News

Yorkshire & Humber AHSN welcomes the news that the Olympic Legacy Park in Sheffield has unveiled several health care, regeneration and sporting projects totalling more than £200m investment. 

Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park is a collaborative partnership of organisations with a vested interest in improving physical activity and wellbeing and a commitment to harnessing the power of research and innovation to deliver transformational change. Yorkshire & Humber AHSN is proud to be one of seven member organisations. 

The flagship developments announced last week – including a National Centre for Child Health Technology and ground–breaking diagnostic imagery research hub – are set to place Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park at the heart of the nation’s future health.  

A forward investment Master Plan which could generate over 5,600 high value jobs will also ensure the Park will play a major role in the post-pandemic and post-Brexit economy of Sheffield and the Sheffield City Region and positively impact on the Government’s levelling-up agenda.   

The plans were unveiled at a virtual conference attended by over 150 major national and regional figures across health and wellbeing, politics, property and investment, business and sport. 

The planned National Centre for Child Health Technology (CCHT) will be the first of its kind in the world and will position the UK as a global leader in paediatrics and child health. 

It aims to develop technology to address key national strategic priorities in child health including childhood obesity, child and adolescent mental health, long term conditions and prevention. 

Prof. Paul Dimitri, Professor of Child Health and Director of Research and Innovation at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said:  

“Investing in the health and healthcare of children and young people makes sense – our future in fact depends on it.

“The CCHT will create over 100 high value jobs, and its co-location with the Oasis School and University Technical College will provide research and employment opportunities in the future.

“Overall, we predict that the CCHT alone will generate £30m in research funding, attract £50m in private sector investment and will deliver over £200m in savings to the NHS in the next 10 years.”

Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park was set up after the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to deliver whole population improvements in health and wellbeing.

Bringing together expertise from academia, elite sport, the NHS, and public and private sector organisations, the Park is creating a cluster of life sciences assets including research centres, business incubators, educational facilities and laboratories for collaborative research and innovation in health and wellbeing.

A year ago, Sheffield Hallam University’s £14m Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC) opened at the heart of Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park.

The showcase centre features world-class facilities for multi-disciplinary researchers to carry out research on health and physical activity in collaboration with the private sector, charities and the community, with a focus on taking services and products from concept to market.

Despite COVID, the AWRC has welcomed a full-house of 24 start-up business from across the world to its £900,000 Wellbeing Accelerator programme and today announced expansion of its long-COVID recovery project and plans for new research into the role of exercise in cancer care.

Prof Rob Copeland, AWRC Director, said: 

“The Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park is perhaps the best physical representation of the ideals of a health legacy from the Olympic Games anywhere in the world. The Park brings together community, physical activity, research, education, sport, technology and innovation to transform health and wellbeing. 

“The importance of the nation’s health and wellbeing and its links to economic prosperity has never been more obvious. With the assets and partners located on Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, we are well positioned to lead the research and innovation agenda to improve the health and wellbeing of our nation.”

Richard Stubbs, CEO of Yorkshire & Humber AHSN and director of the Olympic Legacy Park Board said:  

“The Olympic Legacy Park is hugely important to our region. Sheffield City Region has the potential to be a national leader in the health and life sciences sector and the OLP is at the centre of those ambitions. The latest announcements are a great indication of the scale of opportunity to be realised, and we’re proud to be a member of the OLP’s leadership team. The next stage of our development of the OLP is going to be very exciting indeed”.

Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park Ltd members are:

• Sheffield City Councill
• Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Sheffield Hallam University
• Sheffield City Trust
• Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
• South Yorkshire & Bassetlaw Integrated Care System
• Yorkshire & Humber AHSN 

Find out more about the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park