A fully funded start-up programme supporting health and wellbeing businesses has returned to Kirklees for a second year, building on its first successful cohort. Kirklees Council confirmed the Thrive programme, part of the Huddersfield Health Innovation Incubator, has now welcomed its second group of entrepreneurs after starting in April 2026.
The first Thrive cohort launched in October 2025 and supported 17 entrepreneurs through workshops, mentoring, and presentations to fellow participants, professionals and mentors. David Shepherd, Executive Director for Place at Kirklees Council, said demand from early stage start-ups proves the scheme is working. “The ongoing demand for Thrive from early stage start-ups is testament to the success of the programme to date,” he said.
Thrive is delivered in partnership with Kirklees Council, the University of Huddersfield and 3M Buckley Innovation Centre, and is fully funded by the UK Government through the West Yorkshire Investment Zone. West Yorkshire Combined Authority provided Kirklees Council with £2,023,576.25 via the Government’s Industrial Strategy Zone programme to deliver the wider incubator. Participants in the first cohort also received funded co-working space at The Glass Box.
Applications for the next Thrive cohort are now open for a programme beginning in Autumn 2026. Early-stage health and wellbeing businesses based in West Yorkshire, up to three years old and with fewer than five employees, can apply through the Huddersfield Health Innovation Incubator website.
The incubator forms part of the West Yorkshire Health Innovation and Digital Tech Investment Zone and supports wider plans to establish a health innovation district in the Station to Stadium Enterprise Corridor, anchored by the University’s National Health Innovation Campus.
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