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Catalysing regional innovation

Date

The city of Leeds at night, with the clock tower of the town hall on the right. The sun is setting and there are streetlights and car headlights on the roads.

The University of Leeds is driving regional innovation and economic growth through a place-based approach, leveraging research and innovation expertise, student talent, and collaborative partnerships. The Innovation Arc, a West Yorkshire Investment Zone innovation district, is a key example.

Collaborating with the Local Authority, West Yorkshire Combined Authority, the NHS, Further Education and Higher Education Institutions across the region, the Leeds Innovation Partnership will boost the city’s ambition to deliver innovation that creates a healthier, greener and inclusive future for Leeds, the region and across the globe, and will create a talent pipeline at the forefront of technological advances.

Key information

  • Major funders: Leeds City Council, West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Michael Beverley Innovation Fellowship, Northern Gritstone
  • Partners and collaborators: Leeds City Council, West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Leeds NHS Teaching Hospital Trust, Network Rail, Future Talent Leeds, Nexus Leeds, Climb UK, Luminate Group, Leeds Beckett University, Conception X
  • Disciplines: business, HealthTech, civic engagement.

At the heart of our approach are innovation clusters, which concentrate expertise and resources to accelerate innovation and address societal challenges.

A new HealthTech innovation hub, in collaboration with the Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust and regional partners, will bring together entrepreneurs, businesses, clinicians and academics, creating 4,000 new jobs and an economic boost of up to £13bn for the region.

Such opportunities for inclusive growth will benefit our communities across the region, whilst working to innovate patient care across the NHS.

More broadly, the University is contributing to the regional innovation ecosystem by:

  • Developing a roadmap to strengthen key clusters: Co-developed an action framework to support the delivery of long-term sustainable growth across a regional portfolio through seed funding, upskilling and early-stage support.
  • Supporting diverse start-ups that solve societal challenges: Nexus, our innovation hub, has helped build a community of over 130 businesses that have raised £117.3m of private investment and secured £34.15m of grant funding, yielding a return on investment of £1.92 for every £1.
  • Engaging in challenge-led activities with partners: A West Yorkshire Mayoral Innovation Challenge led in partnership with Nesta. The innovative programme provides SMEs, entrepreneurs and start-ups with a real-world, West Yorkshire-based challenge and the task of developing a new product, service, or technology to address that problem with support and mentoring.
  • Designing interventions to support start-up validation: Piloting a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) validation approach with a global leader in corporate accelerators and Leeds Beckett University.
  • Developing a diverse and inclusive community of entrepreneurial innovators and researchers, already exceeding 400:
    • The Innovative Entrepreneurs programme is part of the Mayor of West Yorkshire's £6 million Enterprise West Yorkshire initiative, offering action learning to 75 diverse founders with innovative, high-impact ideas, delivered by 12 regional partners.
    • A partnership with the UK’s leading PhD deeptech venture programme, Conception X, unlocks the potential of scientific discoveries emerging from 15 researchers within the Leeds postgraduate research community and turns them into investable technologies.
    • The Michael Beverley Innovation Fellowship has supported over 65 researchers on their innovation and entrepreneurial journey with an intensive 9-month development programme providing a space to test and share their ideas and overcome challenges.
  • Generating risk equity for investment in the North: The establishment of Northern Gritstone, founded jointly by the University of Leeds, is a powerful force for commercialising University spinouts and science and technology businesses, creating a leading ecosystem of support and funding. With investment expected to reach £500m, it will generate significant wealth to flow back into the economy of the North of England.

These efforts are laying the groundwork for an accelerator hub that will showcase the University's unique role in fostering innovation ecosystems.

By convening diverse stakeholders and aligning research strengths with regional priorities, the University of Leeds is catalysing innovation-driven entrepreneurship, inclusive economic growth and societal impact across the region.