NortHFutures: Northern Health Futures Hub

Led by Professor Abigail Durrant, Newcastle University

The NortHFutures hub aims to create a world-leading innovation ecosystem to facilitate the research, development, and acceleration of responsibly designed, human-centred, and data-rich health-tech.

The hub is working to cultivate a vibrant entrepreneurial community that addresses regional healthcare needs in the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) and promotes leadership in digital health.

NortHFutures adopts a people-centred approach, with a commitment to humanising health-tech, championing equity, participation and investment across the region.

The hub brings together regional National Health Service (NHS) foundation trusts plus more than 50 other partners including regional, national, and global companies, health and care providers, local authorities, innovation accelerators, along with voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector (VCSE) organisations and advocacy groups.

The hub is also helping develop a new generation of health data researchers by enabling students and recent graduates to gain practical experience through HDR UK’s Biomedical Vacation Scholarships and the Black Internship Programme.  Read about the BVS students here and the 2025 cohort for the Black Internship Programme here.

NortHFutures is targeting its work around four key themes:

  • Promoting health and nutrition for children and young people
  • Developing digital surgical pathways
  • Supporting mental health and wellbeing
  • Living and ageing well with multiple long-term conditions

HDR UK is collaborating with NortHFutures specifically on its Training and Skills Work Package, led by Professor David Kirk at Newcastle University and Dr Alan Platt at Northumbria University, supported by HDR UK’s Digital Health Programmes Manager, Dr Sophie Gould.

  • To get involved and keep updated with NortHFutures – join the mailing list.
  • To learn more about the other EPSRC Digital Health Hubs click here.