Nikki Cooke has a wealth of experience in health and care across private, public and third sectors. She is passionate about driving innovation to embrace new tech from all industries and supply chains.

Originally from New Zealand, Nikki has spent 25 years in the UK where she worked in commercial roles in the IT and communications sectors before joining the NHS in a commercial role. Nikki joined LIVES as the charity’s first Chief Executive in 2016 and more recently became Chair of the Greater Lincolnshire LEP’s Health & Care Enterprise Board. 
 
In this blog Nikki talks about the role of innovation in the sector as well as the challenges and opportunities of working in Greater Lincolnshire.

The Health and Care Enterprise Board takes a lead on strategy development for the sector in Greater Lincolnshire, and its aim is to shape and influence the future of health and care in the county. This means we’re interested in innovation and supporting businesses to grow and succeed, and we’re particularly focused on new solutions which support people to live well for longer in rural areas.  
 
We have surprisingly few businesses that are innovating in health and care in Lincolnshire, despite the need to deliver services in a rural location across an ageing population. The rural character of Greater Lincolnshire is often seen as a challenge, but it is also an opportunity with markets far beyond our own borders.  
 
Earlier this year the board started thinking about innovation ecosystems and the conditions that we need to have in Lincolnshire to encourage our local health and care businesses to thrive, grow and innovate. But, more ambitiously, we’ve also been thinking about how we can encourage people to locate their businesses here. We’ve seen some great examples of this in our own county in the formation of the UK Food Valley and in the emerging defence cluster.  
 
Our diverse health and care sector offers vast opportunities to develop business clusters for an innovation ecosystem. As it employs 58,000 people and is worth over £2bn to the local economy, the industry holds enormous potential for great career opportunities in innovation and technology. We recently held our first workshop to look into the conditions needed to kickstart innovation and how we can start to remove some of the barriers to growth.   
 
We have a number of strategic assets that we can leverage to help businesses innovate and thrive. One great example of this is the Lincoln Medical School, part-funded by the Greater Lincolnshire LEP, which is a key driver in recruitment, training doctors and tackling rural medicine. Both the Lincoln Institute for Rural Health and the National Centre for Rural Health & Care are based here.  
 
This year, the collaborative Campus for Future Living in Mablethorpe broke ground, on a mission to develop and test medical technology applications, which further highlights the opportunities for growth in Greater Lincolnshire. We are also home to an emerging innovative pharmaceuticals sector with some exciting technologies in personalised medication and nutrition.  

We are in a world of change, which brings challenges but also opportunities. Looking through the lens of health and care, we’re grateful that an Innovation Commission is currently under way looking at how we innovate at a systems level, and I truly believe that we have the right conditions and scope here in Greater Lincolnshire to create a high-quality and diverse innovation ecosystem for the sector. 

Find out more about the Health and Care sector here.