An SEiR is an individual with entrepreneurial, marketing and business expertise who is embedded in a primary care trust (PCT), a GP consortium, a local authority, the voluntary sector or a large charity or organisation. The programme is delivered through Health Launchpad.

The SEiR scouts for potential entrepreneurs and helps to develop their ideas to the point where they become successful ventures. The SEiR, backed by a central team at the Young Foundation in London, diagnoses future opportunities, mobilises resources and helps to secure finance and expertise for ventures from a range of sources, for instance, funds such the Regional Innovation Fund (RIF). In this way the SEiR helps to address major challenges such as health inequalities and an ageing population while also acting as a catalyst who works to achieve a cultural change so that innovation becomes part of an organisation's ethos not a barrier to success.

In 2009, Eleanor Cappell became the first SEiR in the UK working with NHS Birmingham East and North. In 2011 Wray Irwin began working as an SEiR at The University of Northampton. The SEiR programme has attracted national and international attention. The Young Foundation's aim is to have at least a dozen SEiRs in place by 2015 pooling best practice, disseminating learning and working in partnership with the host organisations to deliver more and better for less. The development of the SEiR network is supported by a group of national advisers.

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Further information

Read a full pdf with more information on the SEiR programme.

Read our leaflet with further information on our portfolio of projects.