On Tuesday 15th March, the P4SY Accelerator Programme was formally launched to a South Yorkshire audience representing the business community, academic networks and regional health and care system. The event, hosted at Electric Works, was an opportunity to introduce the first cohort of P4SY companies to the South Yorkshire medtech ecosystem and catalyse connections between regional assets and P4SY to accelerate medtech innovation.

Opening the event, Ceri Batchelder, TEAM SY Super Connector, presented the impressive range of pre-accelerator and accelerator programmes that TEAM SY, an ERDF part-funded project delivered by Capital Enterprise and Barnsley Council, have brought to the region to connect tech entrepreneurs and startups to develop a thriving ecosystem. 

Following Ceri’s opening welcome, Nathan McNally, Programme Director for Capital Enterprise and Co-Founder of the P4 Accelerator Programme, shared the P4 Accelerator journey, from successful origins in London to the first northern expansion of the programme in South Yorkshire as a gateway to the north of England. 

The programme focuses on the ‘4 Ps’ of precision medicine; personalised, predictive, preventive, and participatory. P4 aims to create a more coherent, connected pathway for AI-enabled precision medicine companies to bring their technologies to market by bringing together the key stakeholders and decision makers to support precision medicine adoption.

P4SY has been designed for medtech companies aiming to expand and scale within South Yorkshire, international companies seeking a UK soft landing in order to build partnerships with SMEs, academics and clinical partners and early stage life science companies wanting to expand their network and development opportunities. 

P4SY has been created to support business growth and inward investment; leverage funding into the medtech start-up community and catalyse growth to the medtech innovation ecosystem through impactful collaborations and access for the health and care system to novel technology solutions.

Philippa Hedley-Takhar, P4SY Programme Manager, then took to the stage to officially announce the first cohort of companies joining the P4SY Accelerator Programme and a preview of the expertise and opportunities that the P4SY companies were ready to showcase later in the day.

The P4SY team were proud to welcome Gavin Boyle, Chief Executive for the South Yorkshire Integrated Care System (SYB ICS) who shared insights into the regional digital transformation strategy for health and wellbeing – to empower people of South Yorkshire, support the workforce, optimise care service and contribute to society, the economy and the environment. 

Aejaz Zahid, Programme Director, then talked about the SYB ICS Innovation Hub, a key partnership between the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN and the SYB Integrated Care System that draws on the strengths of both to improve the identification of unmet health, care and social needs in South Yorkshire & Bassetlaw, while fostering the adoption and spread of innovative solutions to address these needs. 

Following a much-needed refreshment break, and plenty of networking and new introductions, it was the turn of Richard Mead, Lead for Knowledge Exchange in Faculty of Medicine University of Sheffield, and Professor Christine le Maitre, Professor of Cell Biology & Tissue Regeneration at Sheffield Hallam University, to showcase the assets and opportunities offered by both institutions to precision medicine companies – including world-leading research expertise and funding mechanisms to aid collaboration. 

To conclude the presentations, Dr Chris Low, Chief Executive for Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, brought the audience up to date on activity at the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park – an exemplar place-based innovation ecosystem and the P4SY ‘basecamp’! – and Dr Ben Martyn, Cluster Development Manager, presented the vision for the Northern Health Science Alliance, a healthy and prosperous North of England, powered by excellence in research and innovation across healthcare and academia with industry engagement and citizen involvement as key drivers.

And then it was the turn of the P4SY Accelerator Programme cohort!

Hosted by Tamara Moon, P4SY Programme Co-ordinator, the ‘P4SY Present & Pitch’ session saw each of the companies take the floor to introduce their technology; the unmet need and the benefits of their precision medicine innovation; and the collaborations they are seeking within the region to scale-up their business and accelerate access to market. 

 

Aided by refreshments, the event concluded with the P4SY companies making new connections with key regional stakeholders in the audience – and an impromptu photo of the first P4SY Accelerator Programme cohort.

Welcome to South Yorkshire – the P4SY team look forward to working with you over the coming months!

 

To stay informed about P4SY Accelerator Programme follow us on Twitter and Linkedin