National Assembly for Wales

Decisions on procurement and adoption are ones for ABMU Health Board and other health boards, and are not within the remit of Welsh Government.
SBRI is a recognised process that supports the public sector in procuring the development of new technical solutions and accelerating technology adoption. New ideas can be explored as risk is managed through a phased development programme running a portfolio of the most promising projects.
SBRI enables the public sector to engage with industry during the early stages of development and operates under the EU Pre-commercial Procurement legal framework. Contracts awarded to businesses must be for research and development activities only (i. e. not commercial activity as otherwise conventional procurement practices apply). The applications developed through SBRI are subject to procurement rules at the point of commercialisation.
The purpose is therefore to stimulate the market to develop new technology products and services which have the potential to address defined challenges which are unmet. Solutions proposed can and do come from different industry sectors and due to the competitive nature of the process, organisations from anywhere in the UK and EU may be successful in winning contracts. In this case, it is extremely positive that both of the companies who were successful in winning phase 2 demonstrator contracts came from Wales.
Decisions about whether or not to use the new products developed (usually meaning purchasing or paying for them) is one that organisations and in this case ABMU Health Board must take based on the merits and affordability of the finished product.
It is the responsibility of company to take their product to market, and companies are encouraged to explore wider market opportunities which extend beyond the Welsh border. It would not be appropriate for Welsh Government to force Welsh Health Boards to adopt the solutions.