Yorkshire’s med tech sector receives boost through new partnership

A partnership which will bolster Yorkshire’s medical technology sectors has been launched to bring products to market. 

The Grow MedTech partnership, backed by £9.5m of funding, will build on the distinctive cluster of medical technologies expertise in the Leeds and Sheffield city regions. It will address issues that can block the process of commercialising products and bringing them from conception to clinical use.

Six northern universities are among more than 20 partners in the three year project, which is led by the University of Leeds. Other participants include the local enterprise partnerships serving both city regions, National Institute of Health Research organisations, councils and chambers of commerce.

 

The partnership expects to bring about 20 potentially life-enhancing devices into everyday use during the next three years. The process will include taking the business risk out of early stage projects and providing proof of commercial concept funding, giving investors and businesses confidence that they have a realistic chance of success.

Dr Josephine Dixon-Hardy of University of Leeds is leading the delivery of the partnership. She said: “We are bringing the best minds in engineering, biology, design and manufacturing together with industry to improve the quality of life for people across the world.

“Our region already has an acknowledged reputation as a leader in this field – we plan to consolidate and extend that and provide the underpinning support needed to take new inventions through the important regulatory and testing processes needed to get them to market.”

Professor John Bridgeman, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Transfer) at the University of Bradford added: “We warmly welcome Research England’s support for connecting our distinctive strengths in research, development and innovation with those of our partners in Leeds, Huddersfield, Sheffield and York and we are greatly looking forward to participating in the Grow Med Tech consortium.

“We share common cause: to accelerate and maximise the benefits of innovation in health, care and medical technology for citizens in our region and across the world, and for companies across Yorkshire. This project is a great example of how collaboration between Yorkshire’s universities, including, for example, Bradford’s Digital Health Enterprise Zone, can offer improved health standards for everyone at the same time as boosting local jobs and economic growth.”

Grow MedTech will be supported through Nexus, the University of Leeds’ innovation and enterprise centre, which is due to open in September.

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