NIA.OS Terms of Use

1. What NIA.OS is

NIA.OS is the online platform of the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA), a programme run by UCLPartners. It lets innovators on the NIA programme describe their innovations, lets NHS staff find those innovations and contact the people behind them, and lets the NHS staff member an innovator names confirm where an innovation is in use. Part of the platform is a public catalogue that anyone can browse and search without an account.

These terms apply to everyone who uses NIA.OS: with an account (innovators, NHS staff, NIA administrators) and without one (people browsing the public catalogue or sending an enquiry).

NIA.OS is a professional platform intended for use by organisations and individuals acting in a professional capacity. It is not a consumer service. Users must be 18 or over and acting on behalf of an organisation, not in a personal capacity.

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2. Accounts

Who can hold one. Innovator accounts are created by invitation from the programme team. NHS staff create their own account with an NHS email address. Administrator accounts are set up by the programme team. Innovator accounts are for people on the NIA programme. NHS staff accounts require an email address on an NHS domain and are tied to one NHS organisation. Administrator accounts are for the NIA programme team. When you create your account you accept these terms; we record the time and the version you accepted.

Signing in. There are no passwords. You log in with a one-time code sent to your email address. You are responsible for keeping that mailbox secure; anyone who can read it can log in as you. Tell nia@uclpartners.com at once if you think someone else has used your account.

One person, one account. Your account is personal. Do not share it or let someone else use it.

Your details. Keep your details accurate. You can change your name in your settings; to change your organisation or job title, email nia@uclpartners.com. Your organisation on an NHS staff account is set when you register; changing it is a request to the programme team, not an edit you can make yourself.

Suspension. The programme team can suspend an innovator account where: (a) the innovator leaves the NIA programme or their organisation; (b) these terms are broken; or (c) their programme participation ends. Any account that appears to be compromised can be locked. An NHS staff member who leaves their organisation can no longer log in once they lose access to their NHS email address. A suspended account can still log in, but only to its own settings and to ask for a copy of its data. For an innovator, its published innovation is taken out of the catalogue when the account is suspended, and returns only when the innovator publishes it again after the suspension ends. Accounts suspended for misuse may be reported to the relevant NHS organisation or programme body.

3. What you can do, by role

Innovators can create and edit their innovation, save drafts, upload evidence documents, publish a version to the catalogue, reply to enquiries using the contact details the platform emails to them, record where an innovation has been adopted, and ask a named NHS contact, at their NHS email address, to confirm an adoption. They can withdraw an adoption claim they made. An innovator can ask the programme team, at nia@uclpartners.com, to transfer their profile to a colleague.

NHS staff can browse and search the catalogue, connect with an innovation, share their contact details with the innovator, ask a question of an NHS colleague who has confirmed an adoption, and confirm or decline an adoption confirmation request addressed to them. A head of innovation, a role given by the programme team, can also see an overview of adoptions across their organisation.

NIA administrators run the programme: invitations, innovator accounts, the head of innovation role, and taking down content that breaches these terms.

Anyone can browse and search the public catalogue and send an enquiry about a published innovation without an account.

4. Your content

You own what you submit. Innovation content, uploaded documents, messages, questions, quotes and adoption claims remain yours (or your organisation's).

By submitting content to NIA.OS you grant UCLPartners a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display, copy and distribute that content on and through the platform for the purposes of the NIA programme, including generating Adoption Packs and reporting on programme outcomes. This licence ends when your account is closed or your content is withdrawn, except where content has already been incorporated into programme reports or shared with NHS organisations in reliance on it.

Publishing. When you publish, a frozen copy of your innovation is taken at that moment and its public parts are shown in the catalogue. Editing your draft afterwards does not change what is published until you publish again. Some information is never shown publicly, whatever you choose (for example contract values and your involvement free text); the platform decides which fields these are. You can unpublish at any time.

Accuracy. You are responsible for what you submit being accurate and not misleading. NHS organisations rely on it. Regulatory claims must be true at the time of submission and must be updated promptly if they change.

Adoption claims and confirmations. An adoption claim is the innovator's statement that their innovation is in use at an NHS organisation. A confirmation is the named NHS manager's separate statement recorded with who confirmed it and when and cannot be edited afterwards. A manager may withdraw their own confirmation; an innovator may withdraw their own adoption claim. These are distinct actions. Do not ask a manager to confirm something that is not true, and do not confirm something you do not know to be true.

Verifier quotes. A verifier's name, quote and contact details are shown only to signed-in NHS staff, and only after the verifier has recorded each consent separately on the platform. Any consent can be withdrawn at any time, and the name, quote or contactability is removed promptly on withdrawal.

No endorsement by UCLPartners. UCLPartners does not verify, endorse, or warrant the accuracy of any content submitted by innovators, nor the reliability or suitability of any innovation listed in the catalogue. NHS organisations remain responsible for their own procurement, clinical safety, and information governance assessments.

What you must not submit. Personal information about other people beyond what the platform asks for; health information about any individual; patient data of any kind; anything you do not have the right to share; anything unlawful, defamatory or abusive. Free-text fields are for describing innovations, not for describing people.

5. Acceptable use

Use NIA.OS for the purposes above and nothing else. In particular, do not:

• attempt to access another person's account or records, or to bypass the platform's access controls;
• scrape or bulk-download the catalogue or any records by automated means (ordinary search-engine indexing of the public catalogue is permitted);
• send unsolicited commercial messages through connections, questions or enquiries;
• upload malware, or probe or load-test the platform without prior written permission from UCLPartners;
• use the platform to make decisions about patients or clinical care; it holds no patient data and is not a clinical tool;
• misrepresent who you are or which organisation you act for.

Consequences of misuse. If you breach these terms, UCLPartners may remove the content concerned, suspend an innovator account, and notify your NHS organisation or the NIA programme team as appropriate. UCLPartners reserves the right to report serious misuse to relevant authorities.

The platform has a web application firewall and rate limits. Abusive traffic is refused.

6. Outputs

NIA.OS can generate outputs from an innovation's published content such as an Adoption Pack, and potentially further outputs as the platform develops. Any such output states what the innovator submitted; it is not an endorsement, an assessment of clinical safety, or a procurement recommendation by UCLPartners or the NIA. NHS organisations remain responsible for their own procurement, clinical safety and information governance decisions. An Adoption Pack becomes available once an innovator has published their innovation. Signed-in NHS staff and administrators can download it, and so can the innovator for their own innovation.

7. Search and AI assistance

NIA.OS uses AI to help with search. When an innovation is published, its content is processed by AI so it can be found. AI helps decide which innovations match a search. Matching results are listed in order of the innovation's maturity; near matches are listed in order of how closely they fit. They are not advice and may be incomplete. AI on NIA.OS does not make decisions about people or organisations. See the Privacy Notice for how AI features work and what data they use.

8. Platform compliance

NIA.OS is being assessed against the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC) and the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT). Documentation will be available on request once assessments are complete.

9. Availability and changes

NIA.OS is provided on a best-effort basis without a guaranteed service level. The platform depends on third-party infrastructure; UCLPartners is not liable for unavailability caused by those providers. Features may be added, changed or removed. Planned maintenance will be announced where practical.

10. Your data

How we use personal data is set out in the Privacy Notice. You can exercise your data rights by emailing nia@uclpartners.com.

11. Ending your use

You can stop using the platform at any time and request erasure of your account through the route set out in the Privacy Notice. If an innovator's account is erased or suspended, their innovation is taken off the catalogue. The record is kept without their personal details, because confirmations and connections depend on it. The programme team can move an innovation to a colleague on request. UCLPartners can suspend an innovator's access on the grounds described in section 2.

12. Intellectual property in the platform

The NIA.OS software, its design and its name are the intellectual property of UCLPartners or its licensors. These terms give you no rights in the platform beyond using it as described.

13. Liability

UCLPartners' liability to you in connection with NIA.OS is limited to the fullest extent permitted by law. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

14. General

Governing law. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

Whole agreement. These terms and the Privacy Notice govern use of the platform. Where a separate Fellow or programme agreement exists, that agreement takes precedence over these terms to the extent of any conflict.

Severability. If any part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest continues to apply.

Waiver. UCLPartners not enforcing any part of these terms on a particular occasion does not affect its right to enforce that term on a future occasion.

Updates to these terms. UCLPartners may update these terms. A material change will be announced on the platform and, for account holders, by email, with the effective date shown. Continued use after that in the first date constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

Disputes. If you have a dispute about the accuracy of an adoption claim or confirmation on the platform, or any other concern about how the platform has been used, contact nia@uclpartners.com. UCLPartners will consider disputes on a case-by-case basis.

Effective date. These terms are effective from 01 October 2026.