WBSO for HealthTech and MedTech: Does Your Product Qualify in 2026?
Manna Team
Digital health software, connected medical devices and diagnostic algorithms are among the fastest-growing categories of Dutch R&D — and the WBSO can substantially reduce the cost of building them. But HealthTech and MedTech development sits in a tricky spot: much of the work looks routine on paper (an app, a sensor, a bit of firmware), while the real technical challenge is hidden underneath. This article explains when HealthTech and MedTech projects qualify for the WBSO in 2026. Want to apply right away? Start with the complete guide to applying for WBSO.
When does HealthTech/MedTech qualify?
As with any WBSO project, what counts is not the health application itself but whether there is genuine technical novelty and technical uncertainty in what you develop. For HealthTech and MedTech, that uncertainty usually sits in signal processing, algorithm accuracy or hardware constraints — not in the fact that a product is used in a clinical setting.
Usually qualifies:
- Developing a new diagnostic or imaging algorithm where the achievable accuracy, sensitivity or specificity is genuinely uncertain
- A novel sensor-fusion approach for a wearable or monitoring device, where it is uncertain whether the combined signal is reliable enough to use
- Embedded firmware for a connected medical device that must solve a real technical constraint — power consumption, latency, electromagnetic interference or wireless coexistence with other devices
- New methods for turning noisy, real-world sensor data into a clinically usable signal
Usually does not qualify:
- Routine app development for patient portals, scheduling or communication, built with standard frameworks and no technical development question
- Applying an existing, proven algorithm or off-the-shelf model to your data without technical uncertainty about the outcome
- Standard compliance documentation, quality-management paperwork or writing a technical file
- Integrating existing EHR or hospital IT systems without your own technical development
Technical uncertainty in a regulated product
HealthTech and MedTech products operate under regulatory requirements for medical devices, and that context shapes — but does not itself create — the work that qualifies for the WBSO. The distinction that matters is between paperwork and technical development. Compiling a technical file or following a quality-management procedure is not R&D. But proving, through your own technical work, that a novel algorithm or sensor approach performs reliably enough under real-world conditions very often is.
This is because "reliable enough" is rarely known in advance. A new diagnostic algorithm may work well on curated test data but fail on the noisy, variable inputs a device encounters in daily use. A new sensor combination may reduce error in the lab but behave unpredictably across different body types, movement patterns or environments. Establishing whether the required accuracy or robustness is achievable — and finding a technical approach that gets you there — is exactly the kind of technical uncertainty the WBSO is designed to support. The regulatory context simply raises the bar for how rigorously you have to demonstrate that reliability; it does not change what counts as R&D.
How do you describe a HealthTech/MedTech project?
Answer RVO's four questions technically and concretely: what are you developing, why is it technically new for your company, which technical problems do you expect (accuracy, signal reliability, power, latency, interference) and how do you plan to solve them? Avoid describing the clinical purpose or regulatory pathway as the core of the project — describe the technical development work itself.
Get started
Manna is built to recognise qualifying R&D in HealthTech and MedTech projects and draft the application from your technical description — so you submit a strong application in about 90 minutes.
See RVO.nl/wbso for the official conditions.
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