Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin, and Leeds City Councillor, Helen Hayden, have visited Leeds Teaching Hospitals’ Old Medical School to give their support to the ‘flagship project’ of the £180 million West Yorkshire Healthtech and Digital Technology zone.
There they met with the Trust’s Chair, Dame Linda Pollard, and Chief Executive, Professor Phil Wood, to see first-hand the vision for transforming the approx. 7,000 m2 Old Medical School building, with its long history of medical innovation, into a ‘healthtech innovation hub’ as the first phase of the Innovation Village.
The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust explains that the new Healthtech Innovation Hub is ‘the exciting first phase’ of the Trust’s one million ft2 Leeds Innovation Village on the site of Leeds General Infirmary, the catalyst of which is the construction of the Trust’s new digital hospital on the same site. The Trust describes the Innovation Village as a ‘transformational’ health and life science-led development in Leeds City Centre, which will deliver 4,000 new jobs and up to a £13 bn economic boost for the region. It said: “A pivotal part of the city’s Innovation Arc, it will enable innovation that creates a healthier, greener, and inclusive future for Leeds, the region, and across the globe.”
The Trust is currently progressing ‘a restricted marketing process’ to select a developer for the Old Medical School, to be appointed this May.
Dame Linda Pollard, Chair of the Leeds Innovation Partnership said: “I am delighted the Old Medical School has been chosen to be the flagship project for the West Yorkshire Healthtech and Digital Technology zone, and it is great to see our vision for a leading Healthtech Innovation hub get this boost.
“The Healthtech Innovation Hub will uniquely co-locate clinicians, entrepreneurs, and academics for the first time, and provide space for scale-ups and start-ups. Running alongside the Trust’s new state-of-the-art hospitals of the future, this infrastructure for the city really will be a hotbed of innovative thinking, collaboration, and development, bringing life-changing benefits for patients being treated in Leeds, and impressive economic benefits for the city and wider region.”
Pictured, left to right, are Councillor Helen Hayden, West Yorkshire Mayor, Tracy Brabin, and Dame Linda Pollard, Chair of the Leeds Innovation Partnership and of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
