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Boosting Health Innovation in Northern England Huddersfield might appear an unlikely setting for a thriving health research complex, but the West Yorkshire town has quickly become a hub for private sector businesses keen to collaborate with the town’s university in a push for the latest medical breakthroughs. The University of Huddersfield's Health Innovation Campus Next month, Prof Liz Towns-Andrews, the driving force behind the University of Huddersfield’s national health innovation campus, expects to get the go-ahead for the third of seven planned eco-buildings for research and tech development clustered near the town centre. The project, fuelled by a mix of private and public finance, provides a model for the UK’s universities as they tackle ailing balance sheets. With Oxford and Cambridge well established as hubs for medical and biotech spin-outs, other universities are working with health trusts and councils to further research and support local economies. Financial Impact of University-Trust Partnerships A recent report by the University of East London (UEL), which examined the accounts of 160 universities, found that almost 40 were near bankruptcy and had just two months of cash in the bank. However, Huddersfield had an operating surplus of about £10m in the 2024-25 financial year and is far from going bust. Improving Regional Productivity and Health By contrast, Huddersfield’s health innovation campus boasts another new idea – Britain’s first community diagnostic centre on a university campus, developed in partnership with Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust. Prof Towns-Andrews has insisted all the buildings be constructed to meet green and health benchmarks – known as the Well standard – that will rank them in the top 50 worldwide. One of her aims is to raise the region’s dire levels of worker productivity. “Yorkshire and Humberside has one of the lowest outputs per hour in England, which makes it among the worst places for productivity.” Future Outlook for Health Innovation As a sign of Britain’s industrial revival, the opening in Manchester next year of a FTSE 100 health company’s research and development centre provides a clear sense of direction. Convatec, a profitable manufacturer of specialist surgical pads, said last year it had put Manchester – alongside its other R&D; site in Boston, Massachusetts – as the twin centres of its global operations. Prof Tony Young, the national clinical director for innovation in NHS England, says Donald Trump’s chaotic attitude to business has also encouraged US health companies to back research in the UK. Rachel Reeves has played a part too, he says, funding biotech and health as a cornerstone of the government’s industrial policy.