Obesity Pathway Innovation Programme (OPIP): Strand 1

Who can apply

This award has been designed to be provided on a no subsidy basis, as defined in the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

This means to be eligible, the award will not give an economic advantage to one or more organisations, and you must not be acting economically as an organisation within the meaning of the act.

In limited circumstances, EU State aid rules may apply under the Windsor Framework and a ‘No Aid’ award may be given in accordance with the R&D&I Framework.

Your project

Lilly will be screening projects according to the grant eligibility criteria and project principles as set out in the Assessor Guidance. Projects that do not meet the grant eligibility criteria and project principles will not be funded by Lilly.

Your project must:

• have total costs between £2 million and £3.5 million

• carry out its project work in the UK

• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

• start by 1 May 2026

• be able to start delivering services to patients by 1 August 2026

• end by 31 March 2029

• demonstrate system readiness to patients as soon as possible, and by 1 August 2026 at the latest

Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. Projects officially start when your Grant Offer Letter has been issued and approved by Innovate UK, however projects that are ready will be granted permission to start, and incur costs at risk, from 1 February 2026 in advance of the Grant Offer Letter being approved. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs.

In addition to the standard guidance on eligible costs set out above, guidance is provided to applicants for this competition in the Finances section.

If your project’s total costs or duration falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will decide whether to approve your request.

If you have not requested approval or your application has not been approved by us, you will be made ineligible. Your application will then not be sent for assessment.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation:

• must be an eligible NHS organisation able to receive grant funding with no subsidy

• will be expected to lead a consortium of providers that once procured or commissioned will be able to provide the services outlined in your application

• must indicate preferred or suggested delivery partners, including intended subcontractors, that can include commercial providers, NHS organisations, community pharmacies, general practices, community interest companies (CICs) or third sector organisations

• must not act in any way to gain selective commercial or economic advantage from the outputs of this project

Eligible NHS organisations must have a strategic responsibility for commissioning care, for example:

• England: only Integrated Care Boards, note, while in England the lead applicant should be a named person from an ICB, however, collaborations across Primary Care Networks and other healthcare organisations are welcome

• Scotland: Health Boards

• Wales: Public Health Wales, local health boards

• Northern Ireland: Health and Social Care trusts, Public Health Agency and Department of Health

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

You can contact support@iuk.ukri.org by email for guidance on your eligibility as an organisation.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

All subcontractor costs must represent fair market value and be appropriate to the total eligible project costs.

Number of applications

An eligible public sector organisation can only lead on up to two applications across all strands of the competition.

Sanctions

This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions. For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups.

Use of animals in research and innovation

Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both that in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation.

Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.

Previous applications

You cannot use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

We will not award you funding if you have:

• failed to exploit a previously funded project

• an overdue independent accountant’s report

• failed to comply with grant terms and conditions

Innovate UK may withhold a grant payment at any time if you have any outstanding sums due to us in relation to other projects.

No subsidy (and non-aid where applicable)

No subsidy

This competition has been designed to provide funding that is not classed by Innovate UK as a subsidy.

Your eligibility to be given an award on a ‘No Subsidy’ basis will be determined by Innovate UK after you have submitted your application.

You should still seek independent legal advice on what this means for you, before applying.

Further information about the Subsidy Control Act 2022 requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk).

It is important to note that it is the activity that an organisation is engaged in as part of the project and not its intentions, that define whether any support provided could be considered a subsidy.

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. Please see the Windsor Framework to check if these rules apply to your organisation.

In the ‘Project details’ section of your application you will be asked questions to indicate if State Aid or Subsidy applies to your organisation.

Further Information

If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 regime you should take independent legal advice. We cannot advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

Funding

We reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions.

Throughout this competition brief any mention of ‘research’ is referring to ‘service improvement and evaluation activities’ undertaken by the programme and aligned to the Frascati Definition of Research used in the reporting of government funding. For clarity, this programme does not involve clinical research as defined by the Health Research Authority.

Up to £14 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this strand of the competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

The total funding available for this competition can change. The funders have the right to:

• adjust the funding allocations between the three competition strands

• apply a ‘portfolio’ approach

Your total eligible project costs will be 100% funded. Total eligible project costs detailed within your application must not exceed the maximum project size. If your total eligible project costs do exceed the maximum then your application will be made ineligible.

You can make reference to any additional voluntary contribution in your application answers. It must not be detailed in the finance section.

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn.

Your proposal

The aim of this competition is for projects to have developed innovative community and primary care based weight management pathways.

The pathways developed will have plausible plans to recruit significant numbers of patients in each year of the project to provide holistic person centred care that is clinically appropriate, effective and resource efficient.

Pathways across the UK must offer a range of support for patients, including nationally and locally available lifestyle and weight management interventions, and for those meeting clinical eligibility criteria, access to obesity medications.

The pathways are expected to provide patients with access to essential behaviour change support, focusing on nutrition and physical activity, and where appropriate, psychological support to ensure overall wellbeing.

The programme will include regular reporting to an evaluator of funded projects. It is anticipated that the evaluation will inform the development of guidelines by NICE and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN). All pathways are expected to meet NICE NG246 and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) recommendations.

For this access and management service strand of the competition your services must provide a comprehensive patient-centred access service within a multi-disciplinary team, to include multiple referral inputs, triage, onward referrals, care pathway management, escalation and reporting.

Your service must have a mechanism to access, read and update the primary healthcare record of the patient; there should be a mechanism in place to ensure all interventions are recorded on the patient’s primary healthcare record. Your access and management service may be digital, physical or operate with a hybrid delivery mode, but must ensure access according to clinical need and address health inequalities.

You can contact support@iuk.ukri.org by email for advice on eligibility.

Your proposal must:

• demonstrate how care pathways will be clinically appropriate, effective and resource efficient, while minimising impact on general practice

• demonstrate system readiness and how you will be able to start delivering services to patients by 1 August 2026

• demonstrate how the size of the project and cost will align to its cost-effectiveness and ability to scale

• deliver holistic, person-centric strategies to deliver whole pathways that integrate behaviour change support including diet, physical activity and where appropriate psychological support in line with prevailing regulations and guidance

• demonstrate clear accountabilities for financial and information governance

• demonstrate clear accountabilities for clinical governance and patient care

• explain how any necessary accreditation and setting up of essential governance and other delivery-focused factors will be undertaken in anticipation of a project start date

• establish referral and reporting links to GP records

• have a sustainability plan for continuing and further developing the service on completion of the programme

• communicate clearly to patients they will be part of a pharmaceutical industry funded programme in which there will be no sharing of patient data with the pharmaceutical industry co-funder (Lilly)

Your proposal must also have a proposed design of weight management pathways that:

• offer patients choice that includes non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions, as clinically appropriate

• maximise accessibility, with a strategy for how you will identify and target specific patient cohorts

• address statutory accessibility requirements

• enable referrals for patients requiring additional support

• show how patients will be discharged to routine care, during and after the innovation programme

You must outline your plans to implement, scale and sustain your project.

Beyond the end of the grant funded period of the programme you will be entirely responsible for ensuring there are plans to wind-down, continue or expand the project. Your plan for how to transition to routinely commissioned services must be outlined in your application, including considerations of whether to have a cut-off date for enrolment of new patients onto OPIP pathways.

Your plans to sustain projects should include potential partnerships and funding strategies.

You will need to include an Implementation Route Map, detailing workstreams and key milestones of proposition delivery, including a target date for your first patients on the live pathways and ambitions for the maximum number of patients supported, and by when.

Note: successful innovation projects will be expected to provide consistent and timely data or reporting to programme evaluators during the project, and for up to five years after the end of the programme to help inform longer term impact.

Data shared with Lilly will be limited to quarterly financial reports in line with grant report requirements and will not include any patient related data or information to be used for evaluation of projects.

You must take into consideration all codes, regulatory and legal requirements. Your innovative pathways must demonstrate how you meet essential clinical governance standards as well as information governance standards.

Your project will require any necessary clinical accreditation or validation before pathways are activated, such as that which may be required by:

• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)

• NHS England (NHSE)

• Devolved Governments and their NHS

• General Medical Council (GMC)

• General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

• Care Quality Commission (CQC)

• Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI)

• other standard setting bodies

Portfolio approach

We want to fund a variety of projects across:

• a range of different models: pharmacy led, access and management service, digital services and other viable solutions

• proposed scale and scope for patients accessing pathways

• geographic spread: seeking innovation across the entire UK, including the devolved nations and the needs of populations in rural and urban communities

• health inequalities: with an emphasis on areas of higher deprivation and in communities of significant ethnic diversity with support targeted to a range of patient cohorts with additional access or healthcare needs

We call this a portfolio approach.

Projects we will not fund

Lilly will be screening projects according to the grant eligibility criteria and project principles as set out in the Assessor Guidance. Projects that do not meet the grant eligibility criteria and project principles will not be funded by Lilly.

We are not funding projects that:

• focus directly or indirectly on any specific obesity medication or class of medicine in their application; generic terms such as obesity or weight loss medication are acceptable, provided it is clear that the focus is not on specific medicines

• compromise patient safety

• do not offer holistic care that offer individuals a full range of options for which they are eligible

• are unable to provide a range of solutions for patients

• are not prospective in nature

• constitute clinical research

• confirm that they will not make public the declaration of funding from Lilly, from the outset, in all materials, publications, presentations and activities related to the project funded by the grant

• are classed as State aid under the Windsor Framework or a subsidy under the Subsidy Control Act 2022

• have undertakings which gain a selective economic or commercial advantage from the funding

10 September 2025

Online briefing event, which will be recorded: register to attend and view IUK content

This session, and subsequently generated content, are managed by Innovate UK with no involvement from Lilly.

5 January 2026

Invite to interview

12 January 2026

Interview presentations to be submitted by projects

12 January 2026

Project interview team to be confirmed to IUK

12 January 2026

Provide written response to the assessors’ feedback if invited to interview

19 January 2026

Interview panel starts

27 January 2026

Interview panel ends

30 January 2026

Applicants notified

1 February 2026

Projects that are ready will be granted permission to start

4 February 2026

Successful applicant briefing

1 May 2026

All projects must start by

Before you start

You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.

Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure:

• that all the information provided in the application is correct

• your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria

• all sections of the application are marked as complete

You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline.

What we ask you

The application is split into three sections:

1. Project details.

2. Application questions.

3. Finances.

Accessibility and Inclusion

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

1. Project details

This section provides background for your application and is not scored.

Do not include any website addresses (URLs) in your answers.

Application team

Decide who you will collaborate with on the project and invite those people to help complete the application.

Application details

Give your project’s title, start date and duration.

Project summary

Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. We use this section to assign the right experts to assess your application.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Public description

Describe your project in detail, and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description. This can happen before you start your project.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Scope

Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition. If your project is not in scope, it will not be sent for assessment. We will tell you the reason why.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

2. Application questions

The assessors will score all your answers apart from questions 1 to 7. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess and how we select applications for funding.

You must answer all questions.

Note that questions are weighted in importance, with answers to some questions being assessed out of 5, 10, 15 or 20 marks. You should note this weighting in providing your answers.

You must not include any website addresses or links (URLs) in your answers. If you do, your application will be made ineligible.

Question 1. Applicant location (not scored)

You must state the name and full registered address of your organisation.

We are collecting this information to understand more about the geographical location of all applicants.

Your answer to this question can be 100 words long.

Question 2. Animal testing (not scored)

Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing?

You must select one option:

• Yes

• No

We will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare.

Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance.

Question 3. Permits and licences (not scored)

Will you have the correct permits, licences or standards accreditation in place to carry out your project?

We are unable to fund projects which do not have the correct permits, licences or standards accreditation in place by your project start date.

You must select one option:

• Yes

• No

• In process of being applied for

• Not applicable

Question 4. International collaboration (not scored)

Does your proposed work involve any international collaboration or engagement?

You must provide details of any expected international collaboration or engagement.

You must include a list of the names and the countries, any international project co-leads, project partners, visiting researchers, or other collaborators are based in. You must also include details of any subcontractors or service providers.

If your proposed work does not involve international collaboration or engagement, your answer must confirm this.

Your answer to this question can be 100 words long.

Question 5. Trusted Research and Innovation (not scored)

You must explain if your proposed project work relates to UKRI’s Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) Principles, including:

• a list of any dual-use (both military and non-military) applications to your research

• a list of the areas where your project is relevant to one or more of the 17 areas of the UK National Security and Investment (NSI) Act

• whether an export control license is required for this project under the academic export control guidance and the status of any applications

• a list of any items or substances on the UK Strategic Export Control List

If your proposed work does not relate to UKRI’s TR&I Principles, your answer must confirm this.

We may ask you to provide additional TR&I information at a later date, in line with UKRI TR&I Principles and funding terms and conditions.

Your answer to this question can be 400 words long.

Question 6. Understanding of Assessor Guidance (not scored)

You must confirm that you have read and understood the Assessor Guidance in the how to apply section.

• Yes

• No

If you select no as your response to this question then your application may not be eligible for funding.

Question 7. Meeting overarching project principles (not scored)

Describe how your project will adhere to the project principles.

How will your project:

• align with clinical practice: considering appropriate national guidelines, for example, NICE NG246 or Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and other local guidelines as appropriate, when assessing the requirements for obesity care and treatment

• demonstrate resource efficiency: supporting capacity constraints being experienced by the NHS due to patients seeking weight management services and care

• utilise digital and other similar technologies to improve efficiencies and reduce NHS resource impact related to obesity management

• showcase accessibility: new care models supporting the health shift from hospital to community settings and to be closer to the home for the patient, such as in primary care or a community setting

• be implementable and scalable: aiming to build evidence of obesity service delivery models that are scalable and sustainable

• uphold compliance: taking into consideration the codes, regulatory and legal requirements

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 8. Need or challenge (this question is marked out of 5 points)

What is the need you are aiming to address?

Explain:

• with a brief analysis, the present situation you face, the strategic context, capacity of existing weight management services, any inequalities in access to or outcomes from existing services, demand trends and service gaps in your area; indicate if this analysis is the result of a recent baseline assessment

• opportunities that are influential in increasing the need for innovation in community-based weight management pathways that prioritise holistic care

• your plan for capturing a robust baseline assessment of existing weight management services, demand, capacity and resource if your application is successful

Your answer can be up to 600 words long.

Question 9. Approach and innovation (this question is marked out of 20 points)

What approach will you take and where will the focus of the innovation be?

Describe how you will respond to the need, challenge or opportunity identified.

Explain how you will:

• demonstrate how care pathways will be clinically appropriate, effective and resource efficient, while minimising impact on general practice

• deliver holistic, person-centric strategies to integrate behaviour change support including diet, physical activity and where appropriate, psychological support

• demonstrate how you will mobilise and start delivering services to patients by 1 August 2026

• achieve any necessary accreditation and setting up of essential governance and other delivery-focused factors might be undertaken in anticipation of a project start date

• work in partnership across the local health system to minimise incremental workload created by the pathway

You must also explain how you will design weight management pathways that:

• focus on whole pathways

• assess patients and offer choices that include non-pharmacological and pharmacological choices aligned to eligibility

• maximise accessibility, with a strategy for how you will identify and target specific patient cohorts to reduce health inequalities and a plan for evaluating uptake and impact across different cohorts

• address statutory accessibility requirements

• enable referrals for patients requiring additional support

• show how patients will be discharged to routine care, during and after the innovation programme

Your answer can be up to 1000 words long.

You must submit an appendix which details your Equalities and Health Inequalities Impact Assessment, or devolved nation equivalent, for your project. This must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to eight A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.

You can submit one additional appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to four A4 pages that must be legible at 100% zoom and can include diagrams and charts in addition to no more than 800 words of supporting text.

Question 10. Team and resources (this question is marked out of 10 points)

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Describe the roles, skills and experience of the key members of the project team including:

• a named Senior Responsible Officer for your project

• the named Integrated Care Board (ICB) Medical Director, or equivalent in devolved nations, that will be taking clinical responsibility for patients

• a named ICB Chief Pharmacist or equivalent in devolved nations

• a named Chief Finance Officer that will authorise the financial commitments at Integrated Care Board level, or equivalent in devolved nations

You must also describe:

• the details of any other vital external parties required to successfully carry out the project including the subcontractors and partnership organisations who you will need to work with to successfully carry out the project, for example, GP Practices, Primary Care Networks, Pharmacies

• how each service provider will be engaged, contracted or bound by a service agreement

• the resources, equipment and facilities needed for the project and how you will access them

• if you plan to use current suppliers or existing relationships and how these relationships may change as a result of the project

• any roles you will need to recruit

Your answer can be up to 600 words long.

You can submit one appendix with a short summary of the organisations and main people working on the project to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to four A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 11. Meeting clinical needs (this question is scored out of 15 points)

How will you prioritise and deliver to clinical needs?

Explain how you will:

• select patients for eligibility for access to weight management services, based on clinical need

• set out the reasons for your cohort priorities and how they relate to any regulatory or health system guidance

• ensure there will be sufficient patients to allow for robust evaluation of the efficiency of the process, including an interim evaluation, expected August 2027 and a final evaluation on completion of the project

• plan for sustainability, continuing and further developing any service on completion of the programme

• provide continued clinical care for enrolled OPIP patients after the programme funding ends

• determine if you need to cut-off the enrolment of new patients onto OPIP pathways and how management and monitoring of enrolled patients will be continued

Describe how you will:

• provide clinical governance of the project including roles, responsibilities and accountabilities

• take into consideration all codes, regulatory and legal requirements

• communicate clearly to patients they will be part of an industry-funded programme with the option to opt out of data sharing

• establish links to general practice or primary care records; for Scottish projects describe how you will input data to the national weight management data collection system (Turas)

Describe how you will demonstrate that innovative pathways meet essential clinical governance standards that:

• offer patients choice that includes non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions, where eligible

• maximise accessibility, with a strategy for how you will identify and target specific patient cohorts to reduce health inequalities and a plan for evaluating uptake and impact across different cohorts

• address statutory accessibility requirements

• enable referrals for patients requiring additional support

• show how patients will be discharged to routine care, during and after the innovation programme

Note: you will be responsible for identifying and securing any necessary clinical accreditation or validation to meet requirements before pathways are activated, as defined by:

• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)

• NHS England (NHSE)

• Devolved Governments and their NHS

• General Medical Council (GMC)

• General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

• Care Quality Commission (CQC)

• Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI)

• other standard setting bodies

Your answer can be up to 1000 words long.

Question 12. Outcomes, impact and evaluation (this question is scored out of 10 points)

How will your project demonstrate impact?

In addition to any locally defined requirements, the programme will appoint an independent evaluator to enable an assessment across the whole project portfolio. Evaluation criteria will be agreed prior to project start.

In England, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) should contact NHS England for further details on the reimbursement of eligible medicine costs. This contribution is completely outside OPIP innovation grant funding.

You must provide a framework for the monitoring and evaluation of your project and related pathways. You should specify your approach to embedding learning and improvement. The framework should be based on the three core areas of impact:

Effective

• routinely collected clinical measures: including both weight loss and other health measures

• quality of life and other relevant changes to patients daily life

• drop out rates

• project reach: the demographic diversity and geographic spread of patients served

• patient reported experience

• accessibility

• health professional or service provider experience

Clinically appropriate

• any adverse incidents

• any reported side effects

• safety netting, explaining what to do when you see a complex patient who needs urgent referral to another setting

Resource efficient

• referral volumes by service type (reported against proposed plan)

• costs of running each type of service

• how digital health solutions, such as mobile apps, telehealth services and wearable technology might be incorporated to enhance patient engagement, efficacy and support

• training requirements

• clinical workload impacting on existing services, for example, GPs

You will be expected to provide consistent and timely data, including routinely collected data for reporting to programme evaluators. This must be provided during the project, and for up to five years after the end of the programme, to inform longer term impact.

Your answer can be up to 800 words long.

You can submit one appendix with a short summary of the approach you would use when working with an evaluator to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to four A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 13. Wider impacts (this question is scored out of 5 points)

What impact might this project have outside the project team?

Describe and, where possible, indicate how you might evaluate the economic or operational benefits from the project such as productivity increases to:

• external parties

• customers

• others in the supply chain

• broader industry

• the UK economy

Describe and, where possible, indicate how you might estimate:

• any expected impact on the NHS healthcare system

• any expected impact on government priorities

• any expected environmental impacts, either positive or negative

• any expected regional impacts of the project

Describe any expected social impacts, either positive or negative on, for example:

• quality of life

• social inclusion or exclusion

• jobs, such as clinically safeguarding, creating, changing or displacing them

• education

• public empowerment

• health and safety

• regulations

• diversity

Your answer can be up to 500 words long.

Question 14. Project management and sustainability (this question is scored out of 10 points)

How will you manage your project effectively, scale and sustain success?

Explain:

• how you will start and scale your new weight management pathways: you will need to include an Implementation Route Map detailing workstreams and key milestones of proposition delivery, including a target date for first patients on live pathways and ambitions for the maximum number of patients supported, and by when

• an outline plan for how you will transition to routinely commissioned services

• your plans to sustain projects, including potential partnerships and funding strategies

• the main work packages of your project, indicating the subcontractors assigned to each and the total cost of each work package

• your approach to project management, identifying any major tools and mechanisms you will use to get a successful and innovative project outcome

• the management reporting lines

• your project plan in enough detail to identify any links or dependencies between work packages or milestones

Your answer can be up to 600 words long.

You must submit a project Implementation Route Map plan or Gantt chart as an appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to four A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 15. Risks (this question is scored out of 10 points)

What are the main risks for this project?

Describe:

• the main risks and uncertainties of the project, including the technical, commercial, managerial, environmental and clinical risks, including potential harm to patients

• how you will mitigate these risks

• details of any indemnity or necessary legal requirements to undertake your project

• any project inputs that are critical to completion, such as resources, expertise, and data sets

• any output likely to be subject to regulatory requirements, certification, ethical issues and so on, and how you will manage this

Your answer can be up to 500 words long.

You must submit a risk register as an appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 16. Added value (this question is scored out of 5 points)

How will this funding help you to accelerate or enhance your approach to developing your weight management services? What impact would this award have on the organisations involved?

Explain:

• the likely impact of the project outcomes on the organisations involved

• what your service would look like without innovation funding

• the impact for your partner service-delivery organisations

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Question 17. Costs and value for money (this question is scored out of 10 points)

How much will the project cost and how does it represent value for money for the team and the taxpayer?

In terms of your project goals, explain:

• your total eligible project costs

• subcontractor costs for each subcontractor and why each is critical to your project

• the grant you are requesting

• how this project represents value for money for you and the taxpayer

• how the size of the project and cost will align to its cost-effectiveness and ability to scale

Your answer can be up to 600 words long.

3. Finances

You must complete your own project costs, organisation details and funding details in the application.

For an overview on what costs you can claim, see our project costs guidance. Note this is general guidance.

In addition to the standard guidance on eligible costs, the following additional guidance is provided to applicants for this competition:

Eligible for reimbursement by Innovate UK:

• set up costs for service

• operating costs for access and management service

• patient assessment, monitoring and reporting

• dispensing and medications management services

• appropriate lifestyle support for patients on pharmacological and non-pharmacological pathways, either provided through nationally funded programmes or procured locally following applicable guidelines, such as NICE NG246 or Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and other local guidelines as appropriate

• analysis and design

• competency upskilling specific to the set up of new services

• data collection, provision and aggregation

• project evaluation

Not eligible for reimbursement by Innovate UK:

• operation of services after OPIP period ends

• training that provides a direct personal gain

• any costs that exceed the allocated budget from Innovate UK

• grants will not be provided to offset routine or normal business expenses that are not utilised for the projects

• grants will not be provided for capital expenses, building repair, general office equipment or vehicles that are not used for or linked to the projects

• medicines

In England, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) should contact NHS England for further details on the reimbursement of eligible medicine costs. This contribution is completely outside OPIP innovation grant funding.

For specific guidance please see the eligibility section in this competition. You can also view our application finances video.

Assessment

Your application will be reviewed by five independent assessors based on the content of your application and their skills or expertise relevant to your project. All of the scores awarded will count towards the total score used to make the funding decision unless you are notified otherwise.

You can find out more about our assessment process in the General Guidance.

Your submitted application will be assessed against these criteria:

OPIP Assessor Guidance for applicants.pdf (opens in a new window)

Interviews

If your application passes the first stage of assessment, you may be invited to attend an interview, where you must give a presentation. Your interview will take place online. The interviews will be held between 19 January 2026 and 27 January 2026.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you at the interview you must email us at support@iuk.ukri.org within three days of receiving your invitation.

Before the interview and by the deadline stated in the dates section of this competition and in your invitation email, you:

• must send a list of who will attend the interview

• must send your interview presentation slides

• can send a written response to the assessors’ feedback

List of attendees

You must provide a list of attendees which can include up to nine people from your project. They must all be available on all published interview dates. We are unable to reschedule slots once allocated.

Presentation slides

Your interview presentation must:

• use Microsoft PowerPoint

• be no longer than 45 minutes

• have no more than 30 slides

• not include any video or embedded web links

You cannot change the presentation after you submit it or bring any additional materials to the interview.

Written response to assessor feedback

This is optional and is an opportunity to answer the assessors’ concerns. It can:

• be up to two A4 pages in a single PDF or Word document

• include charts or diagrams

Interview

After your presentation the panel will spend up to 60 minutes asking questions. You will be expected to answer based on the information you provided in your application form, presentation and the response to feedback.

After your interview

The panellists will individually score your application and these will be averaged for your overall interview score. This score will supersede the one you received from initial assessment unless stated otherwise in the competition brief. We will notify you whether you have been successful or not by email and you will receive feedback on your interview within a week of notification.

Briefing recording and slides

From the 11 September onwards, Innovate UK briefing content available here. This content is managed by IUK with no involvement from Lilly.

What happens if you receive a grant offer

If you have passed your initial assessment and have received an email with a grant offer, you will be asked to complete the project set up process on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS).

We will ask for information that will allow us to undertake mandatory checks on your organisation and the eligibility of your costs, as well as review the documentation for your project.

You must follow the unique link embedded in your email notification. This takes you to your project's dedicated IFS Set Up portal, where we gather the information required to set up your project.

Watch our video on what steps there are before a project starts or read more about Project Setup in our general guidance.

If your application is unsuccessful

If you are unsuccessful with your application this time, you can view feedback from the assessors. This will be available to you on your IFS portal following notification.

Sometimes your application will have scored well, and you will receive positive comments from the assessors. You may be unsuccessful as your average score was not above the funding threshold or your project has not been selected under the portfolio approach if this is applied for this competition.

We would like to remind you that eligible non-funded business can still benefit from fully funded and bespoke support from the Innovate UK Business Growth service.

Protecting your innovation

A Secure Innovation campaign has been developed to help founders and leaders of innovative startups protect their technology, competitive advantage, and reputation.

This was developed by UK’s National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

Data sharing

Lilly and DSIT are providing grant funding for this competition.

For data protection purposes, Innovate UK and DSIT are joint controllers of your personal data processed for this undertaking.

Applications shortlisted for interview will be shared with a specialist Lilly review team consisting of named individuals from non-commercial functions. They will review applications with the sole purpose of ensuring compliance with their grant eligibility criteria and project principles as defined in the Assessor Guidance. All information contained within your proposal will be managed confidentially. No information about your application will be shared within Lilly outside of the review team.

Data will be held securely with appropriate safeguards to limit holding and sharing of data within Lilly, and comply with UK data protection requirements. Lilly’s role is limited to assessment of compliance with the project principles and eligibility criteria, they are not involved in scoring or final decisions to make awards post the Lilly screening.

Any information given to or generated by Innovate UK in respect of your application and subsequent project may be passed on to DSIT and Lilly and vice versa. This would include, but is not restricted to:

• the information stated on the application

• scoring and feedback on the application

• information received during the management and administration of the grant, such as Monitoring Service Provider reports and Independent Accountant Reports

Quarterly financial reports will be shared with Lilly in line with grant report requirements.No patient related data or information for evaluation purposes will be shared with Lilly.

Innovate UK may also share any relevant information submitted and produced during the application process concerning your application with Innovate UK’s regional UK third parties. For more information how we handle grant applicant and grant holder data.

Innovate UK will procure a sole organisation to undertake Independent Accountant Reports (IARs) for all projects on a quarterly basis. This will also support the mandatory Transfer of Value requirements.

Innovate UK will appoint an independent evaluator for the programme. That organisation will require access to patient identifiable data for the purposes of service evaluation. Access to that data will be governed by a separate agreement which will be put in place once the evaluator is appointed. The agreement will ensure compliance with all relevant information governance for patient data.

Innovate UK and DSIT are directly accountable to you for their holding and processing of your information, including any personal data and confidential information. Data is held in accordance with their own policies. Accordingly, Innovate UK and DSIT will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application.

Innovate UK’s Privacy Policy

Department of Science, Innovation and Technology Privacy Policy

Lilly Privacy Policy

Innovate UK complies with the requirements of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and is committed to upholding data protection legislation, and protecting your information in accordance with data protection principles.

The Information Commissioner’s Office also has a useful guide for organisations, which outlines the data protection principles.

Contact us

If you need more information about how to apply or you want to submit your application in Welsh, email support@iuk.ukri.org or call 0300 321 4357.

Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Innovate UK or any of our partners will not tolerate abusive language in any written or verbal correspondence, applications, social media or any other form that might affect staff.