CLUSTER NEWS – February 2025
A Call for case studies, please
We constantly need to update our library of case studies of successful HealthTech operations in our region. A strong example, current and on point, can make all the difference when making a case for investment in the West Midlands or support for innovation here.
We aim to showcase your organisation, innovations, and the impact you and we are making in the region through the work of our members.
The case studies we use highlight the successes and contributions of our members, further promoting the HealthTech sector in the West Midlands. This aspect of our work also serves to strengthen our network – and the clustering effect -and it provides a platform for members to share their experiences and achievements.
To contribute to the collection of these case studies, I would like you to email Emma with your details: emma@wmhtc.co.uk You don’t have to do all the work yourself, Emma can take your news and craft the case study, with your input, of course. Once made, the case study is available for your use and for our use, as described above.
CLUSTER’S EVENTS
You will find us at Venturefest – 19 March 2025 at the Eastside Rooms in Birmingham. Do call by our stand and say hello to us.
The roundtable for stakeholders as part of the development of a single Narrative for HealthTech in the West Midlands was held on 20 February – see the Spotlight feature for details.
On 3rd March, I shall be attending the University of Birmingham Digital Health Business Networking Event: How can health data research drive better patient care? I am looking forward to a day of insightful discussions, collaboration, and networking. The event is fully booked.
And you can now register to be part of the West Midlands Business Festival. Taking place from Monday 3 – Friday 14 March 2025, the festival will include an exciting programme of free events put on by business for business. Events will promote growth, collaboration and skills development. You can register for events here
I am helping plan a conference to explore the potential for growth through HealthTech adoption of robotics and automates systems as a member of the new Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) cluster, led by MTC (Manufacturing Technologies Centre). The date is likely to be 10th and 11th June.
I continue to participate in the Growth Company’s training programme on Strategic Relationship Management. The programme is part of a push by the West Midlands as a whole to improve relationships and services for businesses.
Funding Opportunities
1. Sandwell Business Support Roadshow
If you run a business in Sandwell, join Business Growth WM for the latest Information about business support and funding options. Discover practical help for your business growth, gain valuable insights into the grants, initiatives, and resources available to you, and learn about funding options to fuel your business’ success.
This session will be held on Wednesday 5th March 2025, 10:00 – 13:15 (09:30 Registration & Refreshments) at West Bromwich Albion Football Club.
It’s free to attend. Book here
2. Fuel your business growth: through debt funding
Join this online UK Export Academy masterclass to understand the principles of debt financing and how to find the right type for your business to help drive growth.
You’ll learn about the range of debt products available for business owners, gain an understanding of when each of the products is most suitable, and understand what preparation is required to complete an application for debt.
A 1-hour session Tuesday 11 March at 1:00pm. Book here.
3. Sandpit: moving respiratory health diagnosis into the 21st century
Apply for a share of £4M funding to develop new, innovative, multidisciplinary and transformative diagnostic and monitoring approaches to respiratory health and disease in community healthcare settings, drawing in part on engineering and physical sciences (EPS) principles and research.
The first stage is a ‘sandpit’ event. In this five-day in-person event, you will work with other stakeholders to develop ideas for proposals. The EPSRC expects to fund three to five collaborative projects for up to four years, sharing up to £4 million – EPSRC will fund 80% of the full economic cost (FEC).
Application is by completing an expression of interest and the closing date is 20 March, 4pm.
4. Innovation loans – future economy
UK registered businesses can apply for loans for innovative projects with strong commercial potential to significantly improve the UK economy. This is a competitive lending fund of £25 million in loans to micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Innovate UK innovation loans are for highly innovative late stage research and development (R&D) projects with the best potential for the future. There must be a clear route to commercialisation and economic impact.
Your project must lead to innovative new products, processes or services that are significantly ahead of others currently available, or propose an innovative use of existing products, processes or services. It can also involve a new or innovative business model.
Closing dates:
Round 20 will close on 07 May, 11am.
HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES SECTOR NEWS
1. Made in the UK sold to the World Awards 2025
If your business operate in the Healthcare sector, why not apply for the Made in the UK, Sold to the World Awards 2025? You just download a set of questions and write up your answers before entering on an online submission form.
The process is quick and easy and you could unlock a prize package that includes:
- A working capital masterclass with Lloyds Bank
- Free membership to the Chartered Institute of Export and International Trade
- Exclusive reception at the Houses of Parliament
Find out more by clicking here.
Award entries close Sunday 9 March.
2. Kick Start for Health Tech
Kickstart is our early-stage health tech business support programme to take innovators with a health tech idea to the next level. This will help feed businesses into the health tech ecosystem.
We have recruited entrepreneurs for the first cohort of the free-to-access programme of support for HealthTech entrepreneurs and innovators. This is a collaborative effort between West Midlands Health Technologies Cluster (WMHTC) and Birmingham Enterprise Community (BEC), with support from a wide range of our partners and stakeholders.
It’s an excellent opportunity to support aspiring entrepreneurs to gain access to industry leaders, connect with like-minded people and gain practical skills and introductions. With both online and in person events, there is a wealth of knowledge to share to support growth and innovation in our thriving HealthTech sector.
3. HealthTech WM Narrative
The narrative roundtable held on 20th February was a great success. Stakeholders from businesses, universities and government agencies came together to settle on a way forward for our mutual promotion of HealthTech in the West Midlands. I have been tasked with writing a first draft of the narrative for haring with stakeholders and to receive the widest possible input from everyone who has on interest in our success.
Please contact me if you would like to have more details.
I will keep you posted of further developments from here on.
WEST MIDLANDS REGION NEWS
1. West Midlands Digital Skills Survey
Tech WM, in partnership with their West Midlands Digital Skills Consortium partners (West Midlands Combined Authority, IBM UK Ltd., Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, SF Technology, In4.0 Group, AND Digital, and Skills West Midlands and Warwickshire), are seeking the views of business on the digital skills gaps in the region.
Your feedback will help shape how public funding is spent on digital skills training to support local businesses and shape the future of digital skills provision across the region for years to come. Responses will be treated in the strictest confidence and all analysis will be anonymised.
The survey should take approximately 6 minutes to complete.
To encourage responses, entrants can:
- Win a £250 voucher for a local independent restaurant of your choice.
- Gain exclusive access to roundtables, workshops, and executive events.
- Receive complimentary consultancy on digital skills and talent pipelines.
Start the survey here.
2. Business Energy Advisory Service (BEAS)
It has been confirmed that there will be £14M of further funding for what has been for the past two years the West Midlands pilot of a free energy advice service to local businesses. A written audit report making recommendations for becoming more energy-efficient and reducing carbon emissions, for example by switching to renewable energy sources, attracts grants to help pay for the recommended works as well.
I don’t think that the website of Business Growth WM has caught up with this news yet, but information about BEAS can be found on its website here.
3. Made in the UK sold to the Indo Pacific
Join the DBT’s Exports Team in Birmingham for an exclusive, free event focused on helping West Midlands’ based businesses unlock exciting opportunities in Indo-Pacific markets. With the South Asia and Pacific regions set to drive around a quarter of global growth by 2050, now is the perfect time to explore these thriving economies.
You will gain:
- First-hand insights from successful exporters
- Practical advice on overcoming barriers
- 1-2-1 sessions with market and sector experts
This free to attend event will be held on Tues 11 March 09.30hrs – 13.00hrs at University of Birmingham, B15 2TT.
Places are limited, so you must register here.
4. East Birmingham Investment Boost
A £100m investment in a Birmingham regeneration project has been widely welcomed. US company Knighthead has spent the money buying the 48-acre former Birmingham Wheels site in Bordesley and preparing it for regeneration. It plans to build a 60,000-seat stadium for Birmingham City Football Club, which it bought in 2023, on the land in the east of the city, along with sporting facilities, shops and homes.
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL NEWS
1. Smart Machines Strategy 2035
The Smart Machines 2035 Strategy provides a bold roadmap to position the UK as a global leader in robotics and Smart Machines. It emphasizes their transformative potential to address pressing societal challenges, enhance economic productivity, and establish national leadership in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. This 10-year plan builds on the UK’s strengths in research, innovation, and entrepreneurship, laying out strategic goals and actionable steps to unlock the full potential of Smart Machines by 2035.
It is estimated that automation in Health and Social Care could unlock £34.2bn in GVA.
2. Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF)
I am hearing of stirrings in our region’s efforts to mount a realistic bid (or more than one) for funding from the Government’s £520 million LSIMF.
The funding will be UK and sector wide and will provide capital grants for investments in the manufacture of:
- Human medicines (this includes both the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), drug substance and finished products
- Medical diagnostics – for both disease identification and monitoring.
- MedTech products – all types of medical devices related to human health.
The fund will remain open until all the funding has been allocated.
Whilst the applicant has to be a single UK business, I am convinced that a strong and broad collaborative venture is the way to go for a successful application for our region.
3. National Wealth Fund Strategic Partnerships
As well as tailored strategies for each region, ensuring investment matches local needs and drives sustainable growth, the National Wealth Fund will also trial Strategic Partnerships starting in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, West Midlands, and Glasgow City Region. These partnerships will provide enhanced, hands-on support with tailored commercial and financial advice to help regions develop and secure long-term investment opportunities.
You can read more about this announcement here.
4. £60M boost for creative industries
A £60 million package of support to drive growth for creative businesses outside of London has been announced by the Government.
In addition to this public funding, the British Business Bank will increase its support for the sector to help the UK’s Creative Industries realise their full growth potential, while government also launches Soft Power Council to drive investment.
Hundreds of creative businesses and projects across the UK are to receive government funding to help them grow as part of a major boost to the economy – marking the first step of the Government’s Sector Plan for the creative industries. Beneficiaries in the West Midlands include Hollywood Gaming for investment in training solutions harnessing XR and Mindsafe Digital for investment in solutions to support children’s mental wellbeing.
You can read more about this announcement here.
Spotlight on…
HealthTech WM Narrative
Government Departments, Innovate UK, British Business Bank and other significant national and regional players joined HealthTech companies Salts, SCC and Thermo Fisher, representatives from across our network of top-class universities and health trusts in our region to work together on forming a single, powerful narrative which will best lay out the many strengths of health technologies in the West Midlands.
There was great energy and ingenuity in the room – at the modern offices of Mills & Reeve in Birmingham’s City Centre – and huge enthusiasm for the task in hand.
I have been given a lot of work to do by way of follow-up from the session and I shall be reporting back to all the stakeholders who attended as soon as possible.
For this who were not intended, if you would like more details, please contact me and I will send you more details of the proceedings and the decisions made on the day.
For everyone interested in our region’s HealthTech sector, I will keep you posted of developments as we move forward with the production of an impactful narrative to tell our story.
For now, my grateful thanks to all the attendees for your constructive contributions on the day, to Mills & Reeve for a wonderfully well organised event in your offices, to Andy Bass for brilliant facilitation of our discussions, to our Cluster Manager, Emma Yeap, for all your organisation of the event and to WMCA for supporting this project from start to finish.
I hope you enjoy reading my e-bulletin. Feel free to contact me personally with your feedback and suggestions for future activities at david@wmhtc.co.uk
Regards,
Executive Chair.
