The Finance and Health Lab will bring together financial services firms, fintechs, academia, government, health specialists, and policy leaders to enhance understanding of the drivers of financial vulnerability in later life and to co-design solutions that could improve the financial wellbeing and resilience of people across Scotland. 

The programme is being enabled by funding from the Scottish Government and delivered in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Innovations, its commercialisation service, leveraging their innovation and research networks. 

By fostering collaboration amongst partner organisations, the lab will support new ventures, prototypes, and pilot projects, strengthening Scotland’s innovation pipeline and competitiveness in the global fintech market. It will also generate research that will shape future service models, product development, and policy that support good financial and health outcomes. 

Participating organisations will collaborate on solving a number of challenge areas, with potential outcomes including making digital financial services more accessible and supportive for older people, creating personalised tools that help individuals plan for health events in later life, and strengthening financial confidence and decision-making. 

The four-month programme will include a national conference on innovation in finance and health,  and calls for projects targeting high-priority issues related to later life and financial wellbeing. In addition, participants will have opportunities to showcase new prototypes, understand data, undertake research, produce policy papers, and exchange knowledge through a series of webinars, roundtables, and other platforms. 

A range of studies have drawn a direct link between household wealth and the likelihood of poor health in older age. For example, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), 54% of women aged 55–64 in the lowest third of the UK’s wealth distribution reported at least one mobility issue, compared to just 20% in the wealthiest third. 

The UK has a longstanding retirement savings gap. Office for National Statistics figures suggest the average pension wealth in the UK for people between the ages of 65 and 74 stands at just under £146,000, equivalent to just over 4.5 years of ‘comfortable’ retirement income by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Associations’ standards. 

Aleks Tomczyk, chief executive at FinTech Scotland, said: “The retirement savings gap is a longstanding challenge in Scotland and across the UK – and it is only going to grow in importance as more people live longer and, therefore, need more money to fund themselves in later life.

“The Finance and Health Lab will bring together the best minds from across different sectors to find different types of solutions – whether that is policy, research, or technology – and set out a way forward for ensuring people can have a good retirement, minimising the adverse impact that poor health or limited finances can have.”

Dr Andrea Taylor, chief executive officer at Edinburgh Innovations, added: “Scotland is the ideal test bed for an initiative like the Finance and Health Lab, with a strong fintech ecosystem, globally recognised universities, and a thriving financial services sector.

“The solutions that emerge from the programme could make a significant difference to people’s lives and further cement our position as a world leader in collaboration and innovation between the public, private, and education sectors.” 

A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said: “Scottish Government committed £5 million this financial year to support the growth of our key innovation clusters as drivers of economic development in areas with huge value potential, including fintech and life sciences.

“This project, as an important element of a broader suite of cluster development projects, will strengthen cross-cluster collaboration and contribute to the enhancement of innovation and economic growth of these key clusters.”