Topic Hub: NHS

Be sure to check out our NHS Webinar here: New intellectual property guidelines for the NHS in England – Knowledge Exchange UK

The NHS is a key asset in the UK’s life sciences innovation ecosystem and presents significant opportunities for improved treatments and patient care through the knowledge exchange and innovation it drives.

In November 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England (NHSE), with support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), launched updated Intellectual Property (IP) Guidance for the NHS in England. This replaces the previous 2002 framework and reflects nearly 25 years of technological, organisational, and policy evolution. It aims to enable patients and staff to access innovations faster by providing clearer, simpler, and more practical advice to unlock the potential of NHS innovators and scale innovations across the NHS more quickly and easily, as it aspires to become a global leader in health systems.

The guidance seeks to:

• Raise awareness of the importance of effective IP management across the NHS.

• Promote consistent, transparent, good practice in IP management across the NHS in England.

• Provide case studies and resources to help organisations providing or commissioning NHS services to apply good practices effectively.

The update is part of a broader drive to accelerate healthcare innovation, improve patient access to new technologies (e.g. AI-driven tools), and ensure that NHS-generated innovations don’t get bogged down in outdated policies. It also supports the Government’s Life Sciences Sector Plan by:

• Accelerating patient access to new medicines and medical technologies.

• Enabling world-class research and development.

• Supporting the commercialisation of ideas both domestically and internationally.

A practical and modern framework:

The new guidance takes a broad view of “intellectual property (IP)”, encompassing inventions, creative works, know-how, designs, branding, training materials, and NHS-generated data, databases, and methodologies, including annotated imaging data and outcome measures. It positions effective IP management not as a legal formality, but as a key enabler to develop and implement innovations that promote better patient care, foster collaborations, enable commercialisation, and safeguard public money invested in research and development. It provides clear good-practice steps to support the implementation of innovation through its nine-step framework, outlined in the guidance with links to additional resources.

In summary, the framework lays out the following 9 steps:

1. Establish IP governance and decision-making frameworks through accountability via a Senior Responsible Officer (SRO), along with reviewed and published IP policies, decision-making processes, and established innovation pathways.

2. Clarify IP ownership by understanding IP ownership options and routes to commercialisation through assignment and licensing, alongside good practice principles.

3. Raise awareness and provide IP training, ensuring staff involved in innovation understand and receive appropriate training in IP rights, responsibilities, and processes.

4. IP disclosure, collaborations, and record-keeping introduce systematic processes to log innovations and disclosures while maintaining and managing confidentiality.

5. IP initial evaluation and feedback, developing processes to review and evaluate disclosures and, where appropriate, conduct market assessments and seek early advice from relevant legal, innovation, and commercial teams.

6. Understanding IP rights and protection strategies, assessing potential value, relevance to the innovation’s development path, and alignment with organisational goals; when appropriate, obtaining and maintaining registered protection and developing a protection strategy.

7. IP development and commercialisation, determining the most appropriate route to maximise the benefits of innovations through improving care, enabling adoption, or generating returns via one of three primary routes:

• Development, adoption, and spread with no commercialisation.
• Staff (‘innovator’) or third-party development with no further NHS involvement.
• Strategic co-development for commercialisation.

8. IP asset management and tracking returns, implementing systems to actively manage IP assets, portfolios, and financial returns.

9. Access to IP expertise and technology transfer capabilities (TTCs), through models such as:

• Working with university TTCs and business accelerators.
• Using regional TTCs through integrated care boards, health innovation networks, and innovation hubs.
• Building in-house TTCs.
• Working with private-sector providers of TTC services.

What this means for NHS organisations, innovators, and partners:

• For NHS trusts or service providers. This is a chance to modernise IP-related processes, set up governance structures, and treat IP systematically rather than ad hoc. This helps unlock value from innovations, avoid lost opportunities, and reduce risk.
• For researchers, clinicians, innovators, spin-outs, and external partners: more clarity, standard templates, and clearer processes. This should make collaborations smoother, speed up the translation of ideas, and improve the odds of successful commercialisation, while ensuring IP is handled fairly.
• For the NHS as a whole: this update could accelerate the adoption of new technologies, enable better patient care, and boost the UK’s standing in healthcare and life sciences innovation globally.