Find Your Way in the World of Grants and Funds | November 3, 2026 | Jaarbeurs Utrecht
The healthcare sector faces major challenges. An aging population, staff shortages, and rising costs call for smarter ways of working and new solutions. Fortunately, entrepreneurs are not lacking in innovative spirit. Unfortunately, however, many healthcare innovations never make it past the pilot phase. Not because the solution doesn’t work, but because entrepreneurs encounter complex issues along the way regarding evidence, financing, regulations, and implementation.
Are you dealing with the “pilot paradox”?
A common problem is that a pilot is successful, but scaling up never happens. The innovation has proven its value, but there is still no structural funding, no designated owner within the organization, or insufficient capacity to roll out the solution more widely. This creates the well-known gap between the pilot and real-world implementation.
The path from idea to large-scale application in healthcare is therefore often long and complex. At every stage—from developing a prototype to large-scale implementation—entrepreneurs face all kinds of challenges. Below, you can see what kinds of issues arise at each stage.
See also: Why Many Healthcare Innovations Fail: The Power of Hidden Interests
Phase 1: From Idea to Initial Solution
Many healthcare innovations arise from a personal experience, a problem that a healthcare professional encounters on a daily basis, or a technological development that offers new possibilities. In this phase, the biggest challenge often lies in clearly defining the problem. A solution may be technically excellent, but if the problem isn’t urgent enough or doesn’t align with real-world practice, it will lack support.
In addition, the healthcare environment is complex; when introducing an innovation, you often have to deal with multiple stakeholders: administrators, healthcare professionals, patients, healthcare institutions, insurers, and sometimes even local governments. Their interests do not always align.
The challenges in this phase:
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- Is the problem you want to solve big enough?
- How do you ensure that the innovation meets the needs of patients and healthcare professionals?
- Who will ultimately pay for the innovation, and who decides that?
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Phase 2: Provide evidence that the innovation works
Once an initial product or service has been developed, a new challenge arises: demonstrating its effectiveness. In most sectors, entrepreneurs can scale up quickly as soon as customers show enthusiasm. In the healthcare sector, however, things are different. Healthcare organizations want to see proof that an innovation actually contributes to better care, reduced workload, or cost savings. That’s why entrepreneurs must conduct pilot programs, studies, user tests, and extensive evaluations. This is, of course, time-consuming and costly.
The challenges in this phase:
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- How do you gain access to healthcare organizations where you can conduct pilots to collect data?
- How do you demonstrate the clinical, organizational, or economic added value?
- Where can you find funding for research and validation?
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Phase 3: Meeting Legal and Regulatory Requirements and Ensuring Compliance
The healthcare sector is subject to strict laws and regulations. This is understandable, as patient safety is the top priority. At the same time, this can be a complicated and time-consuming process for entrepreneurs. Depending on the innovation, issues may arise regarding privacy, security, data exchange, and certifications. Many startups view this as a journey that requires specialized knowledge.
The challenges in this phase:
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- What is required to comply with laws and regulations?
- What certifications do we need?
- How do we bridge the gap while we’re waiting for approval or certification?
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See also: Grant and Fundraising: The Five Most Common Mistakes
Phase 4: Securing both temporary and long-term funding
In the early stages, entrepreneurs can apply for startup grants and/or investment funds. But even after that, there is still a long way to go, because healthcare innovations often have a much longer development and implementation process than innovations in other sectors.
Investors look at the scalability and return on investment of the innovation, while healthcare organizations are often reluctant to adopt new technologies. As a result, healthcare entrepreneurs frequently find themselves in a difficult balancing act, creating a funding gap between the development and market launch of the innovation. This requires bridging a longer period during which there are expenses but no revenue (yet).
The challenges in this phase:
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- How do you attract the right investors and grants during the startup phase?
- Where can you find funding for pilot projects and implementations?
- How do you bridge the gap during the period when you’re dealing with long sales cycles and complex procurement and bidding procedures?
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Phase 5: Implementation in Practice
A successful pilot does not automatically guarantee successful implementation. It is precisely at this stage that many innovations get stuck. Healthcare professionals face high workloads and a lack of time. To be accepted in everyday practice, an innovation must not only save time and be effective, but also be easy to use and integrate well with existing processes. Moreover, change requires support within the organization.
The challenges in this phase:
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- How do you deal with resistance to change?
- How can the innovation be integrated with existing systems?
- How do you ensure support, sustainability, and internal ownership?
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Phase 6: Scaling Up
Good news—your first clients are on board—but now the next challenge arises: scaling up. And what works well within one organization doesn’t automatically work for other organizations. Every healthcare organization has its own processes, systems, and decision-making structures. Successful scaling up therefore requires solid collaboration with healthcare organizations, a clear business model, and a thorough understanding of the healthcare market.
The challenges in this phase:
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- How do you deal with the lengthy decision-making processes in healthcare?
- How do you build a strong network with the right partners?
- Are you able to adapt the implementation to account for differences between organizations and regions?
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See also: Successfully implementing AI-driven healthcare innovations: lessons from the UMCG
Stronger Together in Healthcare Innovation
The challenges facing entrepreneurs with healthcare innovations are significant, but certainly not insurmountable. That is precisely why knowledge sharing, collaboration, and learning from others’ experiences are so important.
Whether you’re just starting out with your innovation, in the middle of a pilot, or looking to scale up, the question isn’t whether you’ll face challenges along the way, but how you’ll handle them. That’s precisely why it’s valuable to learn from experts, investors, and other entrepreneurs who have already gone through the same process. This will also help you gain insight more quickly into possible solutions for your own challenges.
Find Your Way Through the World of Grants and Funds
During the National Knowledge Event “Find Your Way in the World of Grants and Funds” on November 3, ZorgSubsidieKalender will bring all these parties together. It’s a place where entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals, and other stakeholders can meet, share knowledge, and collaborate on the future of healthcare. Some of the speakers include:
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- Casper Smeets, Innovation Manager at Health Valley
- Rik Wisselink, regional advisor at Zorg voor Innoveren
- Anita Schimmel & Mariëtte Jilderda, founders of Bratelle, finalists for the 2026 National Healthcare Innovation Award
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