Viv Kendrick - Councillor for Kirklees (Heckmondwike)

Huddersfield Health Innovation Incubator Programme

From: Cabinet - Tuesday 2nd December 2025 1.30 pm - December 02, 2025

West Yorkshire Combined Authority has agreed to provide the Council with grant funding totalling £2,023,576.25 via the Government’s Industrial Strategy Zone programme to deliver the Huddersfield Health Innovation Incubator (HHII) programme, in partnership with the University of Huddersfield and the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre. The HHII programme will create wrap around support for businesses in the health, wellbeing and digital sectors that are seeking to start-up or scale up. It will deliver tailored start-up support, workspaces, events and networking activity and create a thriving community of businesses, academics, clinicians and other professionals focused on supporting and embedding innovation across our health and care systems. The programme builds on previous, successful UKSPF-funded projects including the Council-led Thrive initiative for health and wellbeing start-ups and will complement and add value to the groundbreaking National Health Innovation Campus programme. The proposed decision is to · accept external funding of £2,023,576.25 from West Yorkshire Combined Authority · enter into grant funding agreements with the Council’s delivery partners the University of Huddersfield and it’s subsidiary company the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre · facilitate the commencement and award of any related procurement exercises. A range of stakeholders have been consulted on the extension of the Huddersfield Health Innovation Incubator programme including West Yorkshire Combined Authority. There is ongoing engagement with delivery partners and service users to shape delivery of the programme.