NorthInvest to host Healthtech Investment Summit
Business and academic leaders will come together tomorrow for the Healthtech Investment Summit, hosted by not-for-profit investment platform NorthInvest to promote the Leeds City Region as one of the UK’s innovation hubs.
The event, at Platform in Leeds, will discuss how healthcare and medical technology can play a major role in the region realising its economic potential.
John Fisher, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Leeds and a board director of NorthInvest, is bullish on the sector, and says it could add £1 billion to the region’s economy by 2025: “Medical and health care technologies are a critically important sector in the Leeds City Region and the Yorkshire economy, and the region is recognised as a UK concentration of excellence, with a strong industry base and a track record of innovative applications in the regional healthcare system.”
Adds Fisher: “A strong entrepreneurial and innovative regional investment community is an essential part of these plans to deliver ambitious economic growth and improved healthcare provision and patient outcomes.”
The recently published Leeds City Region Science and Innovation Audit, led by the University of Leeds, supports an increasingly confident outlook. The report outlines the region’s strengths, including a concentration of higher education institutions and colleges producing the largest science, research, engineering and technology workforce outside London; that the Leeds City Region now hosts 22% of UK digital health technology jobs; and that 8.9% of medtech patents submitted by UK inventors originate in the Leeds City Region.
Healthcare and medical technology has emerged as an area of growth for the region’s economy thanks to long-term public and private investment in infrastructure and skills, including from aql. The event aims to continue this trend, outlining opportunities for investment and improving connectivity between stakeholders.
Speakers will include Dr Laura Bond, investment lead at Accelerated Digital Ventures, Dr Simon Graindorge, director of healthcare at IP Group, Professor Gary Shuckford, director at Edenbridge Healthcare, Charlotte Thompson of Knowledge Transfer Network and Dr Ceri Williams, director of research and innovation development at the University of Leeds. Bernard Ginns, director at Branksome Partners, will moderate the debate.
Founded by aql’s Prof. Adam Beaumont, NorthInvest is a Leeds-based not-for-profit, connecting ventures with mentors and investors, and promoting transparent investment in businesses across the North.
The Healthtech Investment Summit is the second event in NorthInvest’s summit series and follows November’s successful #LeedsFintech event.
For more information, visit www.NorthInvest.co.uk.
