Candidates for West Yorkshire Mayor announced
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The Candidates in the race to become the Mayor of West Yorkshire have been announced, as the deadline approaches for residents to register to vote in next month’s mayoral election.
The West Yorkshire Combined Authority enables businesses in West Yorkshire to grow, creating jobs for local people, encouraging businesses to locate here and helping our economy to thrive.
Supporting local small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to find the funding and expertise they need to grow and expand, from our network of partners.
We also attract new investment and jobs by helping companies looking to take advantage of the enormous investment opportunities in our region to locate here.
Business growth is a key component of the Strategic Economic Framework that the Combined Authority are working on to deliver a strong, vibrant economy in West Yorkshire.
Browse the different projects within this programme by opening and closing the tabs below.
The West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Strategic Economic Framework Investment Priority 1 is supported by the scheme which is designed to boost productivity by helping businesses grow and invest in the region and their workforce, driving economic growth, increasing innovation, and creating jobs.
The scheme will help to achieve the Mayoral Pledge to “support local businesses and be a champion for our regional economy”.
The programme is a central component of delivering Investment Priority 1 of the West Yorkshire Investment Strategy in relation to Good Jobs and Resilient Businesses and will add value to the delivery of economic recovery in West Yorkshire by supporting businesses to:
Project Lead | West Yorkshire Combined Authority |
---|---|
District/ Area | West Yorkshire |
Business case summary | Read the full document |
Funding |
Gainshare - £4.573m |
Project Status | Activity 6: Delivery |
Start and end dates | April 2023- March 2026 |
Delivery partners | West Yorkshire Local Authorities |
Other funders | None |
Get in touch | businesssupport@the-lep.com |
Connecting Innovation follows on from the successful Access Innovation scheme in West Yorkshire. It builds upon the successes and challenges of Access Innovation by proposing a dedicated and specialist innovation support and brokerage service that coordinates, simplifies, promotes and communicates the innovation landscape to small-medium enterprises in the region.
The Connecting Innovation programme is an independent and specialist innovation service and is one way for businesses to navigate what innovation support is available.
Connecting Innovation provides SMEs with up to 12 hours of support with an Innovation Growth Manager, helping to:
For more information about innovation support for your business visit our Business and Skills website.
Project Lead | West Yorkshire Combined Authority |
---|---|
District/ Area | West Yorkshire |
Business case summary | Read the full document |
Funding |
- Local Growth Fund- £750,961 |
Project Status | Activity 6: Delivery |
Start and end dates | April 2020- June 2023 |
Delivery partners | None |
Other funders | None |
Get in touch | ConnectingInnovation@the-lep.com |
Connecting Innovation Summative Assessment Report |
View here |
West Yorkshire has all the vital components to be an engine of health ideas and innovation that can drive levelling up; not just for the region’s economy, but for the nation’s health. It is able to contribute significantly to the post COVID economic and health recovery.
The West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership 5 year plan has already identified this critical opportunity. ‘Better health and wellbeing for everyone’ highlights the transformative opportunities that healthtech and innovation can bring across health provision to deliver a healthier economy.
Our region has a unique healthtech innovation ecosystem with its strengths across medtech, digital and data – and connectivity across and between these strengths – and is leading the way with the translation of research into commercialisation.
The region has been recognised by central government as a high potential opportunity area for woundcare, regenerative tissue, AI and data analytics. However we are not currently seen as the leading Healthtech cluster nationally, due to the fragmented nature of the system and the lack of adoption of products and services into practice. This means our region does not currently reach its full potential for residents and businesses.
There are other well-known health and innovation clusters across the country. However, none boast the level of assets that we possess in West Yorkshire – assets across industry and academia, plus unique strengths within our public sector infrastructure. The Opportunity section of this strategy focuses on these assets, demonstrating the prime opportunity for West Yorkshire and the City Region to become the leading healthtech cluster nationally and to partner, where appropriate, with other healthtech clusters across the UK and globally.
We must act now to capitalise on these strengths, the market opportunity and to deliver the health and wellbeing outcomes needed post COVID. In 2019, the global healthtech market was worth an estimated $175 (US bn), expected to rise to $660 billion by 2025. Even before COVID, which sharply increased the need for digital health tools to be used, adoption has been steadily increasing.
The healthtech sector faces significant challenges post COVID and the City Region with its dominance of micro businesses and SMEs is no exception. To achieve the full potential of this market, collaboration between the NHS, industry, universities, the third sector and government requires a unified approach. Only through collaboration and connection will we overcome barriers to healthtech innovation, translation and adoption.
Driving excellence in science and innovation will play a key part in addressing the West Yorkshire productivity gap, and the challenges that underpin this.
In partnership with the LEP, we have invested £2.9 million of Leeds City Region Growth Deal funding into the Huddersfield Incubation & Innovation Programme at the University of Huddersfield.
Located at the university’s 3M Buckley Innovation Centre, this project aims to boost innovation among local SMEs and entrepreneurs by providing better access to specialist support, communal working areas and state-of-the-art technologies, including a 3D printer, x-ray machines and ‘visualisation zones’.
Project Lead | University of Huddersfield |
---|---|
District/ Area | Kirklees |
Business case summary | Read the full document |
Funding |
Leeds City Region Growth Deal (£2.9 million) |
Project Status | Activity 6: delivery |
Start and end dates | 2016 - 2018 |
Delivery partners | University of Huddersfield |
Other funders | None |
Get in touch | 3mbic.com |
£3 million of Leeds City Region Growth Deal funding is being invested into the NEXUS innovation centre at the University of Leeds to help expand business innovation and ‘incubation’ space in the city.
Our investment, part of a total £40 million project, will help businesses more easily access the university’s world-class research expertise and also increase the amount of ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ lab space for businesses looking to innovate.
More than 500 businesses are expected to benefit from NEXUS over the next few years.
Project Lead | University of Leeds |
---|---|
District/ Area | Leeds |
Business case summary | N/A |
Funding |
Leeds City Region Growth Deal (£3 million) |
Project Status | Activity 6: delivery |
Start and end dates | Due to complete February 2019 |
Delivery partners | West Yorkshire Combined Authority and University of Leeds |
Other funders | University of Leeds (£37 million) |
Get in touch | https://nexusleeds.co.uk/contact-us/ |
The service has been developed in partnership with the West Yorkshire Innovation Network to complement existing innovation and business support in the region. The approach builds on learning from previous regional innovation support programmes, including Access Innovation and Connecting Innovation.
Innovation through creating, improving or utilising new products, processes, or services is well evidenced as being central to improving productivity, economic growth and prosperity. In West Yorkshire however, we have low levels of innovation activity evidenced by a) low levels of business R&D investment, b) low levels of engagement between SMEs and Higher Education institutions to drive knowledge transfer and c) low levels of applications to UK innovation funding competitions and regional grant funds.
There is a wealth of innovation support already available in the region. However, businesses (particularly SMEs) lack the time available to navigate innovation support and understand what is available to them and how to access it. This programme is designed to help those businesses
understand and take full advantage of the support available. The programme also provides some targeted innovation funding for those areas where the challenge is more acute. This includes SME innovation vouchers and addressing wider issues such as the net zero and Mayoral Innovation Prize. As set out previously, the challenge in West Yorkshire is increasing the appetite for
innovation by industry and therefore increasing engagement levels with innovation support.
Project Lead | West Yorkshire Combined Authority |
---|---|
District/ Area | West Yorkshire |
Business case summary | Read the full document |
Funding |
Gainshare - £5.550m |
Project Status | Activity 6: Delivery |
Start and end dates | April 2023- March 2026 |
Delivery partners | None |
Other funders | None |
Get in touch | ConnectingInnovation@the-lep.com |
The Candidates in the race to become the Mayor of West Yorkshire have been announced, as the deadline approaches for residents to register to vote in next month’s mayoral election.
This was a shocking incident and my thoughts and sympathies are with Kulsuma Akter’s family and loved ones.
I welcome today’s verdict and that Khan has finally been brought to justice for the terrible events in Bradford on 18 November 2005.
Our latest update on the closure of Bradford Interchange bus station.
A new multi-million-pound investment to improve walking and cycling routes in West Yorkshire has been welcomed by the Mayor.
This means that all employees of the Combined Authority will continue to receive at least the real living wage of £12 per hour.