Interdisciplinary Approaches to Frugal Innovation Workshop

A fully-funded PhD studentship will be awarded for a project arising from this workshop. 

The workshop’s emphasis will be on replicating and nurturing this frugal mindset within attendees and applying it to their own research. This disruptive, agile way of thinking has the potential to save the NHS significant resources, which could then be directed towards patient care instead. 

The workshop will build on an earlier three-day workshop hosted by the IHE in November 2017 and will be modelled on the SIB programme’s ‘Discover, Define, Design, Develop’ approach. The SIB programme is world renowned for its phenomenal success in training the next generation of frugal health-tech leaders. It has produced innovations ranging from an affordable fetal monitoring device that aims to reduce stillbirths to a splint made of low-cost cardboard that allows the temporary protection of injured limbs. 


Fully funded PhD studentship available 

The IHE is supporting a fully-funded PhD studentship for a new project arising from the Interdisciplinary Approaches to Frugal Innovation Workshop. The studentship will be 4 years in duration (or 6 years for part-time candidates), starting Autumn 2018. It will cover UK/ EU fees, minimum RCUK stipend and a small allowance for consumables.

To apply for the IHE PhD Studentship in Frugal Innovation, please complete the application form on our funding page and email it to healthcare-eng@ucl.ac.uk

The work completed through this studentship and its emphasis on frugal innovation will form part of our wider collaborative relationship with SIB and AIIMS.

Thu, 12 Jul 2018, 10:00 – Fri, 13 Jul 2018, 12:00

This is a free to attend event. To register your attendance, you must sign up via our Eventbrite page

Workshop Agenda

Thursday 12 July 2018

10:00 - 10:15: Information on application process for fully funded PhD studentship 

10:15 - 11:30: Opening lecture on frugal innovation and introduction to real-world, unmet clinical needs

11:30 – 12:00: Refreshments

12:00 – 13.00: Attendees to form interdisciplinary working groups to address these clinical challenges and identify how innovative solutions could be developed in a frugal manner

13:00 – 14:00: Lunch

14:00 – 16:00: Working groups continue

Friday 13 July 2018 

10:00 – 12:00: Presentations and discussion of opportunities moving forward including PhD studentship

Application for workshop 

This unique workshop is open to all UCL staff and students interested in cultivating a new, disruptive way of thinking and applying a frugal innovation mindset to their own research and day-to-day work.

Dr Prashant Jha

Dr. Prashant Jha is a physician-engineer-inventor-entrepreneur who trained in family medicine, bioengineering, product design, computer science, strategy and innovation management from Prince of Wales Medical College, Royal College of General Practitioners London, IIT Kanpur, AIIMS Delhi, Stanford University and Harvard University.

Over the last decade he has invented medical devices in the areas of stress urinary incontinence, haemorrhoid surgery, labour monitoring, pulmonary medicine and diabetes management.
He is a serial entrepreneur and has set up venture backed businesses in the domains of vaccine delivery, personalised oncology, internet services, education technology and medical devices over last fifteen years.


Currently, Dr. Jha serves as the Fellowship Director of Biodesign School at AIIMS and IIT Delhi. Besides practising general medicine, he trains physicians, designers and engineers in the art and science of inventing medical technologies. He has teaching appointments at several Medical, Engineering and Business Schools in Japan, Australia and Europe – with whom he works to create an ecosystem for developing low-cost, high-impact medical devices for the common person.
 He also serves as the Senior Editor in South Asia for The BMJ and Founder-Editor for BMJ Innovations, world’s first medical innovations journal. 
He aspires to impact the lives of 10 million fellow-citizens by 2025, by working with teams to create 10 medical devices.