Liverpool City Region’s first Innovation Investment Week highlighted world leading innovation, billions of pounds of opportunities while supporting the next generation of innovators and the University of Liverpool played a key role.
From Monday 14 – Thursday 16 May 2024, University supported events included the local launch of the city region’s new Life Sciences Investment Zone, a reception for UK and Global Venture Capitalists with Professor Matt Rosseinsky, a Dragons’ Den style pitching event, and a pharma industry conference.
Innovation Investment Week brought together business leaders from around the world to blend global experience with local knowledge to drive the innovation agenda. It attracted investors, entrepreneurs, industry experts, researchers, and policymakers from across the UK and internationally to explore investment prospects in one of the UK’s most dynamic and welcoming regions.
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “From the moment I was elected Mayor, it has been one of my priorities to cement our reputation as an attractive environment for businesses to invest.
“We are already home to world leading clusters in life sciences, gaming, advanced computing, and infectious disease control – but I am never content with resting on our laurels. That is why we will invest 5% of local GVA in R&D by the end of the decade, nearly double the government’s own target.
“I truly believe that innovation will be the fuel that powers our economy forward and by establishing ourselves as a hotbed of innovation and new technology, we will be ready to attract many more highly skilled, well-paid jobs, businesses and opportunities from around the world.”
University of Liverpool Vice-Chancellor Professor Tim Jones said: “We are a global University, delivering world-leading research but with a keen focus on our civic role in the city and wider region. It was important we played a key role in the week’s events and their success helps to maintain the momentum we are building as we work collaboratively to deliver our ambitious plans.”
The University was involved in and supported several events, highlights include:
The Local Investment Zone Launch
The University of Liverpool supported the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority in the official local launch of the Life Sciences Investment Zone which is paving the way for £800m of public and private investment and 8,000 new jobs. Read more here.
University Vice Chancellor, Professor Tim Jones, joined Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, and STFC Hartree Centre Director, Katherine Royse, to deliver speeches on the region’s UK-leading place-based innovation approach, assets and opportunities.
‘From Atoms to Materials with Digital Tools’
Professor Matthew Rosseinsky delivers keynote speech
The University led an invitation only reception for UK and Global Venture Capitalists and key Liverpool City Region stakeholders on the theme ‘From Atoms to Materials with Digital Tools’ at the flagship centre, the Materials Innovation Factory (MIF).
The theme represents the core research and innovation activities of the MIF – which, since opening 6 years ago, has become an internationally recognised centre for translational research in digital materials discovery and formulation.
The Keynote Speech was delivered by Professor Matt Rosseinsky, a Royal Society professor in the University’s Department of Chemistry. Professor Rosseinsky’s talk outlined the approach he and his research team have developed to discover new materials. This approach fuses world leading chemical insight, new digital AI tools, and highly efficient and often automated experiments to explore uncharted areas of chemical space. Matt’s work has been internationally recognised for its quality and impact, and recently he was awarded the 2023 Eni Energy Frontiers Award in Rome (often described as the Nobel Prize of energy research) for his work on the digital design and discovery of next-generation energy materials.
Pint of Science
April Lawson, School of Veterinary Science, speaks at Hinderton Arms, Neston
The world’s largest festival of public science talks returned for another year and Liverpool’s events featured more than 40 academics from the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool School of Tropical Science at pubs in the city centre and Wirral.
Bionow’s Pharma Manufacturing Conference
Professor Tim Jones (left) with CELT Investment Zone Project Team
Professor Andrew Owen, Co-director of the University’s world first Centre of Excellence in Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT), part of the Investment Zone plans, delivered a talk at Bionow’s Pharma Manufacturing Conference. The session covered new and emerging technologies coming out of the University that could be an important addition to or even change current pharmaceutical manufacturing practices.
LCR investment proposals pitching to global & UK VCs
A Dragons’ Den style pitching event in which innovative businesses from across the region, including a number of University of Liverpool spin-out companies such as AI Sight Ltd, took to the stage to showcase their groundbreaking ideas to a diverse panel of investors. This event was organised by LYVA Labs and the Infection Innovation Consortium: iiCON.
Post LCR Innovation Investment Summit stakeholder reception, marking CPI’s 20th anniversary
Professor Ronan McGrath, University Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor for Infrastructure and Partnerships, Faculty of Science and Engineering, spoke about the importance of the University’s partnership with CPI, highlighting some of the exciting work we have coming up.
The University recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CPI, a UK-based deep tech innovation organisation, to further expand interactions across research disciplines and strategic innovation priorities as a vehicle to economic development in the Liverpool City Region. Read more here.