Director's update
It’s been an eventful summer for the hub, punctuated by a couple of key events that have reflected not only the breadth and depth of digital health initiatives in our region but also the energising debates on community-centred innovation. These gain new significance with developments in central government for engaging with and serving people's needs where they live and work, across the whole country.
We held a Public Showcase event this summer that brought together funded teams with our wider consortium and members of the public to celebrate funded research, training and innovation activities. We ran an Innovation Sprint in partnership with Sunderland Software City for early career researchers and experienced professionals who are new to research, with input from Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear (CNTW) NHS Trust and Centre for Life.
Both events created great opportunities to spend time face-to-face with both long-standing collaborators, and to meet new people and explore new ideas.
I am grateful to our invited speakers for their inspirational talks and to the contributors and organisers who worked hard to deliver these events. For the Public Showcase, we had fab operational support from our colleagues: at Newcastle University - Ash Redhouse White and Rachael Sowerby, and wonderful student volunteers Daniyah Ahmed, Nicholas Smith and Sonu Fakiha; plus our partners who helped produce a vibrant and colourful exhibition.
For the Innovation Sprint, special thanks go to Jenna Ingoe and Ashmita Randhawa, and to Andy Lloyd at Centre for Life, and Dave Anderson and Adi Sharma at CNTW, and to the young people who shared their views on the topic!
The talented team at Roots and Wings not-profit design agency have done a fantastic job supporting production and documentation of the hub work, and I thank hub co-managers Katie French and Ruth Wilson for helping keep the various workstreams progressing along this complex programme.
This Autumn, we move into an impact monitoring phase of NortHFutures, through to Summer 2027, focused on analysing and reporting on the programme's outputs to share insights. We are also exploring funding opportunities to sustain and grow valued hub initiatives, building on what we have learned over the last 2 years.
In this latest edition of the newsletter we spotlight work from two of our hub themes: supporting children and young people, and community-supported digital mental health and wellbeing.
Abi Durrant, Principal Investigator of NortHFutures
NortHFutures Public Showcase June 2026
On 11 June 2026, the Northern Health Futures (NortHFutures) Hub welcomed researchers, partners, public contributors and stakeholders to a Public Showcase, hosted by Newcastle University's School of Computing at the Urban Sciences Building on Newcastle Helix.
The event provided an opportunity for NortHFutures funded teams meet in person with wider audiences including members of the public, to celebrate progress across the Hub, and share the outcomes of scoping research, innovation and skills development activities.
There were 126 delegates in total with 74 academics, 15 delegates from the voluntary and community sector, 4 from industry partners and 22 from the wider health care sector including the NHS. 11 members of the public also attended. People joined the event from across the North East and North Cumbria region and further afield.
The delegates found the day had an ‘interesting range of speakers’ with ‘inspiring ideas’ and ‘inspiring people’ meaning that it was ‘insightful, friendly, helpful and supportive’.
It was great to hear about other projects and to network and share our project’. (University Research Fellow)
‘Great to hear about collaborations with communities.’
(Public Partnerships Manager for a NIHR infrastructure.)
Attendees heard directly from funded project leads about their research, training and innovation initiatives. The day also featured valuable perspectives from NortHFutures partner representatives on strategic priorities shaping the future of health and care in the region and nationally.
Our keynote speakers were Hannah Davies (Northern Health Science Alliance), Simon Douglas (Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust), Liam Cahill (Together Digital), and Dan Jackson (North East and North Cumbria NHS and the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority), who shared insights into regional health and care priorities and helped guide discussions on how the Hub can deliver meaningful impact for communities.
A particular Showcase highlight was the opportunity for members of the public, researchers, healthcare professionals and partner organisations to engage in conversation around the research being undertaken. These exchanges reinforced the importance of collaboration, co-production and public involvement in ensuring that innovative technologies are developed responsibly and with real-world benefit.
Beth Reeves at VONNE and Bronia Arnott at Newcastle University ran an engagement session about the freely available Community Engagement Toolkit, which aims to support researchers and community partners to develop health and care research projects together, and provides practical tools to support this.
Showcase Documentation
Designing for digital happiness
At the end of June, the NortHFutures Creative Design & Innovation Sprint brought together postgraduate students, recent graduates and early career researchers from across the region to explore how creative technologies could help shape the future of mental health support for children and young people.
Held at Hope Street Xchange in Sunderland and delivered in partnership with Sunderland Software City, the three-day event provided participants with an opportunity to work alongside healthcare professionals, researchers and industry experts to address real-world challenges facing children and young people's mental health services. Hub partners CNTW NHS Trust and Centre for Life provided valuable input to shape the design brief provided to participants.
The Sprint provided a valuable experience in design thinking, collaboration, problem-solving and stakeholder engagement, while encouraging participants to consider how digital innovation can be developed responsibly, ethically and with meaningful impact. By bringing together expertise from health and care, youth work, academia and industry, the event showed how creativity is sparked by interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle a complex topic like mental wellbeing.
Reimagining Mental Health Support for Children and Young People
Health Innovation NENC
Health and Life Sciences Pledge Meeting
This event marked a new chapter for the Pledge network, bringing together partners from across the health and life sciences sector to explore practical approaches to strengthening the workforce and driving regional economic growth. Discussions focused on reducing economic inactivity, improving access to occupational health services for businesses, and leveraging digital innovation.
Emma Batey, Business Development Manager and member of the NortHFutures team at Northumbria University, gave a talk highlighting the Hub's work on strengthening collaboration across academia, industry and the health and life sciences sector. Her presentation showcased the programme's role in supporting innovation, skills development and business growth by connecting organisations with research expertise, funding opportunities and partnership opportunities.
Health and Life Sciences Pledge Meeting - Health Innovation NENC
Northern Health Science Alliance uses Meetr
The NortHFutures team has been collaborating with the Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA) to use and evaluate the Meetr application at pan-regional events in 2026.
Meetr is a web app developed by NortHFutures to support networking at in-person conference events. The app allows delegates to identify those attending who share similar interests, and it supports the exchange of their contact details. It works like a digital business card.
NHSA have used Meetr for a series of engagement events funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences, taking place in Newcastle, Manchester and Sheffield. This has provided the Hub team with valuable opportunities to use and evaluate Meetr in different settings, with event feedback helping to shape and refine the platform.
The NHSA team has shared positive experiences using Meetr:
'Working with NortHFutures on Meetr for the NHSA and Academy of Medical Sciences Cross Sector Hub events was an excellent experience from start to finish. The team were supportive, responsive and efficient throughout, taking the time to understand what we needed and helping us make the most of the app for our event. Meetr was used widely and enthusiastically by attendees, giving people an easy way to connect, discover others with shared interests and make the most of the opportunities to network. It added real value to the events and helped create connections that could continue beyond the day itself.
The NortHFutures team brought a great combination of technical skill, creativity and practical understanding to the work. Their talent and professionalism made them a pleasure to work with, and we appreciated how readily they responded and delivered. We’re grateful for their contribution to the events and would be very happy to work with them again.'
The NortHFutures researchers have found this opportunity with NHSA incredibly helpful for testing and iteratively developing Meetr's functionality and design. This work is led by a collaborative team at Manchester Metropolitan and Newcastle Universities.
HDR UK Black Internship programme
This summer for the second year in a row NortHFutures funded a group of interns on the HDR UK Black Internship programme. From June to September the group of 5 students and graduates worked on real-world health data science projects hosted by organisations in our region, operating across academia, the NHS, and Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector.
The programme is designed to give Black heritage students and graduates practical experience, training, mentoring and professional networking opportunities in health data science.
Christiana Abolarin - HDR UK
Clifford Ugwu - HDR UK
Khaliq Lamid - HDR UK
Maame Ama Bainson - HDR UK
Child of the North Report on Connecting Data
Hub Director Abigail Durrant and doctoral researcher Sonu Fakiha contributed to a report published last month that builds a case for a national approach to connected data across children's services: 'Connecting Data: Intelligent and Informed Delivery to Support Every Child to Succeed'.
Find out more information about this work and download the report:
Child of the North is a collaborative initiative between the N8 CIR and NHSA with Health Equity North. The report was grounded in consultations following an in-person Child of the North Data Showcase, which took place in Manchester in February.
The research featured by Sonu and Abi explores how smart devices, wearable technologies and data-driven interactions shape the daily experiences of neurodivergent children, and recognises the important role that connected devices and data can play as an emotional and sensory refuge, while also examining challenges on online harms, privacy, surveillance, wellbeing and digital inclusion.
It is encouraging to see this work contributing to the national conversation about using data technologies responsibly to improve outcomes for young people.
Digital Influences: making impact
In September, Cristina Costa from Durham University, and Rhoda Morrow from Gladstone Terrace, Centre for Young People, ran a two-day symposium in Durham to share and discuss findings from a NortHFutures-funded research about digital masculinities and wellbeing.
The research project has investigated how vulnerable young men engage with the digital world and how their experiences affect their sense of self-worth and wellbeing.
Alongside generating new research evidence, the team have helped to catalyse a new Digital Literacies network, which explores for people more widely the role of digital literacy for empowerment, connection and wellbeing. Another outcome underpinned by the principles and practice of this network is the development of a continuing professional development (CPD) programme.
At the Digital Influences event, Cristina and Rhoda invited discussion and diverse stakeholder feedback on the project outcomes, raising the question: "How does growing up in a digital world shape young people's wellbeing, relationships and sense of self?"
Wellbeing and the Digital Lives of Young People
Attendees gave positive event feedback.
"It was a brilliant event - really thoughtful. I loved the resources – so relevant and will really help the evaluation we are undertaking in patient mental health wards in relation to young people’s smart phone social media use." Contributor
Another delegate, an education lead in children and young people’s services at a local council, shared afterwards how the event prompted strategic thinking with her team members.
"We chatted about influence and influencers, what we mean by critical thinking and how do we break this down to engage young people. Really interesting discussions. Your session inspired me."
She also added how the event "gave me the confidence to discuss the subject area in my CPD with schools”.
The CPD booklet has just been published 'Digital influences, recognition, and wellbeing in the digital world' CPD Book. This resource supports conversations with young people about digital wellbeing, digital influence(r)s, and the growing role of content creators in shaping ideas, behaviours, aspirations, and experiences.
Upcoming webinar series
AI in Healthcare: A Practical Guide to Medical Device Development
NortHFutures is funding a webinar series covering AI in healthcare which is being organised by Hub partner HDR UK.
This practical three-part webinar series takes place in November and December 2026 and is delivered by experts from Hardian Health is designed to help researchers, innovators, SMEs, health professionals and aspiring health tech entrepreneurs understand the journey from concept to compliant medical device.
The series will provide a practical introduction to the development, regulation and implementation of Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) and AI as a Medical Device (AIaMD). Participants will gain insight into regulatory requirements, clinical evaluation, quality management, risk management and the software development lifecycle through real-world examples and case studies.
Topics covered will include:
- How software and AI technologies are classified and regulated as medical devices
- UK and international regulatory requirements
- Clinical evidence requirements for AI-enabled technologies
- Quality management systems and risk management principles
- Key standards relevant to software and AI medical devices
- Practical steps to move from innovation to market readiness
The Webinars will be hosted online (via Zoom) and are scheduled as follows:
- 12 November 2026: Introduction to Medical Device Regulation for Software and AI Technologies
- 1 December 2026: Clinical Evaluation of AI Medical Devices
- 3 December 2026: Quality Assurance, Risk Management and the Software Development Lifecycle
Take part
No prior regulatory experience is required, making this an excellent opportunity for anyone interested in digital health innovation and AI-enabled healthcare solutions.
Please email the NortHFutures hub team if you would like more information or to join the mailing list.