Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Healthy Ageing Challenge in helping companies scale up projects.

An independent evaluation of the Healthy Ageing Challenge has been published on UKRI’s website. The evaluation found that the Challenge has:

• Contributed to firm-level growth, as evidenced by increased turnover, R&D expenditure, and staff numbers among participating companies.
• Largely achieved its short- to medium-term outcomes. Even against a backdrop of a global pandemic and cost of living crisis
• Supported research and innovation across the entire innovation pipeline from early-stage research to adoption and scaling research, and commercialisation.

The medium- to long-term outcomes are likely to be achieved over the next 3 to 5 years.