The Grow MedTech launch event will be headlined by Dr Victoria Betton, founder of mHabitat who will join us in Leeds to present her talk ‘Human-Centred Design and Digital Convergence’.
Dr Victoria Betton and mHabitat
Dr Victoria Betton is an accomplished academic, entrepreneur, author and owner of Bibi the Pets as Therapy dog.
Dr Betton undertook her PhD studying mental health and online social networks at the Institute of Communications Studies in the University of Leeds. Her research explored the relationship between institutions such as mainstream media and healthcare with mental health stigma and discrimination.
During her PhD Dr Betton founded mHabitat, initially as a small project to scope the value of digital technologies across two NHS Trusts in Leeds.
The scope of mHabitat’s goals quickly expanded to bringing patients, citizens and practitioners together with digital innovators, health tech companies and academia to design, develop, deploy and evaluate digital tools that really make a difference.
Since mHabitat’s founding in 2014, they have gone on to foster many highly successful collaborations between digital innovators, charities, NHS and government bodies throughout the UK.
Dr Betton is regularly invited to speak and inspire audiences fascinated with healthtech, technology innovation and the links between digital technology and mental health. As such, her insights into motivating collaboration in the context of user centered design are set to inspire our audience in the potential of digital convergence opportunities.
To register your place at the launch event, please visit the event webpage.
This guide explains how temporary placement of academic, industrial, clinical and other collaborators on a shorter-term basis, with a small amount of budget, can lead
to significant innovation and knowledge exchange outcomes.
View our animated secondment scheme guide on your device:
Big innovation, small budget: Running a successful secondment scheme animation (opens interactive guide in a new tab or window)
Download and print the PDF of our secondment scheme guide.
As a Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation (KEC) practitioner, you translate research outcomes into products and services that have an economic and social impact, often with tight budget constraints. You know that this isn’t always straightforward.
Gaining fresh perspectives and new approaches for research is at the heart of successful innovation.
The second part of this guide is a case study of our successful secondment scheme.
Since the secondment scheme launch in 2016, Translate has funded 45 secondments with destinations to academia, industry and healthcare settings.
Prepare, publicise, support and evaluate to innovate:
Prepare:
Set out your aims
Identify your participants
Allocate your budget
Publicise:
Prepare the information
Choose your audience friendly channels
Channel your success
Support:
Give prompt feedback
Broker relationships
Target opportunities
Provide post-secondment support
Evaluate:
Through feedback from participants and hosts
Download and adapt our secondment scheme toolkit, which includes:
Download the secondment scheme toolkit (opens a Word doc)
Download and print the PDF of our secondment scheme guide (opens a PDF doc)
Translate has secured funding until the end of 2020 to continue to support innovation in medical technologies in the Leeds City Region. This funding will be used to continue supporting Translate activities which have demonstrated success throughout the duration of the program.
Activities available will include:
Translate activities will be advertised through our new regional medtech innovation programme, Grow MedTech. Until then, you can keep up to date with opportunities through our social media pages using the links below or sign up to our mailing list.
For any further information, contact Lisa Hill: l.hill1@leeds.ac.uk
A delegation of industry leaders from Leeds headed to Boston in America to strengthen and develop links between the two cities.
Building on visits to Leeds from delegates from Greater Boston in recent years, the trip took place between July 25-27 and was managed by Leeds City Council, with chief executive Tom Riordan being joined by a range of senior Leeds figures from a range of industries including education, medtech, health innovation and fintech.
During the Leeds-Boston Mission the group – including Translate Technology Innovation Manager, Danielle Miles – met with world-leading experts in those fields based in Boston, promoting mutual opportunities for investment in both cities and sharing ideas and insight.
The visit also aimed to raise the profile of Leeds and establish new partnerships in trade, investment, academia and government relations. It is part of a drive for Leeds to develop relationships across the world with global centres of excellence like Boston, which has similar characteristics and economic strengths as Leeds.
With Leeds having been announced in May as being chosen for the prestigious Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (REAP) leadership programme run by the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), members of the delegation carried out an initial meeting with the REAP team.
This follows an event hosted by the University of Leeds and the British Consul General in Boston Harriet Cross, where Leeds formally accepted its place on the programme.
The programme offered the team expert, evidence-based insight about potential ways of driving economic growth and accelerating the impact of projects like the University of Leeds’ new innovation centre, Nexus, which will act as a catalyst to make the region more attractive to growing businesses.
Previous international trade missions have proved highly successful in attracting major new inward investment into Leeds, with one leading example being the multi-million-pound investment from the Chinese Hualing Industry and Trade Group into Thorpe Park announced in 2015.
Leader of Leeds City Council Councillor Judith Blake said:
“This delegation heading to Boston is very important for Leeds as we are keen to continue building and developing new and stronger relationships around the world, raising the profile of Leeds on a global level and encouraging investment and innovation here to drive jobs and growth and opportunities for all.
“Boston is similar to Leeds as a city, with its world-leading education, medtech and innovation focus matching our own strengths, so there is much we can learn from each other as we look to establish a strong long-term relationship boosted by our participation in MIT’s REAP programme.”
Chief executive of Leeds City Council Tom Riordan said:
“The Boston and Leeds economies are quite similar – world-leading universities, strengths in financial, healthcare and data technologies and the beautiful hinterlands of New Hampshire and Yorkshire respectively. We want to learn how Boston has complemented New York so we can make Leeds do the same with London. The University of Leeds/MIT partnership will allow us to learn alongside eight regions across the world and open up new opportunities for our businesses, academics and policymakers.
“As the UK leaves the European Union, Leeds isn’t waiting for national bodies to decide what we should do. We are taking our own initiative to open up new markets and relationships with like-minded city leaders across the world.”
University of Leeds Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation, Professor Lisa Roberts, who is the Leeds team champion for the REAP, said:
“The university is delighted to be leading the MIT programme. The MIT programme will for the first time bring senior stakeholders from Leeds together, to work towards a strategic plan and actions to drive economic growth and opportunity in the region. It also gives us the chance to learn from teams from regions across the world. So this is our chance, as a collective force, to make a real difference to the region.”
The Leeds in Boston visit has been sponsored by DLA Piper and Virgin Atlantic, with public sector delegates paying for their own travel, accommodation and related expenses. The visit has also received support from the British Consulate in Boston and its DIT experts, and from British expatriates and University of Leeds alumni based in Boston.
Notes to editors:
The list of Leeds delegates who attended the Leeds-Boston Mission is as follows:
To see more information about Leeds taking part in the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (REAP) leadership programme, visit https://news.leeds.gov.uk/leeds-city-team-to-reap-rewards-from-mit-leadership-programme/ or to see the regions taking part visit http://reap.mit.edu/community/cohort-6/