Healthy cooperation: how northern universities are linking with NHS trusts to drive innovation

Description

Backed by a mix of private and public finance, Huddersfield and Manchester are among many in the academic sector helping to create jobs and growth

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Renowned in the university sector as an innovator, Towns-Andrews has insisted all the buildings be constructed to meet green and health benchmarks – known as the Well standard – that will rank them in the top 50 worldwide.

One of her aims is to raise the region’s dire levels of worker productivity. “Yorkshire and Humberside has one of the lowest outputs per hour in England, which makes it among the worst places for productivity.”

“To me it wasn’t rocket science that getting people healthy, fit and able to work would make the single biggest impact on productivity,” she says.