Representatives from Medilink Midlands and its patrons and members joined together last week (Thursday 17 November) to attend our Annual General Meeting (AGM) and networking event hosted at the Birmingham offices of Medilink Patron, Mills & Reeve.
The Midlands: hotspot for the life sciences
Hosted by Medilink Midlands’ Chief Executive Simon Himsworth, the event marked the launch of our 2022 Annual Report and shone a spotlight on the world-class healthcare businesses and world-first medical innovations being developed in the region. AGM attendees were informed of the work, successes, and progress of Medilink Midlands and our members this year, as well as the challenges being faced by businesses in the sector identified in our Voice of Industry research, and our plans and ambitions for 2023.
Between March 2014 and October 2021, Medilink Midlands engaged 1692 SMEs, worked on 47 university collaborations, and created 191 jobs. An additional £47 in private investment was leveraged per £1 of public funding into the Midlands region.
“Our mission is to be at the forefront of delivering direct support to the region’s life sciences industry.” Simon said. “Working with companies in the sector to help them secure almost £80m in funding since 2019 is clear evidence that we are fulfilling this.
“By forging relationships with international organisations to open doors to new opportunities across the sector, we will connect with global best practices to grow our levels of achievement. Moreover, we will be enhancing and evolving our membership offering as we move into 2023, ensuring we provide the best possible membership value proposition, as well as be the first-choice provider for life sciences business support.”
Guests also heard from Professor Martin Levermore MBE DL, Chair of Medilink Midlands, who emphasised the importance of ensuring the Midlands is the place life sciences companies continue to choose to set up, develop, and grow: “The West Midlands has the most diverse population in the UK, and so it is imperative that we see new innovations prioritised and business services engaged in the region. Medilink Midlands – and the wider Midlands life sciences ecosystem – have the necessary capabilities to realise and maximise opportunities for levelling up.”
Also speaking at the event was Innovation Adviser Ben Roberts who delivered insights on sustainability and NHS net zero targets and highlighted the work of Medilink Midlands in connecting SMEs with information about and access to grants and relevant industry networks, as well as sharing our progress towards reducing our own carbon emissions.
Member spotlights
Medilink Midlands member spotlight guests from 3P Innovation and VUIT also delivered presentations at the event and explained how membership of our network has contributed to the growth and development of their businesses.
Speaker Dave Seaward is Founder and Projects Director at Warwickshire company 3P Innovation, an employee-owned life sciences engineering and process automation house that works with multinational clients to develop, launch, and commercialise new products, and the winner of two Queen’s Awards. 3P Innovation joined Medilink Midlands in 2021.
Now turning over £12m and employing close to 100 staff, including around 75 engineers, Dave explained how 3P Innovation has more than doubled in size since 2018, and was awarded the Princess Royal Training Award in recognition of its commitment to delivering outstanding training and skills development programmes.
Adam Townsend is the Co-Founder and COO of VUIT – an online resource for healthcare and medtech organisations that combines analytical capability and operational expertise with system thinking to produce interactive visualisations of health and social care data. As a growing organisation looking to move into the medtech space, VUIT joined Medilink Midlands this year and first showcased its offering at our Innovation Day back in May.
Speaking about the support he’s received on VUIT’s journey so far, Adam said: “Medilink Midlands’ guidance and support has enabled us to connect with peer groups in the medtech sector, providing us with crucial insights as we aim to build our offering and develop and diversify our customer base. I strongly believe that Medilink Midlands is central to facilitating the collaboration between all the business support organisations in the Midlands.”
Find out the impact we are making in the Midlands life sciences sector, and the value our member network brings to the region in our Annual Report 2022.
Read here or email info@medilinkmidlands.com to request a print copy.