Two roundtable events during the Conservative and Labour Party Conferences brought together leaders to discuss the top priorities to bolster the North’s thriving health research ecosystem. 

In October 2023, the Northern Health Science Alliance and Health Equity North (HEN) hosted roundtable discussions at both the Conservative and Labour Party Conference on ‘Building the UK Life Sciences Supercluster: how health innovation clusters across the UK can support the 21st century NHS.’ 

The roundtable events included MPs and health leaders as well as representatives from business, regional and local government, and academia who examined the challenges and opportunities of the life sciences sector working for the health and wealth of the UK and an efficient NHS. 

Reports for each event have now been published.  

Click here to access the Conservative Party Conference roundtable report – which included Dr Kath Mackay, Chief Scientific Officer at Bruntwood SciTech, and George Freeman MP, then Minister for Science, Industry and Technology. 

Click here to access the Labour Party Conference roundtable report – which included Chi Onwurah MP, Shadow Minister for Shadow Minister Science Research and Innovation, Peter Dowd MP for Bootle and Liz Twist MP for Blaydon. 

The reports summarise the key areas of discussion and outline how together can we continue to ensure UK research and innovation is world-leading, the role of anchor institutions in strengthening and growing superclusters and how Mayoral Authorities are key in developing the UK’s life sciences supercluster.   

The roundtable discussions highlighted key priority areas that will support health innovation in the North of England, including: 

• Decentralising funding and localism 
• Anchor institutions as Economic Drivers 
• Research to Innovation 
• Funding Mechanisms  
• Collaboration and Connectivity  
• The Workforce and Skills Agenda  
• Utilising Anchor Institutions as Economic Drivers 

More information about how our partners and supporters can help this challenge, is available within the reports. 

A special thanks goes to all our attendees from: 

• University of Liverpool 
• NIHR Manchester BRC 
• Tony Blair Institute for Global Change 
• NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre 
• NP11 
• Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) 
• Stephenson Mohl 
• University of Leeds 
• Roche Diagnostics UK & Ireland 
• Newcastle University 
• Scientists for Labour 
• BioIndustry Association 
• Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust 
• The University of Manchester 
• LifeArc 
• Health Equity North