10,000 jobs to be created through Midlands healthtech campus

A new healthcare technologies campus is to be established in Birmingham with an aim of creating thousands of jobs and bolstering the UK’s position in life sciences.

Birmingham Health Innovation Campus will support health and life science businesses throughout their growth and provide a focal point for inward investment in the region’s healthcare cluster.

The campus is being developed through a partnership between the University of Birmingham and life sciences property provider, Bruntwood SciTech.

The hub is intended to support to support the government’s strategy for place-based investment and to drive economic growth in the life sciences sector, which currently contributes over £70bn a year to the UK economy.

Up to 10,000 new jobs are expected to be created through the development of Birmingham Health Innovation Campus. More so, the regional economy will generate an additional £400 GVA by 2030 as part of a £210m investment into a 10-year plan which will provide up to 657,000 sq ft of state-of-the-art lab, office and incubation space.

The campus’ 10-are site has already received development funding. The first phase of development includes a new 133,000 sq ft purpose built six-storey building which will be home to the University’s Precision Health Technologies Accelerator (PHTA) - providing incubation space, wet and dry labs, clean rooms, prototyping and maker space - and includes the Birmingham Precision Medicine Centre and Healthcare Technologies Innovation Hub. 

The hub should also attract larger SMEs and commercial businesses across. medtech, biopharma, precision medicine, healthcare AI, and genomics, with the opportunity of accessing a fully connected clinical trials translation ecosystem; working with academic and clinical leaders; and scaling innovations for adoption into the market.  

The campus will sit within the cluster health excellence led Birmingham Health Partners (BHP), a strategic alliance between the University of Birmingham, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and the Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr David Hardman, managing director, Bruntwood SciTech- Birmingham, said: “This is a huge opportunity for the UK’s life science sector. By creating an environment that will not only help businesses to form, scale, collaborate and grow, we will establish a new thriving life sciences hub, which will create much needed capacity for the West Midlands and help to attract further international investment to the region and beyond.

“Working alongside Birmingham Health Partners, Birmingham Health Innovation Campus will help to align academic, NHS and industry capabilities. It will also provide additional much-needed world class facilities for pioneering healthcare businesses and will bolster the UK’s position as a life sciences leader on the global stage.”

Professor Tim Jones, University of Birmingham Provost and vice-principal, explained: “With access to Birmingham’s world-class genomics laboratories, health data programmes, healthcare technology development teams, clinical trials leadership and key clinical and academic expertise, Birmingham Health Innovation Campus will become the ideal place for innovative health and life sciences businesses to thrive.

“This ambitious new development will leverage the existing integrated BHP campus to drive innovation and economic growth – all centred on a shared mission to transform the health of all citizens, in Birmingham and beyond, by accelerating the development and adoption of healthcare innovations.”

Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands, added: “Life sciences is an incredibly exciting and important sector that we have been quietly growing in the West Midlands over the last few years. Now with today’s announcement we are cementing our ambition to be one of the global leaders in this sector.

“The timing of this announcement, given the clear current economic challenges, is also critical. By acting as a catalyst for investment, the campus will help to create a significant number of high-quality, well-paid, local jobs for local people.

“Today’s announcement is momentous for the West Midlands. I applaud Birmingham Health Partners and welcome Bruntwood SciTech, and I am pleased to have played my part in making it happen.”