A year end message from Professor Chris Low, Chief Executive of Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park
This year marked a major milestone for Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park as we reached a decade of development and regeneration, beginning back in 2015 when the doors to Oasis Academy Don Valley opened for the first time and welcomed 26 children and a handful of staff. The Academy is a symbol of how the Park has grown over the last ten years, now educating and inspiring over 1,200 students through the dedication of 150 staff and acting as a lively focal point for the local community.
The Park is also catalysing private investment into Attercliffe. Sustainable development specialists Citu are investing in regenerating a 23 acre brownfield site, Attercliffe Waterside, with the first business properties ready in 2026 and residential to follow in 2027. Onboard Skatepark are working in partnership with Skateboard GB and British Cycling and have submitted a planning application to redevelop a disused manufacturing site into one of Europe’s ’s largest indoor skateparks. And Peak Pickleball has been inspired to invest in Attercliffe and has recently opened the first dedicated pickleball centre in the North of England.
Increased public and private investment has been to the fore with Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust commissioning Henry Boot Construction to build the National Centre for Child Health Technology (NCCHT) which will open in 2026. The Centre will be a world-leading facility, bringing together experts from healthcare, academia, and industry to create cutting-edge healthcare solutions that improve young lives across the UK and beyond.
UTC Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park has been working with Sheffield Children’s providing student mentors to international start-ups on the Kids Up accelerator programme, helping the companies to develop their child health tech products and promote them to the NHS and global healthcare market.
The Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC) celebrated its five year anniversary by influencing UK Government policy through the launch of the ‘Delivering the Prevention Legacy’ report at a special event in Westminster. The report outlines preventative health innovations to save the NHS millions, address widening health inequalities, and boost economic growth through improved productivity.
The AWRC also hosted the first meeting of the UK Mayors’ Innovation Exchange, a knowledge exchange for mayors to discuss matters including tackling common health challenges, ensuring environmentally sustainable public transport, and aligning local skills systems to support the delivery of critical infrastructure.
Steel City Stadium, the Park HQ of our development partner Scarborough Group International, has been a hive of activity including hosting the launch of British Business Bank’s Business Finance Week. The new co-working space and performance café in the Stadium acts as a front door to the Park, providing entrepreneurs, researchers, athletes and students with a dedicated space to connect, collaborate and accelerate ideas.
Canon Medical Arena marked its two-year anniversary in 2025 as it increasingly helps to tackle inequality in Sheffield through health, education, sport and employment. The Arena also hosts an abundance of events from basketball to boxing, dance days to opera nights, and karate competitions to charity balls.
In November, the launch of the 2026 Westfield Health British Transplant Games was hosted at the Arena, building anticipation for the games being held in Sheffield next August, with many of the sports taking place right here at the Park.
LivingCare Medical Diagnostic Centre, housed within Canon Medical Arena, continues to bring healthcare services closer to the community and collaborate with healthcare providers and technology partners to support improved access to care. Highlights this year have included LivingCare partnering with leading local cardiologists to launch the South Yorkshire Heart Centre and with the Graham Fulford Charitable Trust to run a prostate screening day at the Arena.
Our community impact increased considerably in 2025, with Sheffield Legacy Fund receiving a generous boost of £25,000 from Matchroom Charitable Foundation, enabling us to extend our grant giving to more charities, groups and clubs to support health, wellbeing and social inclusion throughout the local communities.
We also hosted our fourth Olympic Legacy in Action community event this year. With over 3,000 visitors taking part in more than 30 sport and activity taster sessions at eight venues across the Park. The event was hugely successful due to the support and collaboration of over 40 delivery partners.
Continuing to promote sport and physical activity, we joined forces with Yorkshire Sport Foundation to help community groups and sports clubs access much needed kit and equipment. The launch of Kit Out Sheffield was a huge success and partners collected and redistributed 798kg of donations to worthwhile causes across the city.
On a personal note, it’s been a privilege to raise the profile of the Park through panel appearances at national and regional events – from the Jobs Foundation in Westminster to the South Yorkshire Tech Summit in Doncaster. It has also been a highlight hosting international delegations from Pittsburgh and Berlin, and visitors from the Department for Business & Trade, UK Sport, and Team GB.
And not forgetting one of my most memorable moments this year – I was joined by over 50 other leaders from business, sport, politics and community who took part in South Yorkshire’s first CEO Sleepout at the Park, together raising £40,000 to fight homelessness in the region.
As we move into 2026, I look forward to working with Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park partners to continue to drive growth and investment through innovation, creating opportunities for all, and improving health and wellbeing for our region and beyond. The legacy we’re building continues into the next decade.
