While challenges across the NHS dominate headlines, Leeds is spearheading a revolution in healthcare innovation. <\/p>\n
As head of business development and innovation at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, I could fill my calendar every week with people wanting to learn what we\u2019re doing here.<\/p>\n
Four years ago, the trust made a strategic decision. While research had long been the organisation\u2019s bread and butter, innovation needed stronger foundations. <\/p>\n
We recognised that supporting new ideas and industry partnerships couldn\u2019t rely on sporadic connections \u2013 it needed coordination, infrastructure, and most importantly, a physical home.<\/p>\n
Enter the Innovation Pop-Up, based in the historic Gilbert Scott building and launched in late 2021, as both a space and a statement of intent. It created a front door for industry partnerships and a platform for developing an innovation culture within one of the UK\u2019s largest teaching hospitals, supporting the trust\u2019s Hospitals of the Future programme<\/a> to build state-of-the-art healthcare facilities. <\/p>\n Recently refurbished with support from industry and charity partners, the pop-up has become a catalyst for collaboration between NHS staff and commercial partners.<\/p>\n The pop-up\u2019s success builds on Leeds\u2019 established strengths in healthcare research. In partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the country\u2019s largest funder of healthcare research, the trust hosts a Clinical Research Facility (CRF) running over 100 early-stage clinical trials, a Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) , and the HealthTech Research Centre.<\/p>\n The NIHR BRC and NIHR CRF recently received a \u00a34.28 million boost to expand their innovative work. These resources form part of a growing innovation network that extends from local partnerships to collaborations with organisations across Europe and the Middle East.<\/p>\n This momentum is shifting into a higher gear. <\/p>\n The trust has partnered with Scarborough Group International to transform its historic Old Medical School<\/a> \u2013 one of England\u2019s first provincial medical schools, completed in 1894 \u2013 into a globally recognised healthtech innovation hub.<\/p>\n We recognised that supporting new ideas and industry partnerships needed coordination, infrastructure, and most importantly, a physical home<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Beyond preserving this Victorian landmark, the redevelopment will create an ecosystem where clinicians, academics, researchers and entrepreneurs can collaborate in laboratories, co-working spaces and communal areas designed to spark the kind of serendipitous interactions that often lead to breakthroughs.<\/p>\n The hub is the first phase of the ambitious Innovation Village project \u2013 a 2.2m sq ft development that promises 4,000 new jobs and a \u00a313bn economic boost for West Yorkshire. <\/p>\n\n
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