Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park began in 2015 with development led by Legacy Park Ltd, a not-for profit company, in collaboration with developers Scarborough Group International. The Park is backed by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, Sheffield City Council, regional universities and NHS partners.
The Park meets the British Olympic Association criteria required to retain the licence to use the word ‘Olympic’ and its direct link to the London 2012 legacy, hosting a number of national training centres for Team GB, including boxing, para-badminton, and para-table tennis.
Chief Executive, Professor Chris Low, and Operations Manager, Claire Fretwell, said: ‘We are delighted to join the UK Science Park Association (UKSPA) after hearing from others how valuable membership is to them. We look forward to meeting new colleagues from around the UK to share ideas, challenges, and solutions.’
Ruth Hall, Chief Executive, UKSPA, said: ‘We’re absolutely delighted and excited to work more closely with the team in Sheffield, with a shared ambition for growth and development across the region. A dedicated cluster for sport, health and wellbeing, The Park deliberately brings together research, innovation, industry, education and community life around the themes of improved health and active lifestyles.
Importantly, this is not a standalone campus. The Park forms part of the wider Sheffield Innovation District, including Sheffield Technology Park, connecting health and wellbeing innovation with strengths in advanced manufacturing, digital technology and engineering. That gives it an extraordinary identity: part heritage project, part forward-looking innovation district.
With the development of the National Centre for Child Health Technology and dedicated laboratory, incubation and commercial spaces, Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park provides a full innovation pathway: from early-stage research and prototyping through to scale-up and market delivery. We are looking forward to working with you all.”
The Park features a number of research and innovation centres including the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre with its preventative health innovations that save the NHS millions, address widening health inequalities, and boost economic growth through improved productivity. The National Centre for Child Health Technology is opening in 2026 as a world-leading facility, bringing together experts from healthcare, academia, and industry to create cutting-edge healthcare solutions that improve young lives across the UK and beyond.
The Park is a little different to traditional science parks as it also includes a school for 2-16 year-olds and a University Technical College for 14-19 year-olds.This allows the students to interact with innovation partners in unique ways. For example the National Centre for Child Health Technology recently involved UTC students as mentors to international start-ups on the Kids Up accelerator programme, helping the companies to develop their child health tech products.
