100 applications for ITK fund

The new £2.2m Information Sharing Challenge Fund attracted nearly 100 applications and is 100% oversubscribed.

The Department of Health launched the fund in August to support information sharing projects that can be replicated across the NHS through the interoperability toolkit.

The total fund is worth £2.2m with individual awards of up to £99,000. Applications closed on 5 October.

A spokesperson for the DH Informatics Directorate said it received almost 100 eligible applications and 90% of these were received on the final day. The total requested funding figure stands at £4.6m.

“It has taken a bit of time for the team to assess eligibility and they have identified that the fund has been oversubscribed by 100%,” she said.

“The independent review process has now started, which will make recommendations to the Interoperability Programme Board on which projects should be awarded funding.”

The spokesperson said the majority of the applications fall within the existing areas of the ITK toolkit such as; admission, discharge and transfers; clinical correspondence; telehealth; and clinical dashboards.

A portion of the applications for funding have also been made for new areas such as maternity and health and social care.

Organisations can expect to hear whether they have successfully secured funding to develop new digital services by the end of this month.