The Innovation Fund was established in 2016 as part of the Act to Strengthen Statutory Health Insurance (GKV-Versorgungsstärkungsgesetz) to promote new forms of care and practical research projects in statutory health insurance (GKV). The aim is to test and evaluate innovative approaches ranging from cross-sectoral care pathways to digital health applications and, if successful, to transfer them to standard care. In this way, the fund builds a bridge between research and healthcare practice and contributes to a sustainable increase in treatment quality and efficiency.

The fund is divided into three funding areas:

Around € 200 million is available for this every year. The statutory health insurance funds and the Health Fund each provide half of the funding for the program, which is managed by the Innovation Committee of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA).

From BAYOOMED’s point of view, the innovation fund means direct access to real care practice. BAYOOMED supports partners in the development of digital care and monitoring solutions and uses the funding programs to create real added value for patients.

Further insights: Project insights on the G-BA website

Every year, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee publishes open and topic-specific funding announcements for new forms of healthcare, healthcare research and medical guidelines.

A two-stage procedure has been used for NVF projects since 2020: First, short concepts (“idea sketches”) are submitted, selected sketches receive funding for the preparation of the full application. VSF applications are usually submitted directly as full proposals.

External experts review applications for quality, feasibility and practical transfer to ensure well-founded and feasible projects.

The committee makes funding decisions on the basis of the expert reports. Unused funds are returned on a pro rata basis.

Following a positive decision, consortium leaders receive funding approval and conclude financing and project agreements.

Funded projects submit regular interim and final reports and are evaluated on the basis of milestones.

A comprehensive evaluation is carried out at the end of the project. Successful approaches are incorporated into standard care or form the basis for new guidelines and care models.

BAYOOMED works with health insurance companies and project consortia to develop and test digital health solutions in a practical way. Our MedicalOne Connect platform makes it possible to securely record and evaluate healthcare research data, which is essential for many fund projects. Together with partners, we develop strategies on how successful pilot solutions can be efficiently transferred to regular operations.