Work set to begin on Birmingham Health Innovation Campus

Birmingham City Council has granted planning permission for a health innovation campus in Selly Oak, which will be designed for life science businesses, with a focus on those working in medtech, precision medicine, biopharma and digital healthcare.   

Phase one will include a home for the University of Birmingham’s Precision Health Technologies Accelerator (PHTA), providing innovation and incubation spaces for businesses to engage with academics and clinicians, bringing together capabilities in diagnostics, data, clinical trials and medical technologies. 

According to developer Bruntwood, the campus will help the West Midlands capitalise on the UK’s emerging healthtech sector, which attracted £1.12bn in investment in 2020.

Companies located at the campus will benefit from high-quality lab and office space, and access to a fully connected clinical trials translation ecosystem at the region’s NHS Trusts. The campus will also offer a range of additional facilities including a cafe, indoor and outdoor event space, meeting rooms, cycle storage and car parking.

David Hardman, Managing Director, Bruntwood SciTech – Birmingham, said: “The response since announcing the development of Birmingham Health Innovation Campus, in partnership with the University of Birmingham, has been extremely positive. It’s clear that this is being seen as a real milestone in the evolution of the West Midlands as a health innovation and connected healthcare technologies powerhouse. 

“The region has all the raw ingredients the sector needs – world-class universities, a number of specialist NHS Trusts, quality infrastructure and a growing cluster of SMEs – to support the journey from early R&D to manufacture and market adoption of new health products and services.”

Professor Tim Jones, University of Birmingham Provost and Vice-Principal, commented: “With the UK beginning a cautious easing of COVID-19 restrictions, this announcement could not be more timely. The speed at which the University and our NHS partners were able to mobilise against the pandemic is indicative of our collaborative and innovative approach to life sciences and medical technologies – an approach which businesses working with us at Birmingham Health Innovation Campus will benefit greatly from.”