The Northern Health Science Alliance has been awarded £2.9m by Higher Education Funding Council England’s (HEFCE) Catalyst Fund.
The NHSA, a partnership established by universities, NHS Hospital Trusts and Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) in the north of England, will use the funding to support operations over the next five years.
Dr Hakim Yadi, CEO of the Northern Health Science Alliance, commented: “We’re extremely delighted to have received this latest funding from HEFC.
“By working pro-actively with industry to drive economic growth of the region through leveraging unique investment from overseas investors and venture capital seeking UK universities as innovation partners, we hope to increase the number of clinical trials as well as commercial research income across the north.”
The new funding will allow the NHSA to employ a team spread across the major population centres in the north of England, who will work to secure novel models of industrial funding and seek private sector investment in support of its research activities and innovative partnerships.
David Sweeney, HEFCE Director for Research, Education and Knowledge Exchange, said: “This is an exciting development which complements other activity HEFCE has supported in the North as well as our investment in MedCity in London and the South East.
“The relationship between higher education and life sciences is an important one, particularly the potential to unlock other investment across both public and private sectors and to drive innovation. We look forward to working with the project.”
The awarded funding was secured by Newcastle University, which is a founding member of the NHSA and holds a position on the NHSA Board.
The northern clinical academic institutions have generated around 220 patents in the last decade. The north of England has over 1,000 life science businesses, supports approximately 38,000 high skilled jobs and has a turnover of £10.8bn thanks to science and technology.