A welcome to the event will be made by each of our delivery partners, including:

• Empact Ventures (Kosta Mavroulakis, Founder & CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Global Good)
• iNVEST Manchester (Andrea Winders, Head of Inward Investment – Life Sciences & Healthcare)
• Bruntwood SciTech (Hannah Churchman, Head of Innovation and Growth,

Ralph will outline how companies of all sizes can work with the NHS and the support available in Manchester

This session strips back the conventional recruitment narrative to expose the raw realities of scaling a HealthTech enterprise within Greater Manchester’s unique ecosystem. Local industry leaders and talent experts will confront the sharpest friction points facing startups and scale-ups today—from the fierce battle for rare, multi-disciplinary talent that bridges deep clinical insight with regulatory and AI expertise, to the authentic drivers behind candidate retention and workplace wellbeing. Moving beyond generic corporate diversity pledges, the discussion will dissect what genuine startup cultural alignment looks like in practice, expose the hidden barriers to entry for candidates, and critically evaluate whether Manchester’s talent pipeline is expanding fast enough to sustain its ambition as a world-class health innovation hub.

Panellists include:

• Andrew Medhurst, Managing Director, Inspire People
• Samantha Moore, Founder and CEO, Medical Engineers
• Barnaby Donlan, Director of Integrated Life Science Group
• Behruz Sheikh, Head of Sector – Life Sciences, SRG
• Oliver Duke, Principal Consultant, RMG Group

The Global Good Pitch session is supported by the OVHcloud Healthcare Accelerator powered by Empact Ventures. It aims to showcase the latest emerging HealthTech and MedTech innovations from Manchester and beyond giving them an opportunity to pitch for pilots, partnerships or funding with the panelists and the audience:

Chaired by Kseniia Trufanova, Employer Engagement Consultant at GBS

Our panellists include:

• Roxana Dumitrache, Strategic Programme Manager, NIHR HealthTech Research Centre for Accelerated Surgical Care
• James Reston, Investment Manager, DSW Ventures
• Harry Manley, Investment Associate, PXN Ventures
• Philip Marais, Global Start-up Director, OVHcloud Startup Program

Pitchers include:

• • Marcus Orton, Advisor, Tytonyx
  • Sara Elgott, Director, OpalMedica
  • Michael Jakubiak, Founder and CEO, ND Axon

Stripping away the high-level theory, this panel focuses on the gritty, operational realities of establishing and scaling a HealthTech or MedTech business in Greater Manchester. The discussion will cover the practicalities of navigating regional support pathways while tackling the immediate friction points.

Chair: Kevin Reed, Business Development Manager – Healthcare and Life Sciences, iNVEST Manchester

Panellist: Jamie Bottomley, Director, Track Real Estate

Panellist: Laura Darnley, Partner at Ward Hadaway

Panellist: Toby Biollo, Director – Tech Banker – HSBC Innovation Banking

Navigating Greater Manchester’s vast health innovation network can easily lead to “ecosystem fatigue.” Built on the Manchester Health Series’ core values of super-connecting you by fostering purposeful, high-impact collaborations in the events, this high-velocity session brings together the region’s top super-connectors to share a practical playbook for building a network that delivers real commercial value. Chaired by Hannah Churchman, the session highlights Bruntwood SciTech’s expertise in fostering ecosystems across their buildings, alongside Health Innovation Manchester on bridging the gap between the NHS and academia. BioNow joins to demystify the biotech and life sciences landscape, with Harpreet Kaur bringing the grassroots startup and tech perspective, and Dr. Rashmi Raju opening doors to international trade and global market corridors.

The panellists include:

• Chair: Hannah Churchman, Head of Innovation and Growth, Bruntwood SciTech
• Daniel Zamora, Programme Director, Health Innovation Manchester
• Owain Walsh, Membership Manager, BioNow
• Harpreet Kaur, Ecosystem Builder
• Dr Rashmi Raju, International Manager, Medilink North of England

The panel will focus on the benefits of being in Manchester and how the ecosystem can support you to scale. Chaired by Hannah Churchman, Head of Innovation and Growth at Bruntwood SciTech

Securing capital for a HealthTech, MedTech, or Life Sciences venture in Greater Manchester requires far more than an AI-generated pitch deck; it demands a deep understanding of how different funding tiers evaluate clinical and commercial risk. Chaired by Andrea Winders of iNVEST Manchester, this panel brings together investment leaders from across the funding lifecycle to map out the current realities of capitalisation. Attendees will gain an unvarnished playbook on how to navigate the funding escalator. This session will help founders bypass the “funding loop” and learn exactly how to align their business runway with investor expectations.

Panellists include:

• Chair: Andrea Winders, Head of Inward Investment for Life Sciences and Healthcare, iNVEST Manchester
• Simon Copeland, Founder and Director, Molino Capital Advisory
• James Reston, Investment Manager, DSW Ventures
• Harry Manley, Investment Associate, PXN Ventures

Note: There will be no lunch provided, though you are welcome to finish your networking while we pack up

The event will come to a close after this session, and we encourage you to go to the next event at Bruntwood SciTech’s CityLabs 1.0, led by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, with lunch starting at 1 pm (see below).

As outlined in the previous segment, the Manchester Health Series (Market Access) event will come to a close at 12:30 pm, providing you with time to make your way to CityLabs 1.0 for a separate event we encourage you to attend and note this is not part of our event, and you will need to register below:

Manchester in Action: Collaboration across Research, Innovation and Care

Date and time: Tuesday 9 June 2026, 1:00-3:45 pm

Venue: Citylabs 1.0, M13 9NQ

This event, delivered in partnership between Manchester University NHS FT (MFT) with the NHS Alliance, will offer insight into how national NHS ambitions are being delivered on the ground. The afternoon will bring together NHS, life science and innovation leaders to explore shared priorities emerging from the 10 Year Health Plan and the Life Sciences Sector Plan, while also highlighting how MFT and the wider Manchester ecosystem are advancing research, innovation, and collaboration at scale.

We’ll kick things off with a relaxed networking lunch, followed by a series of short talks and a showcase carousel highlighting opportunities across data, genomics and robotics, to name a few.

To see the full agenda and to RSVP – click here