The government has placed growth at the heart of its mission and in June of this year published its Industrial Strategy. One important issue raised by the Industrial Strategy is the need to better understand the relationship between national sector strategies and the regional areas where firms are located.<\/p>\r\n
The high-level Sector Plans identified the most important city regions and clusters for the given sector. In addition, regional authorities are developing ambitious Local Growth Plans which are supposed to dovetail with the Industrial Strategy Sector Plans. These local plans need to tackle the critical issues that are constraining growth across sectors including poor transport connections, skills shortages and housing.<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
If a sector is to drive growth, it will need to scale up across the regions which means there needs to be some consistency across locations. For example, there should not be a different export strategy for HealthTech firms in Yorkshire compared to those in Scotland; there needs to be one national export strategy for the sector. However, national sector strategies will have to consider the advantages and disadvantages faced by each location which will impact multiple sectors. Hence it is critical that national sector strategies dovetail with regional strategies to support growth across multiple sectors rather than generating a host of competing strategies which has sometimes been the case across the UK.<\/p>\r\n
With that in mind, a nationwide series of regional roundtables, jointly hosted by the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) and the Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance (CSEP) at Imperial College London, has brought together leaders from industry, academia, and government to address the challenges and opportunities shaping the UK\u2019s \u00a313.5 billion HealthTech sector.<\/p>\r\n
Spanning events in Edinburgh, Oxford, Manchester, and Cardiff<\/strong>, the roadshow highlighted the sector\u2019s economic strength, innovation potential, and pressing need for structural reforms to boost productivity, manufacturing, and global competitiveness.<\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n A Sector with Global Potential \u2013 and Persistent Barriers<\/strong><\/p>\r\n According to CSEP\u2019s research, the UK HealthTech industry employs more than 150,000 \u00a0people and contributes \u00a313\u201315 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) annually\u2014on par with the biopharma sector, despite receiving 15 times less research funding.<\/p>\r\n University spinouts in HealthTech rival those in pharmaceuticals, underscoring the \u00a0sector\u2019s innovation efficiency.<\/p>\r\n However, productivity per employee lags global leaders such as Singapore<\/strong> and \u00a0Denmark<\/strong>, and the UK remains a net importer of medical technologies. Much of the \u00a0country\u2019s manufacturing capacity has migrated overseas, particularly to the US<\/strong> and \u00a0Switzerland<\/strong>, limiting domestic economic returns.<\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Three NHS Strategic Shifts Driving Urgency<\/strong><\/p>\r\n Speakers, including ABHI\u2019s Richard Phillips<\/strong> and Imperial\u2019s Professor James Moore Jr.<\/strong>, \u00a0stressed that NHS sustainability hinges on three strategic shifts:<\/p>\r\n Delivering on these priorities will require rapid adoption of innovative health \u00a0technologies\u2014an area where the UK has historically excelled in invention but lagged in \u00a0deployment.<\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Policy and Investment Reforms Proposed<\/strong><\/p>\r\n Daniel Green<\/strong>, a MedTech entrepreneur and policy adviser, outlined a set of cost-neutral, sector-specific proposals<\/strong> to stimulate growth:<\/p>\r\n \u2022 Expand SEIS\/EIS limits<\/strong> for life sciences, raising the SEIS cap from \u00a3250,000 to \u00a0reflect the capital intensity of MedTech ventures. Attendees agreed these reforms would improve access to capital, attract talent, and \u00a0encourage companies to conduct trials domestically.<\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Local Insights from the Regions<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \u2022 Edinburgh:<\/strong> Participants called for better alignment between NHS priorities and \u00a0HealthTech innovation, with a focus on health equity and sustainability. \u00a0<\/p>\r\n ABHI\u2019s Role as the Sector\u2019s Voice<\/strong><\/p>\r\n ABHI, representing over 400 members<\/strong> (80% SMEs), acts as a bridge between industry \u00a0and policymakers, advocating for regulatory clarity, market access, and international \u00a0trade growth. Its trade missions span the US, Middle East<\/strong>, and beyond, helping UK \u00a0firms access new markets and align with global regulatory standards.<\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Next Steps \u2013 From Discussion to Delivery<\/strong><\/p>\r\n The roadshow\u2019s findings will feed into a collaborative HealthTech strategy<\/strong> co-authored by ABHI and CSEP, focusing on government policy reform, industry scaling \u00a0commitments, and academic innovation pipelines. Attendees were urged to provide feedback to refine the roadmap.<\/p>\r\n \u201cThis is about more than funding requests,\u201d Moore emphasised. \u201cIt\u2019s about a shared \u00a0commitment\u2014industry, government, and academia each playing their role\u2014to make the UK the best place in the world to develop, scale, and export health technologies.”<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The government has placed growth at the heart of its mission and in June of this year published its Industrial Strategy. One important issue raised by the Industrial Strategy is the need to better understand the relationship between national sector strategies and the regional areas where firms are located. The high-level Sector Plans identified the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1908,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[11,8,10,12,9],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical-technology","category-uncategorised","tag-abhi","tag-csep","tag-healthtech","tag-imperial","tag-medtech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/csep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/csep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/csep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/csep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/csep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/csep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/csep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/csep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/csep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/csep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\r\n
\u2022 Reform EMI share schemes<\/strong> so tax benefits remain valid after employees leave, \u00a0accommodating long development timelines.
\u2022 Enhance R&D tax credits<\/strong> for UK-based clinical trials to reverse the UK\u2019s decline \u00a0in global rankings (from 4th to 10th).<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Oxford:<\/strong> Discussions stressed the UK\u2019s need to match its scientific strength with \u00a0faster adoption and value realisation in the health system.
\u2022 Manchester:<\/strong> Stakeholders showcased integrated health data initiatives and the \u00a0CityLabs innovation hub, which has created over 800 jobs<\/strong> and \u00a3150m in GVA.
\u2022 Cardiff:<\/strong> Former Welsh Economy Minister Vaughan Gething<\/strong> urged embedding innovation as a core NHS function, with empowered local leadership and clear \u00a0priorities.<\/p>\r\n