IGNITE: Health Innovation Summit Series

The IGNITE Health Innovation Summit Series brings together national and international leaders from across the ecosystem to debate, connect and accelerate meaningful change.

Now in its seventh year and attracting global recognition, IGNITE is becoming a leading platform for thought leadership and cross-sector collaboration.

Each Summit is designed to accelerate evidence-based, equitable health innovation through bringing together researchers, clinicians, industry, technology leaders, policymakers, and patients to tackle some of the system’s most complex challenges.

This latest summit, co-developed by UCL and UCLPartners, blends their academic excellence with on-the-ground expertise in healthcare delivery and innovation.

What IGNITE offers
The series provides a 360-degree view of health innovation, spotlighting breakthroughs, challenges, and system readiness, with a constant focus on equity, sustainability and adoption at scale. 

Each summit is shaped by a specialist advisory group to ensure every theme is timely, focused and relevant. Delegates can expect to:

• Tackle provocative questions in live debates featuring high-profile speakers from academia, the NHS, life-sciences, technology and policy.
• Gain actionable insights on how to navigate adoption, scale and sustainability.
• Network with a community committed to translating evidence into practice and innovation into action.

Who is it for?
IGNITE intentionally pushes the boundaries of the possible to enable friction-free health innovation. By connecting innovators and researchers with the right leaders, the series ensures promising ideas translate into scalable, equitable, sustainable solutions that work across diverse populations.

Attendees will benefit by gaining exposure to health system priorities and leadership perspectives and can engage directly with academic thinking and research-driven solutions.

When?
The next Summit in the series will take place in January 2026. Previous summits have been held in London, South Africa (with UK Research and Innovation support), and online in partnership with the Northern Health Science Alliance

Previous IGNITE reports:

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  2023_medical_innovations_in_the_context_of_health_inequalities.pdf

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  2022_preparedness_response_to_bio-emergencies.pdf

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  2020_learnings_from_covid-19_to_accelerate_innovation.pdf

Previous Speakers:

• Prof Michael Marmot, (Professor of Epidemiology, Institute of Health Equity, UCL
• Frances O’Callaghan, (Designate Chief Exectutive, North Central Integrated Care Board)
• Dr Ian Campbell (Interim Executive Chair, Innovate UK)
• Dr Graham Spittle (Chief Technology Officer, IBM Public Sector Consulting)
• Professor Michael Rawlins (Chair of the MHRA)
• Dame Fiona Caldicott (National Data Guardian for Health and Care)
• Ms Glaudina Loots (Director of Health Innovation, South African Department of Science and Technology)
• Dr Elena de Angelis (Global Health Director, GlaxoSmithKline)

For more information contact: 
Nasema Uddin, Ignite Programme Manager & Translational Training Manager, Academic Careers Office (ACO), Research, Innovation & Global Engagement (RIGE) on: nasema.uddin@ucl.ac.uk

Collaborations