STEM Workshops in Leeds

Leeds has a rich STEM heritage rooted in the engineering innovation that powered the Industrial Revolution. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Leeds became a major centre of textile manufacturing, with engineers pioneering mechanised flax spinning and woollen cloth production in some of the world's first large-scale industrial mills. The city was a major centre for locomotive engineering, with firms such as Hunslet Engine Company (founded 1864) producing railway engines exported across the world.

Joseph Priestley, often associated with Birmingham, was born in Birstall near Leeds in 1733 and went on to discover oxygen. Medical engineers at the University of Leeds helped to develop the first standard for hip joint replacements. Professor Catherine Noakes, who has spent most of her career at the University of Leeds, is an expert on airborne infection transmission whose work during the COVID-19 pandemic, including on SAGE, informed national ventilation guidance, earning her an OBE in 2020. More recently, Leeds has become a centre for fintech and health-tech innovation, producing entrepreneurs and researchers who are shaping the digital economy.

Leeds today is the UK's largest centre for finance and professional services outside London, with particular strengths in financial technology, digital services, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing. NHS England has a major digital and data presence in the city following NHS Digital's merger into it in February 2023, while the city's fintech sector is growing fast. The Nexus innovation hub at the University of Leeds supports a community of start-ups and scale-ups. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, one of the largest teaching hospital trusts in the UK, works closely with the university on medical research and clinical technology.

Young people in Leeds have access to a growing range of STEM career pathways, from fintech and software engineering to medical technology and advanced manufacturing. Leeds is home to more than 3,000 digital and data companies, a sector that generated 12,000 jobs between 2015 and 2022. NHS England and the wider health and care sector offer routes into health informatics, data science and digital transformation.