Innovation is recognised as the primary means to drive the Liverpool City Region’s transformational and inclusive economic growth within the global context. Key to unlocking this is combining and maximising our exceptional array of demonstrable and genuinely distinctive science and industry assets and capabilities – from the Materials Innovation Factory, to the STFC Hartree Centre supercomputer and IBM Watson platform, to the internationally renowned Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, to “world first” hydrogen initiatives – building on the £0.8billion investment in innovation infrastructure over the last 5 years, the robust evidence base provided by the 2017 BEIS-commissioned “LCR+” Science & Innovation Audit (SIA), integrated specialist business support, and our devolution powers. There is a particular concentration of “smart specialisation” opportunities in/around the Liverpool Knowledge Quarter and SciTech Daresbury Enterprise Zone, and according to 4 broad, inter-related sectors: 4IR/Advanced Manufacturing Clean Growth Digital & CreaTech Health & Life Sciences The SIA highlighted our world-leading competitive advantages in Materials Chemistry, Infection, and High Performance Computing & AI, and there is now a pipeline of associated large scale projects, e.g. from a National AI Solutions Centre, to Materials Innovation 4.0, Integrated Solutions for Human Infections, global glass innovation (Glass Futures), smart sustainable plastic packaging, MTC North, a civic data trust and Alder Hey’s vision to be the world’s first “Living Hospital”. There is also a critical mass of major clean growth projects spanning offshore, hydrogen, tidal, and nuclear, and geared to achieving the LCR’s target of net zero carbon by 2040, of which the “Mersey Tidal” scheme is the most ambitious. Partnering with the “best of the best” elsewhere in the UK and internationally will also be critical to exploiting our distinctive comparative strengths and realising our growth ambitions. Driving delivery and providing strategic leadership is a high level Innovation Board, involving leading industry representatives, Innovate UK, STFC, both Liverpool and John Moores universities, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine , Liverpool Health Partners, SciTech Daresbury, Knowledge Quarter Liverpool, LCR LEP, plus the Combined Authority, and chaired by Dr. Jon Hague – Unilever’s Vice President Global R&D for Homecare Discover, reflecting the Board’s primary focus on commercialisation.
