Posted 19 May 2025

Bradford Digitisation Hub (BDH) is co-funded by West Yorkshire Investment Zone and the University of Bradford and managed by West Yorkshire Combined Authority. 

BDH is designed to solve complex research and development issues for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly health-tech companies, using the University of Bradford’s scientific instrumentation and engineering capabilities. 

In a nutshell, BDH exists to enable SMEs to gain access to cutting-edge technologies and processes such as X-Ray diffraction, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, thermal analysis instrumentation, metal/composite 3D printing and more to help them solve manufacturing problems and develop new products. 

This is important because SMEs are integral to our economy as they employ over half the UK workforce in the private sector. 

The first phase of funding for BDH is worth around £900,000 and will see us working on 30 fully funded research and development projects, providing state-of-the-art chemical and physical analytical and engineering facilities to support health-tech and manufacturing companies by March 2026. If the programme proves successful (as we believe it will), funding could rise to around £5m by 2029 and we could work with around 150 SMEs in total. 

We already have experience of working with over 100 SMEs on two previous – and similar – projects, known as Projects CAYMAN and SIBLING. 

Testimonials from some of the companies we have worked with show the impact we had – and in turn why BDH will be transformational for West Yorkshire as a whole. 

One example is Bradford-based James Robinson Fibres, a leading independent manufacturer, stockholder and supplier of polyester staple fibres. They encountered a problem with one of their products, which was failing safety tests, putting at risk a large European sale of goods. We used Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry to analyse the materials – we then identified the problem and resolved the company’s issue.  

Hydrowash Ltd are specialists in industrial high pressure washing and steam cleaning. They used an important sanitising product in their cleaning formulations which was withdrawn from the marketplace, so they had to look for alternatives. An option was to consider their own in-house manufacture. To do that they needed some deformulation analysis undertaken on the product to understand its chemical composition. They asked the project SIBLING team to help. 

Andy Farrant, HydroWash Director, said: “The information we received from the SIBLING project helped us to identify and quantify the major components of the sanitising product. The formulation was a lot more complex than we first imagined but the data provided will help us start to develop a prototype replacement product that we can test in-house.” 

These are concrete examples of how high-tech research facilities at universities can have a direct impact in the real world, specifically on boosting the regional economy. BDH is designed to do just that. It also has a beneficial knock-on to fellow researchers and students. If anyone ever asks you what universities do, apart from delivering higher education, here is an answer. 

 

Neil Hudson, University of Bradford, Head of Communications and PR (cover) & Media Relations Manager