Pursuing excellence – an independent analysis of Leeds’ health and care research and innovation.

This independent report, commissioned by Leeds Academic Health Partnership (LAHP), analyses the strengths and opportunities within the Leeds health and care research and innovation ecosystem. Benchmarking these against similar UK and international cities, the report shows that Leeds is a leading UK location for health and care research and innovation and is already competing internationally as a vibrant healthtech hub.

March 2024

Top findings

Strong, long-term commitment to health and care research and innovation

1 A centre for health and care research and innovation since the early 1900s.

2 A clear priority for policy development over the past 20 years.

3 A more vibrant and better-connected ecosystem than ever before.

A national magnet for health and care research and innovation funding

4 More than £200m in health and care research and innovation awards.

5 Almost £80m in NIHR funding for research and infrastructure since 2018.

6 Home to six of the nine NIHR translational research centres and initiatives across West Yorkshire.

At the innovation heart of a growing healthtech industry sector as home to

7 More than half of all regional healthtech businesses. (144 of 250).

8 All of the top 10 investment raising companies.

9 Nine of the top 10 investors in research and development.

An increasingly attractive location for national and international investment

10 Ranked 2nd internationally for private investment in innovative wellness companies.

11 £12m in foreign direct investment by healthtech software, IT and AI companies.

12 Ranked 3rd internationally as a location for healthtech companies.

Strong collaborative leadership

National magnet for health and care R&I funding

Top UK city for health and care research funding (£200m)

Home to the region’s top investment raising companies

Ranks 3rd internationally as a healthtech hub

Leeds is a big city region, but it still has a strong community and a good healthtech scene – so you have the benefit of both scale and community. North-South connectivity is also good; it only takes a couple of hours to get to London from Leeds [and] the local universities are great [they’ve been] very pro-active when it comes to AI and data science internships.”

Recommendations

The report identifies the following opportunities for strengthening health research and innovation in Leeds.

Further strengthen coordination and unity for research and innovation across the ecosystem.
Extend support for businesses to scale up, strengthening awareness of investment opportunities.
Involve the private sector more in designing start-up and scale-up support.
Continue to facilitate and extend cross-system clinical research and innovation opportunities.
Provide citywide support to increase level of research and innovation funding to help solve the hardest health challenges.

Methodology

Research conducted to inform the report included:

Desk-based review of more than 20 local and national health, research and economic development strategies and policies.
Extensive data collection regarding the health and social care research and innovation ecosystem, combining proprietary data sources and web-intelligence. Data was used to produce a series of benchmarks.
Structured in-depth interviews with 20 executive-level strategic research and innovation ecosystem stakeholders from across West Yorkshire, and 15 health technology businesses with headquarters in Leeds and elsewhere nationally and internationally.
Additional thematic research to inform development of eight case studies reflective of prominent ecosystem strengths.