Background
The NHS annual budget totals £9 billion with currently 9% of the
National spend allocated to the North West. TrusTECH is the NHS
innovation hub in the North West of England and provides services
to help NHS organisations identify and manage their intellectual
property. It aims to drive a greater share of the NHS budget to the
region in order to boost business competitiveness, as well as
retain and create jobs.
A partnership of Central Manchester Hospitals, Royal Liverpool
Hospital and the University of Central Lancashire, TrusTECH was
formally established in 2001 to provide all hospitals in the region
with access to good IP management advice and help them embed
innovation culture into NHS organisations. In doing so, it sets out
to enable innovation-based businesses to better engage with the
NHS. TrusTECH also strives to provide a link between the university
research agenda and clinical need, taking a step towards demand-led
healthcare research.
Area of Activity
TrusTECH enables companies to gain intelligent access to the
hugely complex NHS marketplace in the region (in the North West
alone, the NHS has 60 hospitals and 200,000 employees). Using its
knowledge of the key opinion leaders and research centres in the
NHS, TrusTECH seeks to understand a company's needs and introduce
it to relevant individuals and departments in order to carry out
testing and development work.
Why Daresbury SIC?
TrusTECH recognises that in order to capitalise on the
innovativeness of the NHS, it is necessary to systematically
establish connections with entrepreneurs on science parks who are
involved in collaborative R&D, and sees Daresbury SIC as an
example of best practice. With around 30% of its companies also
active in medical-related markets, it made sense for the
organisation to have a base at Daresbury. TrusTECH also operates in
the University of Lancaster, Royal Liverpool Hospital and Central
Manchester Hospital to ensure wider regional coverage.
Progress to Date
TrusTECH is enjoying a growing relationship with campus
companies, and organisations such as Medilink, from across the
Daresbury SIC network. Being close to STFC's world class scientific
research base also brings great advantages in making a link between
the needs of the healthcare sector and the supply of research.
TrusTECH is also closely involved in co-operation with the NWDA
biomedical cluster group, BioNow, which has been instrumental in
the partnership's growth.
Case studies
Microvisk
Daresbury SIC network member, Microvisk, a high-tech biomedical
company, specialising in anti-coagulant technology, was supported
by TrusTECH, in gaining access to the NHS for clinical trials to
validate its concept. The partnership also assisted Microvisk in
putting forward a successful funding application to i4i National
Institute for Health Research.
BioEden
BioEden, an international biotech business specialising in stem
cell research, needed a different way to conduct its tests.
TrusTECH connected the company to laboratories in Central
Manchester, enabling it to apply different methodologies. In
addition, the partnership provided them with contacts in the
Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) which
enabled BioEden to change their business model.
Future plans
TrusTECH's future plans include building its presence at
Daresbury SIC, increasing staffing, and establishing an innovation
gateway on Campus in order to efficiently serve the entire region.
One of the partnership's greater long-term plans is matching the
needs of NHS with technology providers, universities and other
research organisations, in a systematic way, in order to make all
future research in the NHS entirely demand-led, with markets
already available.
TrusTECH also plans to engage with Vanguard House, a new grow-on
facility for high-tech businesses, currently being constructed on
Campus. The facility, providing both office and laboratory space,
will increase opportunities to engage with both SMEs and more
mature, lager-scale companies working in the healthcare sector.
The partnership's plans also include close involvement with
I-TAC, a newly launched laboratory complex, fitted with £3 million
worth of scientific equipment for SMEs and research organisations
on flexible terms. I-TAC will attract companies specialising in the
appropriate fields. In addition, the facility will attract
companies at an early stage of their product or IP development.
Thus, the NHS will be able to spot potential applications of
concepts, with the final product being shaped according to the NHS
demand.
Keith Chantler, Executive Director, TrusTECH
said:
Technology plays a big part both in driving change in the NHS
and in supporting the change the NHS wants to make, not only in
technology, but also in services, and new ways of configuring and
delivering them. To do that, companies need new partnerships that
don't exist at the moment. Daresbury offers this ability to access
new partnerships, not only in the biomedical sphere, but also in
non-traditional areas, such as digital/ICT.
Daresbury's networking culture also plays an important role in
our work, with Daresbury's events helping bring about natural
synergies among the companies based on Campus.
Keith Chantler