Richard Evans Biography
Name: Dr Richard Evans
Job title: Head of Business Development and Innovation, Research and Innovation Department, The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Short biography:
Richard is the Head of Business Development and Innovation within the Research and Innovation Department at The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

Following a career in retail management, Richard has worked in the NHS since 2009 in a variety of roles supporting the delivery of clinical trials, and the development of commercial research and innovation. He joined The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in 2016 as a Research and Innovation Manager responsible for industry liaison and research performance management. In early 2020 he was seconded to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Coordinating Centre to manage the new National Patient Recruitment Centre Programme, and took up his current post in April 2022.

Richard manages a team of Business Development and Innovation Managers who support innovation activity across the Trust, including delivery of the ‘Innovation Pop Up’, an exciting new development at the Trust to focus on translational research and innovation approaches to test bed new ideas and develop collaborations with industry, clinical innovators and entrepreneurs.
The Innovation Pop Up is the first of three phases towards a health innovation campus centred at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI). It aims to:
• Support the development of an innovation culture in LTHT ready for our new digital hospitals
• Be a “safe space” away from clinical areas where clinical staff can work collaboratively with businesses and others involved with innovation
• Be a test bed for the evaluation and piloting of new technologies
• Support local economic growth and promote the regional skills and talent agenda
• Address some of the barriers to innovation in the NHS
• Scale in phases towards the LGI site redevelopment
Contact: Richard.evans47@nhs.net or innovation.lth@nhs.net