Big ideas, bright futures: Meet the 19 finalists shaping a healthier West Yorkshire
31 July 2025
Our finalist teams for the Mayor’s big ideas challenge have now been selected to further develop their solutions to tackle health inequality in West Yorkshire.
Today, we’re thrilled to announce the 19 local businesses chosen to progress to the finalist phase in the Tackling health inequalities: the Mayor’s big ideas challenge – a £1 million initiative designed to overcome some of the toughest health inequalities in West Yorkshire.
This cohort of finalists represent a range of solutions with the potential to tackle health inequality issues in Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield and transform the lives of local people – from an AI wellbeing companion for neurodivergent women, a digital training service for pharmacists, and a language platform to improve children’s communication skills among the 19.
After a rigorous judging process, each selected finalist will now receive £20,000 in development funding and a tailored package of support to help them further develop, test, and refine their ideas over the next seven months. In March 2026, we’ll see up to three standout solutions be selected as winners and awarded an additional £100,000 each to assist them in scaling up and commercialising their innovations.
We’ve been working in close collaboration with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority from day one to deliver this innovative challenge on behalf of Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire. So, this is such an exciting milestone for us here at Challenge Works and we feel proud to see the finalists embarking on this next phase.
All 19 finalists came together in Leeds, earlier this month, for our Innovator Academy. This wasn’t just a kick-off event, but was also a moment of connection and shared vision, where the incredible drive of each innovator to make a real difference shone through.
The event was a key opportunity for finalists to build connections and lay the groundwork to accelerate their groundbreaking solutions. This marks the beginning of an exciting journey where each finalist will receive tailored support to help them shape their ideas around real human needs, map out their path to commercialisation, and ultimately create meaningful change in their communities.
We are incredibly excited for how these innovative solutions will evolve over the coming months and look forward to March next year, when up to three of the most impactful innovations will be awarded £100,000 each to take their work even further.
Who are the finalists?
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Antidote Medical Ltd
The West Yorkshire DPP Support and Prescribing Support Platform is a new digital platform offering the region’s pharmacists training, mentorship and peer support. This empowers pharmacists to improve patient access, deliver safer prescribing, and directly tackle local health inequalities, strengthening primary care for everyone across West Yorkshire.
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Asclepius MedTech Limited
Leeds-based Asclepius MedTech has developed Surgfit to help hospitals deliver safer and more effective surgical care. Built by clinicians, Surgifit uses wearable biosensors to assess patients before their surgery, in the comfort of their own home, providing a more convenient and patient friendly alternative that reduces hospital visits.
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Body Image Coach
Built to challenge unrealistic beauty standards and help teens reduce comparison and build a positive relationship with their bodies. Through guided coaching sessions, psycho-education, and peer support groups, Body Image Coach helps to develop self-acceptance, confidence, and body appreciation – tackling the root cause of body image struggle that impact mental and physical health.
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Carly Walter Coaching and Consultancy Ltd
Created by Carly Walter Coaching and Consultancy, MAGI is an AI-powered wellbeing companion designed by, and for, neurodivergent women or any women navigating burnout, overwhelm, or hormonal shifts. From emotional regulation to daily decision support, it’s accessible, non-judgmental and personalised.
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Confidence with SJ Ltd
An innovative app that supports professional women in West Yorkshire to strengthen their confidence, resilience and wellbeing during key life and career transitions. By addressing the root causes of burnout and progression barriers, it will shape healthier, more inclusive workplaces where women can thrive, lead, and drive lasting change.
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Featherstone Rovers Foundation with Spectrum People
The Creative Health Learning Pathway is an apprenticeship programme led by Featherstone Rovers Foundation with Spectrum People combining accredited training, mentorship, and hands-on experience to equip underserved individuals with skills to deliver arts and wellbeing activities, tackling health inequalities and building a new creative workforce across West Yorkshire.
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Harmonai Hub
Harmonai is an AI-powered wellbeing platform for carers, offering personalised support, guided journaling and a safe, understanding peer community. Blending self-help tools with therapeutic techniques, it empowers mental health, resilience and connection anytime, anywhere.
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Health Innovation Ventures LTD
Created by Health Innovation Ventures, GP Pathways is an intelligent care navigating platform that empowers GP reception teams to safely signpost patients to Pharmacy First, Self Care, a more appropriate clinician or community-based health and care teams – easing GP pressure and tackling health inequalities through faster, fairer and more appropriate access to care.
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HEROES Programme Ltd
A mental health recovery programme that is redefining healthcare. Through lived-experience, leadership, digital innovation, unique educational approaches, and inclusive group support, HEROES embeds a new standard of compassionate, whole-person healing into mainstream systems. It is driving a shift in how mental health is understood and worked with, and is designed to reach those often excluded from care.
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Humant Group Limited
Humant enables occupational therapists to conduct remote home assessments using 3D scans, images, and videos captured via smartphone. It supports clinical decision-making, reduces delays and improves patient safety by streamlining adaptive equipment planning, cutting costs and increasing capacity across NHS and social care services.
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International Mixed Ability Sports (IMAS) with Nifty Sustainability
This innovation aims to harness the lived experience of disabled people and other groups that are disproportionately affected by health equalities to co-produce and co-deliver educational training and learning resources to health and social care practitioners. This will create long-term positive solutions that are needs-based, person-centred and led by those with lived experience.
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JGME Consulting UK Ltd
Created by JGME Consulting UK, EqualCare Assess is an AI-powered platform that automates Care Act assessments. Automating this process provides faster and fairer access to adult social care. By reducing delays, overcoming language barriers, and promoting equity, it empowers vulnerable communities in West Yorkshire to receive timely support, improving health outcomes and inequalities.
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KayHector Consulting Ltd
Created by KayHector Consulting, DiaHype Lifestyle Solutions is an AI-powered platform helping South Asian and African Caribbean communities in West Yorkshire to prevent and manage chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. The platform delivers culturally-tailored lifestyle education, self-care tools, and virtual support – boosting health literacy, reducing hospital visits, and promoting lasting, family-focused behavioural change.
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Key Engineering Solutions Limited
Polly, created by Key Engineering Solutions, is an AI-powered speech and language platform helping young children in disadvantaged communities develop core communication skills. Co-designed with therapists, Polly delivers personalised, playful therapy sessions in schools and homes, making early intervention for those children who require support with their communication accessible, scalable, and effective.
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Kids Speech Labs
This solution supports NHS speech and language therapy teams to identify the needs of children accessing their service. By improving referral and screening processes, only children with genuine clinical needs are directed into therapy pathways – helping to ease the backlog for speech and language therapy services. The SHARE platform’s Waiting-Well initiative boosts parental engagement through targeted home-based strategies for treatment response.
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Mind Body Goals
Luma³ Editions, created by Mind Body goals, is a digital tool that has been integrated into existing NHS patient pathways. It offers proven breathwork and mindfulness techniques, providing accessible, preventative mental wellbeing skills. This innovative solution democratises vital self-management for all socioeconomic groups, enhancing patient experience and proactive health outcomes across West Yorkshire.
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Safe Space Labs
Empowers neurodiverse individuals by giving them the tools to regulate their emotions and express their needs. The product improves mental health outcomes and is co-designed with educators and clinicians, and the app helps build social communication and executive functioning skills, enabling users to thrive across real-world settings.
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Third Age Therapeutics Limited
Loneliness can deeply affect the lives of older people and is an often overlooked health issue. Third Age Therapeutics is tackling the epidemic of loneliness by empowering people to make meaningful changes in their lives through an evidence-based telehealth solution that prevents poor mental health and loneliness in aging populations – harnessing the power of local communities, in partnership with the region’s best science.
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UKind Therapy CIC
UKind Therapy CIC delivers trauma-informed virtual reality (VR) therapy, co-designed with survivors of domestic abuse. Combining immersive VR with AI-guided support, UKind XR empowers users to heal from trauma, build confidence, and reconnect with purpose. The solution increases access to safe, self-led mental health support across diverse communities.
Watch this space for updates as the finalists progress, and stay tuned for the announcement of the winning teams in March 2026.
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