Investment, inspiration and insight : KQ Liverpool in 2024
Our chief executive, Colin Sinclair, reflects on a seminal year for KQ Liverpool.
What an incredible year it has been for Knowledge Quarter Liverpool, both for ourselves as an organisation and for our partners across the innovation district. Indeed, the past 12 months may come to be regarded as the most pivotal in our history.
Our innovation district was founded eight years ago – one of the first in the UK – to build on Liverpool’s strong foundations in areas such as health and life sciences, materials chemistry, artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced manufacturing technologies.
A place where great inventions are made and where culture is the beating heart of the community. With Hope Street and the Fabric District, the Universities, Cathedrals, Colleges and the Health Campus working as one. Creating something greater than the sum of its parts.
Fast forward to 2024 and we can be immensely proud that KQ Liverpool has not only helped to reinforce the City Region’s global reputation by convening some of the greatest minds, supporting numerous successful research projects and providing a platform for collaboration, but also demonstrated its limitless potential to cultivate a new pipeline of talent and underpin our skills base for generations to come.
Engine room of the LCR Investment Zone
In 2024, we were thrilled to be awarded Investment Zone funding by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to significantly expand our skills and outreach programmes, including the Future Innovators Programme, which welcomes Sixth Form and college students from across the city region to visit innovation sites in KQ Liverpool and understand the various career paths that exist here, giving insights into the jobs of the future and offering innovative internships too.
A number of other projects were awarded funding across the LCR, including a large proportion within KQ Liverpool itself, to help supercharge health and life sciences in the city region. Among those were HEMISPHERE One and Two, a planned pair of laboratory and workspace developments in Paddington Village, Liverpool City Council’s flagship development site. The construction of HEMISPHERE One is due to start in the Spring of 2025 and will be a huge step forward in the provision of bio and chemistry lab space in the City Region.
These groundbreaking new labs are being brought forward by KQ Liverpool’s spin-out development company Sciontec, the owners of Liverpool Science Park, which hit its own milestone in 2024, operating at full capacity and generating record profits, all of which are being recycled into future innovations.
It is inspiring that our innovation district is providing the central fabric in this wider tapestry of inclusive innovation, delivered by our pioneering friends and partners including the Infection Innovation Consortium (iiCON), the Centre for Long-Acting Therapeutics (CELT) and Civic HealthTech Innovation Zone (CHI-Zone). All of whom were allocated vital new pioneering research funding in 2024.
Creating a pipeline of future talent
Our commitment to education and skills continued with the launch this year of our new children’s book, The Animates : Learning in Liverpool, in conjunction with Connected Places Catapult. The story aims to inspire the next generation of local innovators and tells the story of six animal friends who crash land from space in KQ Liverpool and must use science and technology to help them repair their ship and return home.
We launched the book at separate events for schoolchildren and business leaders, and received overwhelmingly positive reactions from both. Importantly, it has proven hugely popular with teachers and we are on course to deliver a copy of the book to every Liverpool City Region primary school by the end of this year, along with a lesson plan to help schools incorporate the book within their teaching.
Defined by our people
Halfway through the year, we bade a fond farewell to the inimitable Rachael Stevens, who was instrumental to so much of our recent success at KQ Liverpool, during her time as head of partnerships and external relations, and we wish the very best of luck in her continuing adventures, working for the UK Government on trade and investment in Canada.
Meanwhile, in keeping with our mission of developing talented young people who live and study in Liverpool City Region, Emily Robson stepped up to become KQ Liverpool’s first assistant chief executive, a role she has taken on with aplomb as she continues to bring invaluable insights and energy to our organisation and helps to set the agenda for KQ Liverpool over the coming years. It was fantastic to see her win the Rising Star Award at this year’s national Estates Gazette Awards.
We were also pleased to welcome Claire Kidman as our new head of partnerships and will in the New Year be appointing an Inclusive Innovation Officer and a Skills Project Coordinator to further boost our work with young people and business.
Claire has helped to lead the return of our popular KQ In the Know events, which have featured expert insights on topics including how to innovate using AI and the power of innovation districts, with more events planned for 2025 and beyond.
An exemplar of success
Our year closed with a visit from an influential group of MPs, the newly-formed House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee (DSIT), who cited the city region as an exemplar of best practice in innovation investment.
The committee’s first-ever visit took in several key KQ Liverpool sites, including the Materials Innovation Factory at the University of Liverpool, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, with its flagship national Infection Innovation Consortium (iiCON) programme, and the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) at Liverpool Science Park, where MPs were welcomed by Mayor Steve Rotheram.
Once again, it is great to see our innovation district being showcased at the epicentre of the innovation ecosystem.
Moving forward
We are currently working on the finer details of our new KQ Liverpool Vision – KQ 2040 – which we will be launching at the end of January 2025.
This has been devised with our Chair Andrew Lewis following months of consultation with over sixty key stakeholders, including Liverpool City Council, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool University Hospitals and Bruntwood SciTech to understand their respective needs and their views on KQ Liverpool and its important role within the City Region’s innovation landscape.
Ultimately, our goal is to continue to drive economic growth and job creation while finding new ways to positively impact people’s lives through the delivery of inclusive innovation in the city region over the next 15 years. So, please keep your eyes peeled for more news on that.
Overall, 2024 has been a great year for the KQ Liverpool Innovation District and though there is still much to do we go into 2025 with hope, optimism, determination and the energy to succeed.
