Dr Liz Mear describes the role of the Innovation Agency
We are the Academic Health Science Network (AHSN)
for the North West Coast
What is an AHSN?
We are one of England’s 15 AHSNs who operate as the key innovation arm of the NHS.
We are unique. Our strength lies in our ability to operate locally because of the trust our member organisations have in us. We understand the needs of our health systems and are well placed to broker innovative solutions, while collaborating across England to take what works best and quickly spread it nationally.
We are catalysts
We are catalysts for the spread of innovation at pace and scale, helping facilitate change across whole health and social care economies – to improve health, drive down the cost of care, and stimulate economic growth.
We connect
We are the only organisations that connect regional networks of partners across all sectors: NHS, academia, local authorities, the third sector, businesses and the public - responding to the diverse needs of our patients and populations through partnership and collaboration
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Our region covers Cheshire, Merseyside, Lancashire and South Cumbria, with around 4.1 million residents. Our footprint includes 22 NHS providers, 20 CCGs, nine universities and a large number of life science industry partners and small to medium size businesses.
We have offices in Daresbury, Liverpool and Preston and our teams work with partners to deliver transformation and improvement in healthcare. We also deliver support to small and medium-sized businesses whose healthcare products have the potential to achieve improvements. This is largely delivered through ERDF funding.
Our work is overseen by a Board of partners who help to shape our plans, provide insight into the needs of the region and act as our ambassadors for innovation.
Nationally, we are commissioned by NHS England, NHS Improvement and the Office for Life Sciences and we work closely with the AHSN Network to deliver national programmes of work to achieve rapid uptake of innovations proved to have an impact, across the country.
