A new report highlighting the University’s significant contributions to Liverpool City Region’s substantial strengths and ambitions for the future has been published.
The Liverpool City Region+ Science and Innovation Audit, commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, gives a detailed picture of demonstrable local strengths and opportunities and outlines how collaborations, investments and interventions can drive the City Region’s ambitions to be at the forefront of innovation-driven economic growth.
The report recognises the University’s significant contributions and highlights three particular areas where the Liverpool City Region can be world-leading based on world class research, industry capabilities and innovation assets – materials chemistry, infection and high performance and cognitive computing.
Materials chemistry
The new £65m Materials Innovation Factory (MIF) and Sensor City developments are cited in the report as important contributions to the region’s strengths in this area.
The MIF is an important development in partnership with Unilever, which provides a new template for how researchers can work together to meet society’s grand challenges and drive the UK’s competitive advantage. With access to one of the highest concentrations of materials science automation robotics in the world, university researchers and industry have a unique opportunity to collaborate and advance materials science.
The ultimate aim is to discover new materials which have the potential to save energy and natural resources, improve health and transform a variety of manufacturing processes.
Sensor City opened for business this year. It is a new collaborative venture with Liverpool John Moores University which attracted £10m of external funding into the City. It will drive sensor technology development across the UK and will link leading academics with entrepreneurs.
Infection
The report also highlights the importance of the new Centre of Excellence in Infectious Diseases Research (CEIDR), a joint centre launched earlier this year with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. CEIDR has been created with the aim to address the urgent need to develop new antimicrobials and accelerate solutions for existing and emerging infections.
Partnership working
Commenting on the publication of the report Professor Anthony Hollander, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research and Impact said, “The University of Liverpool welcomes the LCR+ Science and Innovation Audit which confirms our research and innovation strengths and capabilities in Materials Chemistry, Infection and High Performance Computing.
“We look forward to working with partners to maximise the benefits for the region from these capabilities and to help create internationally significant clusters.”
The University is one of the project delivery partners which also include Liverpool City Council, the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) at Daresbury. Liverpool John Moores University are also involved.
The full report can be found here.