A National Gateway for Health Innovation
HISES is one of three Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office-funded Regional Innovation Hubs that collectively support innovation across all 14 territorial NHS Boards in Scotland. Alongside the West of Scotland Innovation Hub (WoSIH) and the North of Scotland Innovation Hub (NoSIH), we form a connected national network that enables innovators, clinicians, researchers and partners to access expertise, healthcare environments and populations across the whole of Scotland.
The NHS Regional Innovation Hubs operate under a shared mandate to improve health outcomes and support economic growth by enabling rigorous real-world validation for high impact medical technologies.
Through this collaborative model, innovations can be evaluated in real-world clinical and care settings across urban, rural, remote and island communities, generating stronger evidence and creating clearer routes to adoption and spread.
Why This Matters for Innovators and Partners
The Benefits of a National Test Bed Approach
By working with Scotland’s NHS Regional Innovation Hubs, organisations can access:
Diverse real-world test bed environments across the NHS Scotland landscape
Large and varied patient populations representing different health and care needs
Support evaluation across diverse geographical settings
Explore challenges affecting remote, rural and urban populations
Clinical, operational and academic expertise from multiple regions
Opportunities to evaluate innovations across different healthcare settings and populations
Coordinated support and a more streamlined route into NHS Scotland
Multi-site testing that generates robust evidence for adoption, scale and investment
Shared learning, resources and best practice across regions
Accelerated pathways for successful innovations to spread across Scotland and beyond
Support national strategic innovation priorities and programmes
The combined strengths of HISES, WoSIH and NoSIH enable innovations to move more effectively from concept to implementation. This national test bed model reduces duplication, strengthens evidence generation, supports strategic NHS priorities, and helps ensure that proven innovations can be adopted at pace and scale for the benefit of patients, staff and health services.
Whether an innovation is being developed for a local challenge or has the potential for national impact, the Regional Innovation Hub network provides access to the expertise, infrastructure and real-world environments needed to test and refine innovative solutions.
Why Work with Scotland’s NHS Regional Innovation Hubs?
Bringing together all 14 territorial NHS Boards, the three Regional Innovation Hubs provide access to diverse healthcare environments spanning urban populations, remote and rural communities, island settings, community services, primary care, hospitals and specialist services.
This means innovators can:
Test solutions in real-world health and care settings
Generating meaningful evidence that demonstrates impact in practice, not just in pilot environments.
Access diverse populations and clinical pathways
Helping to validate solutions across different user groups, geographies and service models.
Generate stronger evidence for procurement, adoption and investment
Through multi-site evaluations that provide greater confidence in clinical, operational and economic benefits.
Reduce barriers to NHS engagement
With coordinated support from experienced innovation teams that understand how to navigate health and care systems.
Accelerate market access and adoption
By creating opportunities for successful innovations to spread across multiple NHS Boards and regions.
Collaborate with NHS leaders, clinicians, researchers and academic partners
Building partnerships that strengthen product development and evidence generation.
Demonstrate scalability from the outset
Ensuring innovations are developed with national implementation in mind rather than isolated local deployment.
Interested in Using the Test Bed Model?
If your organisation is seeking to test, evaluate or scale an innovation within NHS Scotland, we would welcome a conversation.
Get in touch today to discuss your innovation, explore potential test bed opportunities, and identify the most appropriate route for evaluation.