The University of Huddersfield’s new £250 million Health Innovation Campus will make Huddersfield a national centre for the training of NHS nurses, midwives and other medical practitioners.

The campus will become the new home to the university’s School of Human & Health Sciences which is creating jobs and growing fast.

Also promised are “world leading research facilities” in fields such as skin integrity and infection prevention, psychological therapies, addiction and falls prevention.

The first image of what the main building – the £40 million Health & Wellbeing Academy – could look like has just been published.

Outline plans for the development will be discussed at a meeting of Kirklees Council’s Strategic Planning Committee on Thursday.

The campus, which includes an eight-storey block, is earmarked for the former Huddersfield Sports Centre site on the prominent junction of Huddersfield Ring Road and Southgate.

The university held a design competition among architects to come up with the best and most innovative design for the academy building.

The university released an image of the design as vice-chancellor Bob Cryan met with Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin to show her the plans.

The site of the “landmark building” to the left of Crown House in Southgate, Huddersfield

The 6.6-acre parcel of land, currently used as a temporary council car park, will be divided into seven plots. The first will see a “landmark building” constructed on the gateway to the site, next to Crown House.

A multi-storey car park is also proposed for the rear of Crown House and accessed from Old Leeds Road.

The campus will include a mock up ‘residential home’ for use by students in occupational therapy, paramedic science, mental health nursing and social work.

A university spokesman said: “The campus will include the Health and Wellbeing Academy, world leading research facilities and specialist clinical teaching facilities.

READ MORE: How the design of the new Health and Wellbeing Academy had much to live up to

“The university is already the largest provider of apprenticeships and of workforce development in the NHS in the region and this investment will continue to build on this.

“The campus will enable rapid expansion in fields such as nursing, midwifery, allied health and human sciences and will help to meet the demand for healthcare professionals.”

The spokesman said the university was already “uniquely placed” to take a leading role in the expansion of the NHS and social care workforce.

The university’s provision in the fields of nursing, midwifery and allied health had grown by 60% in the last five years and the new centre would enable further growth of another 60% in the next five years.

How the site is divided into seven plots

The School of Human & Health Sciences has created an additional 200 skilled jobs over the last four years and at least 100 more are planned over the next five years.

The university aims to become a Northern training hub to help fill the 43,600 nursing vacancies identified by Health Education England in 2019.

The campus won’t just be for training medical staff and students, however. There will be podiatry, sports and physiotherapy clinics, parent and child clinics and mental health clinics that will be open to the public.

The university says the campus will be a “focus for skilled jobs growth in and around Huddersfield and for inward investment to the region.”

Subject to planning permission the main building could be open for the start of the 2024-25 academic year.