Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust names preferred developer to Old Medical School into health tech innovation hub

A spokesman said: “The Innovation Village is a transformational project encompassing more than 2.2m sq ft of development which will create up to 4,000 new jobs, more than 500 new homes and an economic boost of £13bn for West Yorkshire. As part of its proposal, SGI has set out plans to create a ‘health-tech ecosystem’ at the Old Medical School to encourage collaboration between clinicians, academics, researchers and entrepreneurs, supporting start-ups and scale-ups to grow and help transform the future of healthcare.”

The planned development would build on the success of the trust’s Innovation Pop-Up, founded in 2021 to provide a mechanism for new and established businesses to partner with one of the UK’s largest teaching hospitals. Completed in 1894, the original red-brick building was designed by Leeds architect WH Thorp as the home of one of the first provincial medical schools in England. The building currently houses the trust’s pathology department, which is relocating to the Centre for Laboratory Medicine at St James’s University Hospital. West Yorkshire Combined Authority has provisionally identified the Old Medical School as a major project set to benefit from the £160m West Yorkshire Investment Zone. The project is expected to create 237 jobs.

The site is within the Innovation Arc, a series of connected neighbourhoods formed around Leeds General Infirmary, University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds Arts University and the city’s West End.

“Together we will create a health tech innovation hub that helps clinicians, researchers and entrepreneurs turn the latest scientific advances into successful new products and services that can improve health outcomes and drive economic growth.

“The Old Medical School has a proud history as a place of learning for past generations of surgeons and doctors and an exciting future as a hub for future generations of health tech innovators.”

Mark Jackson, group development director at SGI, commented: “On behalf of SGI, we are immensely proud to have been selected as Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s preferred developer and partner for the transformation of the Old Medical School into a cutting-edge, health-tech innovation hub.”

The trust’s development director Victoria Critchley said it was a “really exciting day” for health care in West Yorkshire.

She added: “West Yorkshire is well placed to benefit from health tech given its strengths and the high levels of graduate retention.”