By providing a unique programme of training through its University partners and by offering research funding, the LEAP Digital Health Hub is cultivating a multidisciplinary, entrepreneurial, cross-sector Digital Health community across the South West and South Wales.

Kicking off in October 2023 and funded by EPSRC (£3.26M, EP/X031349/1), LEAP brings together the South West’s leading universities, 21 supporting companies nationally, 7 NHS Trusts & Health Boards, 4 social care organisations, 5 Local Authorities, the West of England Academic Health Science Network (AHSN), the award-winning business incubator SETsquared and Health Data Research UK (HDRUK).

With a population of 5.6M that ranges from culturally diverse inner-city and immigrant communities in Bristol, to remote rural populations in Devon and the Welsh Valleys, the South West’s health needs very much reflect the EPSRC grand challenge Transforming Health & Care Beyond the Hospital, and the opportunities of Optimising Disease Prediction, Diagnosis & Intervention.

Alongside the Hub’s unique Skills and Knowledge Programme, the Hub’s Research and Fellowship Programmes will pilot new mechanisms for doing research and developing future leaders. Hub objectives are co-produced by our partners – surfacing unmet health and care needs, shaping and nurturing new collaborative research projects that bring together new partnerships of industry, academia, patients, carers and healthcare professionals.

The 50+ partners make up this Hub range from providers of residential care homes, to NHS trusts and clinicians, to start-ups and multinational consulting firms. In consultations in the lead up to the launch of the Hub, our partners told us that Digital Health is as much about design and user experience as health data analysis; it is motivated by patient benefit but must also consider viable business models for industry. These principles underline the offerings provided by each of the Hub’s Programmes.