WORK is now underway on a new centre at the Bradford Royal Infirmary to improve the health and wellbeing of children and the elderly.

The Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research will bring together researchers from the universities of Leeds and Bradford and clinicians from Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The new building will host the Centre for Ageing, one of the UK’s most successful research groups in health research for older people, and the National Institute for Health Research’s National Patient Safety Centre.

And its work around child health will include the groundbreaking Born in Bradford study and Born in Bradford’s Better Start cohorts.

The centre has been made possible thanks to a £1m award from national charity the Wolfson Foundation, which gives grants to support and promote excellence in the fields of science, medicine, the arts and humanities, education and health and disability.

Construction is expected to take around 10 months and is due to be completed in April 2019. The centre will be up and running from May 2019.

Cameron Hodgson, from Sewell Construction, which is building the centre, said: “In our first few weeks we’ve removed 750 tonnes of soil from the site and we’ve been preparing the underground drainage, in readiness for the foundations.

"Steel erection will begin later this month and the building will soon start to take shape from there.

“Being a West Yorkshire lad I’m excited to be involved in this local project that will improve the health and wellbeing of our communities.”

The centre will look at three areas identified as key health priorities for the county - healthy childhood, healthy ageing and high quality and safe care.

Professor John Wright, Director of the Bradford Institute for Health Research at the foundation trust, said: “This project is so exciting because it will improve the health and wellbeing of people in our communities by speeding up the translation of research into real benefits for patients.”

Professor Paul Stewart, Executive Dean for the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Leeds said the award for funds to develop the centre is "pivotal", while Professor Gail Mountain, Head of Dementia Studies at the University of Bradford, said: "The Wolfson centre is a great opportunity for us to engage in a forward thinking research agenda with clinical and research colleagues It will provide exciting new pathways for our early career researchers and facilitate new partnerships, locally, nationally and internationally."