Powering the UK’s Life Sciences Sector Plan ambitions through Our Future Health

The UK has set its sights on becoming the leading life sciences economy in Europe by 2030 and the third most important globally by 2035, behind only the US and China. This strategic imperative is backed by over £2 billion in government funding through the new Life Sciences Sector Plan. At the heart of this national transformation lies Our Future Health, a flagship initiative that represents a cornerstone of Britain’s health and economic future.

Achieving such ambitious goals requires innovation, visionary planning and strategic workforce deployment to enable delivery. Acacium Group’s partnership with Our Future Health demonstrates how specialised managed workforce services can power large-scale national programmes and support the UK in meeting its strategic life sciences objectives.

Our Future Health, a national strategic asset

Our Future Health stands as one of the most ambitious health research initiatives in global history. By 2030, backed by up to £354 million of government support, it will become ‘the largest longitudinal health research cohort and clinical trials resource in the world’, encompassing up to five million consented participants with linked primary and secondary care health data, genomic data and biobanked samples.

Our Future Health will facilitate 50,000 participants in commercial clinical trials per year by 2030, directly contributing to the UK’s target of slashing trial setup times to under 150 days by March 2026. This acceleration addresses a fundamental challenge identified in the Life Sciences Sector Plan: ‘For too long, the journey from discovery to delivery has been too slow, too fragmented, and too often held back by outdated systems’.

Beyond clinical trials, Our Future Health serves as a crucial component of the new Health Data Research Service (HDRS), a £600 million investment designed to ‘unite genomic, diagnostic, and clinical data at population scale, turning NHS and wider healthcare data into a magnet for global trials and AI investment’. This data ecosystem supports the government’s vision for genomics to contribute to half of all healthcare interventions by 2035.

Strategic workforce solutions enabling national objectives

The success of initiatives like Our Future Health depends on deploying the right people with the right skills at the right scale. Since our partnership with Our Future Health launched in September 2022, Acacium Group, through our managed services business Xyla, has recruited, vetted, onboarded and trained over 400 expert healthcare professionals. This workforce has supported the collection of over 786,000 blood samples and managed over 795,000 appointments while maintaining a 99.5% success rate across seven stringent quality criteria.

Our managed workforce services enabled Our Future Health to achieve rapid nationwide scaling across fixed regional sites and mobile hubs. Every day, more than 100 qualified healthcare professionals staff sites nationwide, seven days a week, ensuring maximum participation rates across all demographics and geographies.

This operational capability directly supports the clinical trials aspects of the VPAG Investment Programme, which represents ‘the largest consolidated programme in UK history to build dedicated capacity and capability for commercial research’. By enabling consistent, high-quality operations across diverse locations; from shopping centres to mobile units relocating every 4-6 weeks, we contribute directly to the UK’s goal of doubling commercial interventional trial participants by 2026 and again by 2029.

Building infrastructure for life sciences growth

Our Future Health’s operational success demonstrates how strategic workforce deployment is key to building and scaling national programmes. Acacium Group’s clinical governance function, supported by over 160 clinicians integrated into management teams, ensured that every operational process met the exacting standards required for population-scale genomic research.

The flexibility we demonstrated, adapting to changing project dynamics, expanding locations and extending clinic hours as needed, directly supports the Sector Plan’s goal of making the UK ‘an outstanding place in which to start, grow, scale, and invest’.

When global pharmaceutical companies and research institutions evaluate where to conduct trials or establish operations, the proven ability to rapidly deploy qualified workforce at scale becomes a decisive competitive advantage.

Supporting the UK’s 2035 vision

By 2035, the government envisions the UK as having ‘fully harnessed its world leading science and genomics capabilities, become a global leader in regulatory and clinical research infrastructure, and developed a data ecosystem that drives research, diagnosis, and a strong focus on prevention’.

The life sciences sector already employs 304,000 people and generated £108 billion in turnover in 2021/22. By enabling projects like Our Future Health to achieve their ambitious targets, we support the creation of valuable employment, attract international investment and build operational foundations for sustained economic growth. As the Sector Plan notes, ‘Better health and stronger growth go hand in hand’.

Our work with Our Future Health positions Acacium Group as a strategic partner for organisations seeking to align with the Life Sciences Sector Plan’s objectives. Whether supporting accelerated clinical trials, enabling genomics initiatives or facilitating the adoption of health innovations across the NHS, we provide the workforce solutions that transform vision into measurable impact. Our life sciences specialist brands, Proclinical and R&D Partners, bring deep expertise in clinical trial recruitment and research talent, complementing our managed services capabilities to support the sector’s ambitious growth targets. The success of Our Future Health, measured in hundreds of thousands of participants and samples collected, millions of data points generated and a 99.5% quality achievement rate, demonstrates the delivery excellence that will define the UK’s competitive advantage in the global life sciences economy.

Ready to support you in scaling your life sciences programme

Partner with us to accelerate your contributions to the UK’s life sciences ambition. Together, we’re building the healthier, more innovative future that will define Britain’s next chapter on the global stage. Get in touch.