The development of the University of Huddersfield’s National Health Innovation Campus (NHIC) has reached a significant stage with a topping-out ceremony for the Emily Siddon Building.
It is the second NHIC building and is adjacent to the Daphne Steele Building, which opened in September 2024 on Southgate in Huddersfield town centre, close to the university’s main campus.
The building is named after the healthcare advocate and governor of Huddersfield Technical College, a forerunner of the university, who spent the majority of her life in nearby Honley.
The 6,800m² facility, expected to open in December 2025, will host new purpose-built diagnostic facilities, including MRI and CT scanners. A Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC), the first on a UK university campus, will open in partnership with Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) to provide access to thousands of additional diagnostic tests for the people of Calderdale and Huddersfield, including MRI and CT scans.
Other floors of the building, designed by architects AHR, will contain specialist clinical teaching facilities, which will also be delivered in partnership with the Trust. These will include new course areas relating to the work of the CDC, such as Diagnostic Radiography. Work with other partners will allow for further developments, including Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy BSc, which will begin in September 2025.
The Emily Siddon Building will also be home to a Health and Wellbeing Innovation Centre for local entrepreneurs, start-ups, and organisations looking to benefit from locating with the university on the campus.
The bolt-tightening ceremony, marking the completion of the highest point on the new building, was attended by University of Huddersfield Vice-Chancellor Professor Bob Cryan CBE. Guests included:
- Professor Mark Radford, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer for NHS England
- Huddersfield MP Harpreet Uppal
- Catherine Riley, Associate Director of Strategy for CHFT
- Daniel Doherty, Regional Director of Kier Construction
“It will be very exciting to see this building evolve over the next few months, with the promise that we will soon see and use a facility that is going to add so much to the university, but will also help to make a real difference to health outcomes in the local community as well,” said Professor Cryan.
“The new Community Diagnostic Centre will bring diagnostic services closer to our communities, making sure people have timely access for tests such as X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs—all in a convenient location,” said Catherine Riley. “Being in the centre of Huddersfield means that we can give greater choice to our patients and increase the number of tests we carry out, meaning that some people don’t even need to come to hospital at all.”
Professor Radford added, “Whilst this feels like a building, it is so much more than that. It takes civic responsibility beyond investment and into intervening in communities and providing health and wellbeing services for the community around here. This requires vision and a team to think ahead, understanding what the town, health, and education needs, and it takes real guts as well as money to make those changes.”
Five more buildings are planned for the seven-acre site.
