By Scarborough Group International – Development Partner of Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park
At Scarborough Group, we believe that innovation needs the right environment to thrive. That’s why we’re proud to be leading the next phase of development at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park – a unique science and innovation park that’s helping position Sheffield as one of the UK’s most exciting launchpads for HealthTech businesses.
Building the Right Environment for HealthTech
If you’re building a HealthTech business – whether in the early days of product-market fit or preparing to scale – one of the most strategic decisions you’ll make is where to base your company.
You need more than office space. You need access to clinical partners, real-world testing environments, talent, research, and a support network that understands both innovation and regulation.
Sheffield is quickly becoming a compelling launchpad for HealthTech businesses, offering founders and teams a connected ecosystem where academia, healthcare, industry and community come together in one place to help your innovation succeed.
Why HealthTech founders choose Sheffield
Sheffield has always been a city that innovates, powered by its world-leading reputation in steel production and advanced manufacturing. Now, it is developing deep expertise in healthcare, wellbeing and social change, evolving into a national leader within these fields. And this isn’t just about infrastructure and facilities – it’s about the very unique mindset of Sheffield.
As a founder, you’ll find that Sheffield is built around the kind of collaborative, values-driven innovation that HealthTech demands. The city doesn’t just support population health from the top down – it lives it from the ground up with a rich tapestry of grass-roots sports, social inclusion and community healthcare initiatives.
That makes it the perfect testbed for HealthTech solutions. Whether your product is data-driven, community-focused or clinically embedded, Sheffield offers a real-world environment to validate your concept and grow it responsibly.
Proximity to academic and clinical research
Building a HealthTech product isn’t just about code – it’s about evidence. In Sheffield, you’ll be part of an ecosystem anchored by two world-class universities with leading expertise in health, digital tech and translational research.
The University of Sheffield is a leader in biomedical science, healthcare engineering and digital diagnostics. Sheffield Hallam University, meanwhile, founded the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC) – a global centre of excellence focused on turning research into practical solutions for healthy living.
The AWRC, located right here at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, offers tailored programmes for startups, including the Wellbeing Accelerator, which gives founders access to R&D, testing facilities and academic support.
Alongside this, you’ll find deep partnerships with the NHS. Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust are nationally-recognised for innovation and are open to working with health tech companies to design, trial and evaluate new products.
Real-world testing in a live environment
At the heart of Sheffield’s ecosystem is Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park – the UK’s only Olympic legacy site outside of a host city, and a living lab for sport, health and wellbeing innovation.
Here, academic institutions, startups, healthcare organisations, schools and communities come together in one connected environment – creating a real-world testbed where ideas can move quickly from concept to clinical or community impact. Whether you’re piloting a prototype, running trials or gathering feedback, this is where theory meets practice.
One of the driving forces behind this collaborative environment is our ongoing partnership with Sheffield Technology Parks, one of the city’s longest-established tech incubators.
Together, we’re supporting a new generation of HealthTech innovators by creating the physical spaces and startup-friendly infrastructure needed to thrive. From flexible workspaces within the Steel City Stadium and mentoring to strategic connections across healthcare and academia, this collaboration is helping turn Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park into a launchpad for HealthTech with impact.
Support to scale – from day one
Scaling a HealthTech business brings specific challenges: navigating regulation, building partnerships with the NHS, managing procurement cycles, demonstrating impact and staying on top of compliance. Sheffield’s ecosystem is set up to help you with all of that.
Through initiatives like the previously mentioned AWRC Wellbeing Accelerator, Sheffield Innovation Programme, Sheffield Technology Park’s Cooper Project and partnerships with NHS Innovation Hubs, founders get access to:
– Regulatory guidance and evidence generation support
– Business model development tailored to healthcare settings
– Connections to procurement and commissioning networks
– Data science, UX, and AI expertise via university partners
– Introductions to investors focused on health, impact and innovation
And Sheffield’s compact geography makes those connections more accessible. You’re never more than a short walk, tram or bus ride from a research partner, a hospital innovation lead, a social care commissioner, or another founder tackling similar challenges.
Founders can move faster and go further in Sheffield – with the right support at every stage. This environment has already helped HealthTech ventures including:
Hero of Health, an AI-driven platform that helps patients access health services, resources and support. The medical experts behind this startup were able to tap into Sheffield’s supportive ecosystem when they joined tech incubator, the Cooper Project, run by Sheffield Technology Parks and have continued to thrive, securing Innovate UK grant funding and taking part in the AWRC’s Wellbeing Accelerator.
Nasalyzer, a digital diagnostic device designed to change the way gastric cancer is detected making it faster, easier and non-invasive. Co-founder, Luisa Carvalho, is a Microbiology PhD Student at the University of Sheffield and is deeply embedded in the startup ecosystem, as a member of the Cooper Project and Capital Enterprise’s Cancer Tech Accelerator – all providing vital support as she focuses on market validation and fundraising.
Simply Connect, a social prescribing platform, is targeting Sheffield’s integrated care environment to deploy and scale across VCSE partners, local authorities and NHS trusts. Another alumni of the AWRC’s Wellbeing Accelerator, founder Sirinda Bhandal, explains why this experience helped to kick start her business after she relocated from London:
“Being at the AWRC introduced us to the wider Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, where we’ve been able to work with leading researchers and industry experts in the health, wellbeing and AI space. We’ve hosted events and meetings at Steel City Stadium which has been brilliant for our business development. It definitely felt like we were a part of something much bigger and gave us a step up.
“The ecosystem of support in Sheffield is second to none, so much more accessible than London. The ecosystem here spans across health, universities, industry and so many opportunities to collaborate and work together across sectors – which you don’t so easily get in the South.”
Sheffield’s size is its strength
Unlike London or Manchester, where the ecosystem can feel fragmented and competitive, Sheffield’s HealthTech scene is cohesive, collaborative and personal. It’s a city that’s big enough to offer scale – but small enough that people pick up the phone.
You’ll find peers here who are generous with their time. You’ll find mentors and clinicians who are genuinely interested in what you’re building. And you’ll find a civic infrastructure that wants your innovation to succeed – because it fits a broader ambition to improve population health.
This shared mission is what makes Sheffield truly different. Everyone – from universities and hospitals to local authorities and schools – believes in the power of HealthTech to change lives.
A place to scale, not just start
Founders don’t just need a place to launch – they need a place to stay, scale and thrive. In Sheffield, that’s exactly what you’ll find. With support from organisations like Sheffield Technology Parks, Business Sheffield and Sheffield Digital, you can grow your team here, raise investment, develop a beta site and build a product that’s grounded in evidence and ready for the market.
If you’re a HealthTech founder looking for the ideal environment to innovate, connect, collaborate and grow, Sheffield is the city for you. It is a community with purpose, a network with genuine connections, and a launchpad with a track record.
This is where research meets reality, where clinicians meet coders and where social impact meets commercial success.
Take a tour of Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park and find your next workspace within the incredible Steel City Stadium. Our flexible offices, coworking lounge, café and meeting spaces are designed to encourage collaboration and creativity.
