- Four days packed with innovation-themed events including local Investment Zone launch and pharma conference
- Primary school children to help launch local book aimed at inspiring next generation of innovators
- Dragons’ Den style pitching event for early-stage business ideas
- Experts from across the world to address final-day summit
World leading innovation, billions of pounds of opportunities and inspiring the next generation of innovators will be highlighted during Liverpool City Region’s first ever Innovation Investment Week.
Dozens of children will help usher in the week on Monday, May 13, at the unveiling of a new primary school book to inspire 6 to 8-year-olds into science and innovation.
The event heralds four days of innovation-themed activity including a local launch of the city region’s new Life Sciences Investment Zone, a Dragons’ Den style pitching event, a pharma industry conference and the city region’s third Innovation Investment Summit.
Evening events include a Pint of Science – which features talks by more than 40 academics from the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and Liverpool School of Tropical Science (LSTM) at pubs in the city centre and Wirral. On Wednesday, University of Liverpool Professor Matt Rosseinsky – recipient of last year’s Eni Award which is often described as the Nobel Prize of energy research – will address a special audience at the Materials Innovation Factory.
Experts from around the world will gather for the day-long Innovation Investment Summit at LJMU’s Student Life building on Thursday, May 16.
Liverpool City Region has more than £725m of live innovation projects with a further £1.9bn in development. The Life Sciences Investment Zone, which started operating in April, is expected to attract an extra £800m of public and private sector investment and is in addition to Astra Zeneca’s £450m investment in its Speke facility announced in March.
Innovation Investment Week events include:
- Local launch of the Liverpool City Region Life Sciences Investment Zone, showcasing 21 projects designed to supercharge the sector by creating new hi-tech facilities, providing business and innovation support and training the next generation of talent. The Investment Zone paves the way for £800m of public and private investment and 8,000 new jobs.
- The third Innovation Investment Summit which will bring together business leaders from around the world to blend global experience with local knowledge to drive the innovation agenda. It will attract investors, entrepreneurs, industry experts, researchers, and policymakers from across the UK and internationally and will explore investment prospects in one of the UK’s most dynamic and welcoming regions.
- A schools-focused launch of KQ Liverpool’s children’s book aimed at inspiring 6–8-year-olds into science and innovation. Dozens of children will be at The Spine to hear Natalie Reeves Billing read extracts from the book that features cartoon animals from space who crash in the Knowledge Quarter Liverpool innovation district and visit local world-leading innovators to repair their ship and themselves. The book has been commissioned by KQ Liverpool, in partnership with the Connected Places Catapult who are aiming to place copies in every city region primary school. The book will also be launched to a business and skills audience later in the week.
- A Dragons’ Den style pitching event in which innovative businesses from across the region will take the stage to showcase their groundbreaking ideas to a diverse panel of investors. The May 15 event is organised by LYVA Labs and the Infection Innovation Consortium: iiCON on behalf of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
- The 7th industry led Bionow Pharma Manufacturing Conference. Held in the heart of the city region’s UK-leading Speke Pharma Cluster, the event will cover emerging technologies in manufacturing, innovation in digitalisation, skills for the 21st Century workforce, technology transfer and investing in the North. Andrew Owen, from the University of Liverpool’s Centre of Excellent for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT), will be among the speakers at the Growth Platform backed event on May 14.
- Pint of Science. More than 40 University of Liverpool, LJMU and LSTM scientists, researchers and academics will take to the stage between May 13 – May 15 in venues across Liverpool and Wirral including Leaf, Future Yard, Tempest and the Ship and Mitre. From the surveillance state to how a cow and a spreadsheet could stop the next pandemic, there is something to satisfy everyone’s thirst for knowledge.
Since the first Innovation Investment Summit in 2022, Liverpool City Region has spearheaded a series of landmark initiatives including publication of the city region’s first ever Innovation Prospectus and piloting Innovate UK’s national Launchpad grant programme – reflecting the region’s highly developed place-based innovation approach.
Liverpool City Region has agreed the country’s first place-based partnership and action plan with Innovate UK and in 2023 a landmark innovation deal was signed with South Korea’s second city, Busan, as part of a major government UK-South Korea innovation twinning programme.
The city region has also become one of only three places in the UK to benefit from both Investment Zone and Freeport status.
The Investment Zone will help the city region towards its innovation powerhouse goal of spending 5% of its economy on R&D by 2030 – nearly double the UK target. Achieving the city region’s 5% R&D target would deliver an estimated £41.7bn of gross economic benefit, a 10% increase in productivity and 44,000 new jobs.
The city region is a world leader in infection prevention and control, materials science and AI solutions and emerging technologies with emerging strengths in net-zero and maritime innovation.
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Executive Director Investment and Delivery, Dr Aileen Jones, said:
“These are hugely exciting times for innovation in the Liverpool City Region.
“We have a new Life Sciences Investment Zone, which like our Freeport, offers significant opportunities to businesses and investors wishing to capitalise on our world-leading innovation capabilities.
“Innovation Investment Week will allow us to showcase the city region’s creativity, entrepreneurship and scientific brilliance, while shining a light on plans to inspire the next generation of innovators.”