When you get past the anacronyms, the medical speak, the White Papers and the seemingly endless array of strategies the news coming out of Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park is simply staggering.
For the uninitiated the Park is on the site of the old Don Valley Stadium in Attercliffe. Already there is a school, a University Technical College and brand-new 3G community sports pitch – a returning home for Sheffield Eagles. A venue for DBL Sharks Sheffield is also in the final stages of planning.
These all back on to the English Institute of Sport Sheffield and iceSheffield to create the boundaries of the Park.
But it is what comes next which is most exciting. Two pioneering projects: The Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Research and Innovation Centre (ORRIC); and The Centre of Child Health and Technology (CCHT) are a step closer to being realised after Chancellor Philip Hammond’s announced in the Autumn Budget that the government is allocating a further £2.3bn to investment in research development.
The centres will be led by Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and will put the city right at the heart of positioning the UK as a world-leader in health technology.
This is big stuff. For example the CCHT will bring together the NHS, private sector and academia to develop cutting-edge health technology to improve the treatment and management of long-term conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy and neurodisability that affect millions of children.
The ORRIC will promote similar collaborative research to address some of the most common yet debilitating musculoskeletal injuries and conditions such as those affecting the spine, hips, knees, ankles, shoulders and elbows.
As I said, lots of big words, lots of capital letters and lots of stuff going on behind the scenes with government proposals and announcements.
When it boils down to it, though, it is Sheffield doing what it does best. Where once steel workers at Brown Bayley made Sheffield stainless steel famous and Jessica Ennis-Hill trained to bring home gold from London 2012 the site will still be world-leading. And that is something to celebrate.
