On November 21st in Manchester The Northern Health Science Alliance, in partnership with Alderley Park and the University of Manchester, brought Northern experts and thought leaders in ageing health together with a Canadian delegation.

The visitors from the British Consulate Toronto and Canadian healthy ageing institutions and organisations met with members of local authorities, research institutions, SMEs and innovation hubs from across the North of England.

The objectives of the day were to start conversations around:

• Undertaking two-way knowledge exchange in research and development of health tech acceleration and technology adoption
• Building relationships and research partnership opportunities set to address mutual, international challenges
• Creating potential channels for future commercial collaboration

[from left to right: Keith Miller (Alderley Park), Lee Omar (Red Ninja Studios), Graham Armitage (National Innovation Centre for Ageing &Newcastle University), Dr Laura Harrington (McMaster University’s Institute for Research in Ageing, Canada), Dr Plinio Morita (University of Waterloo, Canada), Gayle Scarrow (Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Canada), Yusra Uzair (British Consulate-General Toronto), Nicki Wilson (the NHSA), Jane McDermott (University of Manchester), Paul McGarry (Greater Manchester Combined Authority), Dr Dai Roberts (Health Innovation Manchester), David Stoller (Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation, Canada) and Dr Andrew Sixsmith (Age-Well National Centre of Excellence, Canada)]

The day was chaired by Paul McGarry, Head of the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, co-facilitated by NHSA Chief of Staff, Nicki Wilson and Jane McDermott from the Healthy Ageing Research Group at the University of Manchester . Keith Miller of Alderley Park contributed valuable input on commercial opportunities.

As an outcome of the day, it was agreed to create a framework of collaboration which is now known as ‘Anglo-Canadian Collaboration on Healthy Ageing (ACCHA)’.

Yusra Uzair, Head of Science, Innovation and Policy at the British Consulate-General in Toronto said:  “It was very important for us to be given the opportunity to meet with representatives from the healthy ageing ecosystem that sits within the North of England, and working with Nicki, Keith and Jane made our objective a reality. Our day with our Northern England colleagues has resulted in tangible opportunities via a time-lined action plan and started a sequence of activity set to support international collaboration.”

Immediate next steps:

• A summary of the day’s activity and discussion has been written up and shared between the attendees with a robust timeline of short, medium and long-term actions agreed
• A multi-institutional / organisational Memorandum of Understanding is in process of being negotiated and agreed

These documents and other resources will be available to view here shortly.