech Sector’ published by the Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance. He does research on the lymphatic system, initiated two degree programmes in MedTech entrepreneurship and has co-founded five MedTech startup companies.

The Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance at Imperial College London investigates how to improve the competitiveness of the UK economy and drive economic growth. It is a joint initiative between Imperial’s Faculty of Engineering and the Imperial College Business School –bringing together the UK’s top engineers, scientists and economists with the UK’s science and technology industries to co-design globally competitive strategies for major global challenges: like net zero, economic competition and technological disruptions.

[1] 348-IMP-Public-Affairs-3-reports_Medtech_AW_DIGITAL_SINGLES_Sept23.pdf (imperial.ac.uk), p. 17.

[2] 348-IMP-Public-Affairs-3-reports_Medtech_AW_DIGITAL_SINGLES_Sept23.pdf (imperial.ac.uk), p. 9.

[3] Peezy Midstream UK – Forte Medical (forte-medical.co.uk)

[4] 348-IMP-Public-Affairs-3-reports_Medtech_AW_DIGITAL_SINGLES_Sept23.pdf (imperial.ac.uk)