The UK government has announced that it will invest 4.1 million Euros in therapeutic XR technologies for mental healthcare services.
The funding, delivered through the UK government’s national innovation agency, Innovate UK, delivered as part of a targeted investment to use VR, AR, MR, haptics and immersive software and audio for mental healthcare applications.
The technologies will be developed and trialled over 12 to 18 months, with the ambition to deliver what it calls ‘digital therapeutics’ for people living with moderate to severe mental health conditions.
3.7 million people received support from England’s NHS mental health services between 2023-2024, an increase of almost 40% since before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The project, called Mindset XR, Innovate UK aims to back 17 projects that show potential for widespread impact, delivering scalable mental health offerings that could be adopted into the UK’s formal mental healthcare ecosystem.
Through its Mindset XR for digital mental health programme, Innovate UK is backing pioneering projects that aim to meet this challenge by harnessing the potential of immersive technology.
The projects are looking to address a range of conditions that affect education, employment, and quality of life, including emotional-based school avoidance, ADHD, autism, occupational stress, treatment resistant depression and seasonal affective disorder, anxiety, trauma/PTSD and addiction recovery.
Dr Cynthia Bullock, director, Healthy Lives at Innovate UK, commented: “Through this latest Mindset investment, we’re fostering powerful collaborations between the UK’s immersive technology sector and mental health providers, moving beyond general wellbeing tools toward innovative treatments for people with mental health conditions.
“These research and development projects are designed to improve the impairment, disability and distress experienced by individuals at any stage of life across the UK. By supporting these innovations, Innovate UK is unlocking solutions with the power to drive business growth and maximise both social and economic impact.”