Healthy cooperation: how northern universities are linking with NHS trusts to drive innovation

The Daphne Steele building at the University of Huddersfield is a collaboration between the university and the local NHS trust. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

Huddersfield might appear an unlikely setting for a thriving health research complex. The West Yorkshire town is best known for its manufacturing heritage, but has quickly become a honey pot for private sector businesses keen to collaborate with the town’s university in a push for the latest medical breakthroughs.

Next month, the driving force behind the University of Huddersfield’s national health innovation campus, Prof Liz Towns-Andrews, expects to get the go-ahead for the third of seven planned eco-buildings for research and tech development clustered near the town centre.