New Digital Health Festival in Bradford's City Centre on 29th and 30 June
On 29th and 30th June, a beautiful former textile warehouse in Bradford's Little Germany, owned by the Digital Health Enterprise Zone, will host an exciting new Digital Health and Wellbeing Festival attracting contributors in health, business and academia from around the UK.
New and established businesses, entrepreneurs, health professionals, academics, students and the public are invited to join the passionate and dedicated team at DHEZ in their desire to improve the quality of life for people, carers and families by enabling quick and easy access to the right care and information.
The DHEZ is a £13 million programme to cement the Leeds City Region’s position of leadership in digital health innovation. It’s a partnership led by the University of Bradford, with BT and the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, supported with £3.8m from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. It also houses Digital Catapult Centre Yorkshire - Digital Catapult’s Yorkshire based centre focused on innovation around sharing data.
Trevor Higgins, chair of DHEZ and BT regional partnership director, said: “The festival is another step towards DHEZ connecting and empowering businesses, research, and learning communities to shape a better future of health and care through digital innovations.
"It’s a packed programme of digital health themed talks, workshops and demonstrations from senior DHEZ partners, entrepreneurial students, award-winning start-up businesses, academics with world-renowned research profiles, senior health professionals, and business experts, and we are delighted to be working with them all.”
Alongside topics such as cybersecurity, the Internet of Things, and Compassionate Cities, the Festival will play host to the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network’s 3rd Ecosystem meeting and the final stage of judging for Digital Catapult Centre Yorkshire’s Diabetes Innovation Challenge.
“We are very excited to be welcoming AXXONET Global to the Festival to sign a Memorandum of Understanding for the Digital Exchange as the first international start-up resident.” said Ian Sharp, CEO of DHEZ Ltd.
AXXONET System Technologies have developed a new Bradford company - AXXONET Global, which builds on the tremendous work of the international company. AXXONET Global, led by its Director, Mr Chetan Mukundan and supported by Dr Geetha Upadhyaya, is dedicated to medical research and device development and is excited to be bringing their new venture to the Digital Exchange.
Ian adds, “We are also very happy to be welcoming Mark from Konnektis to DHEZ again. Mark Howells, Founder of Konnektis, has been working with us since early 2016. Mark has amazing energy for digital innovation and Konnektis is a great example of how DHEZ, and other support providers are working together to develop start-up ecosystems that help SME’s strengthen and prove their offer and access health markets to trial their products.”
In early 2016, Konnektis won the ODI and Digital Catapult IoT Boost programme and more recently the support of Nominet Trust’s Social Tech Seed fund. Konnektis have trialled their platform in Kent and have been seeking a pilot in Bradford with the support of DHEZ, which has recently been agreed. Mark said “DHEZ support has been key to our pilot. We are being awarded 3 months complimentary collaboration space and business mentoring in the Digital Exchange. It’s a great space and we are really looking forward to spending more time here.”
The Festival is being held in the DHEZ’s Digital Exchange. The Digital Exchange is a high quality business incubator in Bradford’s Little Germany to bring small and young companies together in an open innovation environment. It is an upgraded former Victorian textile warehouse combining beautiful original design features, with modern fittings and high-tech equipment. DHEZ are excited to be housing their first festival in the building and are looking forward to showing interested participants around the impressive space.
The £13m Digital Health Enterprise Zone is one of 4 University Enterprise Zones, funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Digital Catapult - a national centre with the aim of rapidly advancing the UK's best digital ideas - adds resources worth £500,000 into the Digital Catapult Centre Yorkshire programme, which will develop and carry out collaborative projects focused on privacy, security and trusted use of our personal data. In addition to our programme and funding partners (BT and the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council), DHEZ has extended support and backing from local, regional and international public and private organisations, including three local NHS trusts.
The DHEZ programme is about creating a community of businesses, academics, health professionals, and people. It is a community that will work together to understand the health and care issues facing our population and create, innovate, and shape digital health solutions and models of care that actually work. If this community also provides clear routes to market, both domestic and international, we will then have created a fully functioning digital health eco-system that has real impact on people’s lives.
Complementing the Digital Exchange, a £7 million Health and Wellbeing Centre on the University of Bradford’s city campus will be used to connect with the community, run academic programmes and house practising health professionals. Teams of researchers and students will work with patients, healthcare professionals and the companies through DHEZ to trial and monitor new devices, services and ways of working to see which are the most effective and affordable. This Centre will open in Summer 2017.
AXXONET - http://www.axxonet.com/
Konnectis - http://www.konnektis.com/
Contact: Aksaa Mahmood
01274 238601
The Digital Exchange
34 Peckover Street
Bradford
West Yorkshire
BD1 5BD