Money from the European Commission could make Oxford and its immediate surroundings a US-style hub of health technology — which in turn could spell jobs here and an increased assault on the world’s most pressing health concerns now besetting humankind.

Already the Commission has come up with £1.8m to fund an organisation called HealthTIES (Technology Innovation and Economic Success) to investigate how Europe might promote five such hubs to help it fight its corner.

Oxford is one of five hubs that might receive a share of a massive £250m cash injection from the Commission after 2013. The other four are the Medical Delta around Leiden in the Netherlands; Zurich in Switzerland; Barcelona in Spain; and Debrecen in Hungary.

Oxford Co-ordinator for HealthTIES is Prof Bass Hassan of Oxford University.

He told The Oxford Times: “We must co-operate with each other in Europe in order to compete and become, if you like, better than the best. No one country can do it alone.

“Health creators and wealth creators must work together and compete with the growing economies of the Far East. Brussels is worried.”

He added that under the vision for the Oxfordshire of the future the Thames Valley could become “Health Valley”, similar to health technology hubs now found in Boston, San Francisco, and San Diego — all of which grew up around top research universities which provided a world-class environment for innovative start-up companies.

HealthTIES is nicknamed the “triple Helix” because partners from the worlds of academia and commerce along with policy makers are now involved in putting together plans that could net Oxford a share of that Brussels money. “We want work with innovative small and medium-sized enterprises on the business and science parks around Oxford,” said Prof Hassan.

Representing the commercial enterprise element of HealthTIES in Oxfordshire is Dr John Anson, vice president of biomarker discovery at Oxford Gene Technology, based at Begbroke Science Park.

Dr Anson said: “We have now reached the Third Revolution in health care. There was the discovery of DNA by Watson and Crick; then there was the sequencing of the human genome; now the tasks ahead needed to immensely improve the quality of human life are so huge and diverse that co-operation is essential.

“It’s true that competition between companies is potentially a problem, but we must work together despite that. No one company will ever dominate.”

In the next three years HealthTIES will use the £1.8m primer money from the European Commission to study the problem and come up with a blueprint for the best possible model for a health technology hub.

The blueprint will detail how the university, new biotech companies on the region’s science parks, and larger hospitals and healthcare providers can be brought together to drive new research advances to market. The five areas in the scheme hope to establish just such hubs, with the help of more European money — and then set about co-operating between hubs.

Prof Hassan said: “We realise we are not doing things perfectly, but we want to learn. I realise there is a lot of work ahead but I think the possibility of Oxford becoming one of these clusters is realistic. The support is there.”

The HealthTIES Oxford project was formally launched this week at Corpus Christi and Lincoln Colleges, in the presence of the Mayors of both Oxford and Leiden (which coincidentally is Oxford's twin town).

Oxford Gene Technology is an example of what can be achieved through co-operation between academia and commerce. It is a spin-out company from Oxford University founded in 1995 by Prof Ed Southern.

It provides innovative clinical genetics and diagnostic solutions in order to advance molecular science. In the past two years it has doubled its workforce to 60.

Now Prof Southern is developing new diagnostic techniques which could be made money-making propositions in-house or by working as partners with other diagnostic and pharmaceutical organisations.

The focus of the European health clusters will be on four areas: health disease; cancer, neuro-degenerative diseases, including dementia, and infectious diseases.

Cambridge University has established itself as a “Silicon Fen” area, at the centre of IT; now Oxford is hoping to emulate it in the health arena.

Prof Hassan said: “As a University our best minds also need to be innovating.

“Of course we need to continue securing research funding to do the best blue-sky science as we are doing already. But we also need a strategic plan, a funding mechanism and a structure to interact with our local partners and turn research funding into wealth creation.”