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£10m to take Yorkshire’s medical technologies expertise to the world

Posted on 10 April 2018

Solving the challenges which hamper Yorkshire’s medical technology experts when they attempt to bring innovative products to market is the focus of a new partnership which aims to make inventions more attractive to investors.

Six northern universities are among more than 20 partners in the three year project

The Grow MedTech partnership, backed by almost £10m of funding from the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) and project partners, 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 includes the Universities of York, Leeds and Sheffield. Other supporters include the local enterprise partnerships, National Institute of Health Research organisations, councils and chambers of commerce.

Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Partnerships and Knowledge Exchange, Professor Jon Timmis, said: “The Grow MedTech programme is intended to bring together the extensive resources in Leeds and Sheffield to stimulate a more dynamic medical technology community. 

“This will help UK companies to forecast market growth opportunities of between £10 and £30 billion per annum for UK industry in the next five years.” 

New products

By supporting and financially backing researchers and developers to take new products through the early stages of commercial development, the partnership expects to bring around 20 potentially life-enhancing devices into everyday use during the next three years. 

This 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. It will also support clinical evaluation to secure regulatory approval, essential for them to be commercialised. 

Dr Josephine Dixon-Hardy, Director of Medical Technologies Innovation at the University of Leeds, said: “We are bringing the best minds in engineering, biological development, design and manufacture together with industry to drive products into everyday use 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.” 

Future health

Previous research has identified that the most significant trend in future health care product innovation is the combination of different technologies. The partnership will pay particular attention to supporting this area of growth. 

Examples of technological convergence include connecting robotics and medical imaging systems to automate surgical procedures, and digital health and smart drug delivery services.

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