Innovation funding

On April 11, 2025, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) announced the opening of the application period for the submission of topics for upcoming funding opportunities in the areas of healthcare research and new forms of care. The deadline for submitting topic proposals is June 20, 2025.

On March 26, 2025, the Law to accelerate the digitalization of the healthcare system (Digital Law, DigiG) came into force.

On March 19, 2025, the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) announced 28 new innovators (“Fellows”) with healthcare solutions awarded to join the program in 2025. NIA provides intensive, tailored support to proven healthcare solutions, helping to accelerate their adoption and maximize their impact across the NHS. Awarded innovations concern e-Health, in-vitro diagnostic, gynecology, neuromodulation, and sustainability.

In late February 2025, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published the decision recommending the transfer to standard care for the completed project in the peripheral vascular field. The project was dedicated to the integration and spatial analysis of regional, site-specific, and patient-specific factors to improve the quality of care in carotid artery revascularization.

On January 30, 2025, the Institute for the Hospital Remuneration System (InEK) published the list of requests for innovation funding (NUB) submitted by hospitals in 2024. The medical technologies of cardiovascular, endoscopy, extracorporeal, gastrointestinal, neuromodulation, peripheral vascular, and other technology groups obtained positive status 1.

On January 24, 2025, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published the determined funding priorities for projects on new forms of care (for single-stage process – open topic and for two-stage process – nine topics).

On December 17, 2024, the Dutch Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) announced the submission of grant applications for the subsidy round “Effectiveness Study 2026” of the Efficiency Research program, which is intended for projects to increase knowledge for healthcare practice about the effectiveness and costs of interventions in the Netherlands. The deadline for the submission of the applications is March 4, 2025.

In late November 2024, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published the decisions recommending the transfer to standard care for two completed projects. The projects were dedicated to relieving the burden of emergency rooms and improving infection surveillance in nursing homes.

On November 28, 2024, NHS England published a report summarising the Innovation Ecosystem Programme’s (IEP) findings and recommendations for the next steps. The IEP aimed to foster collaboration between the NHS and key stakeholders (industry, academia, and regulators) to streamline healthcare innovation. Recommendations are summarised in four areas: a) setting the direction, b) structures and tools for delivery, c) people, skills, and capabilities, and d) acceleration.

On November 21, 2024, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) announced that a total of fifty applications for Innovation Funding for the new forms of care in one- and two-stage procedures were accepted.

In November 2024, the Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa) published an updated regulation and policy framework for small-scale experiments to introduce innovations, which will enter into force on January 01, 2025. The small-scale experiments for introducing innovations apply to innovative medical procedures that improve the organization and provision of patient care (including online consultation, telemonitoring, home neuromodulation, school counseling, etc.) but do not have enough evidence to obtain coverage within basic health insurance.

In October 2024, the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport decided to discontinue the "Subsidy scheme for promising care," which was implemented in 2019 to support the development of missing clinical and economic evidence for promising care that otherwise cannot be covered within basic health insurance. There are 28 ongoing projects, and some new projects will be awarded the subsidy in the 2025 round.