Skills engagement can unlock LCR potential

29th August 2024/in The Knowledge Quarter/by Martin Jones

I once read that “every skill you acquire doubles your chances of success” and, while that may not be entirely factually correct, I do believe it cuts to the heart of why skills engagement is so important.

The more skills we have at our disposal, the greater the odds that those skills become useful and set us on the right path. In the context of KQ Liverpool’s approach to skills engagement, we can be certain that the greater knowledge a person has about something, the more it becomes demystified, and the choices they make become more informed.

When young people are looking ahead and trying to figure out what they want to do with their future lives, it’s impossible to have too much information to hand. The broader the horizon, the better, and understanding the opportunities available in their own City Region is a great starting point.

Fuelling the innovators of tomorrow

KQ Liverpool is an innovation district that’s home to some of the world’s most influential players in science, health, technology, culture and education, underlining the Liverpool City Region’s strengths in health and life sciences, infection control, materials chemistry and AI solutions and emerging technologies.

We have global leaders in various sectors and an array of talent that we can be proud of. They are also the bedrock of our future social and economic prosperity, which is reflected in the LCR’s Investment Zone plans, so it’s crucial that we maximise the potential they can offer.

Within our placemaking agenda, we believe the new discoveries made here and the jobs and opportunities they create should benefit the wider City Region community, which is why we have placed skills engagement at the heart of our work.

This involves close collaboration with local schools and colleges, as well as our many partner institutions and businesses within KQ Liverpool to create a confluence where ambition, innovation and education come together.

We work closely with the LCR Careers Hub to benchmark against the relevant Gatsby markers and give schools a better understanding of the impact. We have also created a KQ Liverpool schools prospectus to break down the barriers to innovation and make it relatable and understandable with a simpler vocabulary and a focus on skills and career opportunities.

Doorstep delivery

A key part of our skills engagement work is the Future Innovators Programme, where Sixth Formers from across the Liverpool City Region are invited to take part in an activities tour around a handful of KQ Liverpool innovation sites. They receive first-hand insight into the pioneering work taking place on their doorstep, such as venom extraction at LSTM’s Snakebite Research Centre or digital robotics at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Liverpool Science Park.

To name but a few, other industry partners in the programme include the Astrophysics team at Liverpool John Moores University, the Digital Innovation Facility at the University of Liverpool, Royal College of Physicians, Infection Innovation Consortium, Elida Beauty Products (part of Unilever) and gaming developer Draw & Code, demonstrating the depth of insight students can access.

It’s rewarding to see students enjoy the activities and want to know more about the career pathways that may exist. We also enjoy receiving positive feedback from teaching staff and helping them to arrange work experience placements further down the line.

Another great measure of our skills programme is the willingness of so many expert partners to take part. They understand the importance of skills engagement as keenly as we do and they see the value of engaging with young people and collaborating to develop new talent.

Making an early start

We believe it’s never too early to engage with children about skills, so we’ve developed a brand new illustrated children’s book – The Animates : Learning in Liverpool – which follows a team of seven animal inventors who crash land in KQ Liverpool and embark on a madcap tour of its various organisations to find the innovations needed to get them home.

Our ambition was to create a unique, enduring platform to introduce primary school aged children to the concept of innovation. At the heart of the story is a question about the qualities that make an inventor and how to bring your ideas to life.

We want to have a copy in every primary school classroom in the Liverpool City Region by the end of this year. It will be accompanied by a detailed lesson plan and the KQ Liverpool team is working with teachers to help them expand on the material in classrooms.

Connecting skills to business

Skills are crucial, but it’s also important to understand where they can take us.

Our inaugural Careers Insight Week brought together pupils from sixteen different LCR schools for a series of events, delivered in partnership with LCR Careers Hub and funded by the Careers and Enterprise Company.

It culminated in an event for more than 100 Year 7 to 9 pupils at The Spine, where pupils heard from a panel of innovation industry experts and were then tasked with creating a new cosmetic product for teenagers and presenting their ideas in a ‘Perfect Pitch’ exercise.

Each team had to consider aspects such as product name, advertising slogan, ingredients, target market and unique selling points. This was accompanied by worksheets outlining the different skills applicable to jobs in these fields, the entry routes and the potential salaries that can be achieved. It was fascinating to see the differing approaches taken by each group and witness their passions for different elements of the process.

Unlimited ambition

An innovation district like ours, rich in diversity of skills and applications, offers a fertile ground for young people of all backgrounds to harness their interests, sharpen their skills and broaden their horizons. By making it more accessible, the entire City Region stands to benefit for generations to come.

There is still so much more we can do and we have unlimited ambitions. If your organisation is able to welcome work experience or internship candidates or join our Future Innovators tour schedules, please get in touch. Equally, if you are able to support our funding efforts to print and distribute the Animates book, that would be a huge boost for us and a great way for you to get involved in this vital topic.

If you can help in any way, no matter how big or small, we would love to hear from you.

KQ Liverpool welcomes hundreds of pupils to Careers Insight Week

17th July 2024/in The Knowledge Quarter/by KQ Liverpool

Sixteen schools across Liverpool City Region took part in Knowledge Quarter Liverpool’s first-ever Careers Insight Week.

The series of events, delivered in partnership with LCR Careers Hub and funded by the Careers and Enterprise Company, saw pupils from across the Liverpool City Region engage in visits to digital and innovation sites around the KQ Liverpool innovation district and take part in experience of workplace activities with leading industry experts. Students’ knowledge, skills and behaviours were improved and they were informed about the different types of exciting, pioneering job roles that may be available to them in future.

It culminated in an event for more than 100 Year 7 to 9 pupils at The Spine building, where pupils heard from a panel of experts in a range of innovation industries. Speakers included Charlotte Johns at Elida Beauty, Andrew Borland from the Virtual Engineering Centre, Philippa Glover of Philippa Glover Ltd, Jen Fenner from Defproc Engineering and Phil Anders at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

The pupils were then tasked with creating a new cosmetic product for teenagers and presenting their ideas in a ‘Perfect Pitch’ exercise to a panel of judges including Charlotte Johns, Kate McDermott and Joe Cooke from Lyva Labs, and Clive Burton from the Manufacturing Technology Centre.

Each team was asked to consider aspects such as the product’s name, advertising slogan, ingredients, target market and its unique selling points. The winning entry was entitled Clean Bean, an edible shampoo for sportspeople devised by a team of pupils from LIPA High School, while pupils from Birkenhead Park School were runners-up with their body acne treatment, LineA.

Emily Robson, Assistant Chief Executive at KQ Liverpool, said:

“There is an abundance of career opportunities in science and technology within our innovation district and it’s vital that we are able to share those opportunities with the wider community, both through the Careers Insight Week and more broadly via our Future Innovators Programme.

“The levels of engagement and the quality of ideas the students brought forward during the week have been nothing short of incredible, reinforcing our belief that by making these innovations more accessible, we can help to give young people a unique chance to understand what is on their doorstep and alter their own future aspirations.

“This was our first Careers Insight Week and, with the support of LCR Careers Hub and Investment Zone funding, we are looking forward to welcoming many more pupils to KQ Liverpool over the coming years.”

Gill Walsh, Strategic Careers Hub Lead at Liverpool City Region Careers Hub, said:

“Collaborating with KQ Liverpool and developing a programme of ‘experience of the workplaces’ around careers in the digital and advanced manufacturing industries has meant that we have been able to engage with more young people and inspire them about the world of work.

“Partnerships with key organisations like KQ Liverpool are not only vital in bringing employers and young people together but importantly enable us to focus on future growth opportunities linked into the relevant growth sectors for the Liverpool City Region.”

New Strategic Partnership for The Pandemic Institute

24th June 2024/in UoL, The Knowledge Quarter/by efarrington

The Pandemic Institute has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UK National Measurement Laboratory at LGC (NML) at
an event held in Liverpool last week.

The partnership will bring the organisations together to work more closely on pandemic preparedness, as well as strengthen industry and academic links in the Liverpool City Region.

NML are the UK’s Designated Institute for chemical and biological measurement and play a leading role in standardisation of measurements across the world so that, for example, a medical test result obtained in London can be compared directly with test results from hospitals in Sydney, Seattle or Shanghai. This was of particular importance during the COVID-19 pandemic, and NML have recently
launched their ’Roadmap to Metrology Readiness for Infectious Disease Pandemic Response’, which identifies priorities and sets out pathways for pandemic preparedness for the measurement community.

Professor Julian Braybrook, UK Government Chemist and Director of NML, presented the roadmap at the event:

“The Roadmap sets out recommendations for specific measurement interventions that could enable a more rapid response and enhance clinical outcomes in a future pandemic. Through these interventions, it aims to provide globally accepted baseline measurements to empower health policy decision makers and give them confidence in the data which guide their interventions.

“We’re excited to be working more closely with The Pandemic Institute and other key stakeholders in the LCR. Liverpool has a long history of driving innovation in infectious disease research, and the city region has recently been designated by the UK Government as a High Potential Opportunity for foreign investment in vaccine development and manufacture.”

With a new northwest base planned in The Spine, Liverpool, The Pandemic Institute is looking forward to working more closely with NML, including the upcoming plans for a PhD studentship working on Lipid Nanoparticles (LNPs), which are small particles used for the delivery of some drugs or vaccines.

Professor Neill Liptrott, Chair in Pharmacology & Immunocompatibility Pharmacology & Therapeutics at the University of Liverpool, said:

“As part of our existing long-term plan with NML we are excited to collaborate on this PhD studentship, which aims to establish critical parameters of LNP formulations for vaccines and nucleic acid therapeutics and representative materials to support developers of LNP therapeutics. Working with NML since 2019, our partnership has gone from strength to strength, with joint academic posts between the University of Liverpool and NML and current plans to establish metrology within the Centre of Excellence for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT Global Health). Partnerships like this are critical to ensure that metrology and measurement science underpins the exciting biological work that we and others do, providing our work's robustness and transferability.”

Dr Ray Kent, Chief Operating Officer at The Pandemic Institute, added:

“One of The Pandemic Institute’s major strengths is bringing together key organisations in pandemic preparedness and response, to ensure we are never as unprepared again as we were in 2019. We are delighted to be signing this MoU with NML and welcoming them to Liverpool, and we’re looking forward to combining our future efforts.”

For more information on UK National Measurement Laboratory at LGC (NML), click here.

Future Innovators Programme among first IZ projects set for approval

4th June 2024/in The Knowledge Quarter/by efarrington

KQ Liverpool’s Future Innovators Programme is among the first seven Liverpool City Region Innovation Zone projects set for approval.

Innovation Zone funding of £26.5m is being sought to support the seven projects, which will cost nearly £83m in total.

They are among 21 projects being developed in the first phase of the 10-year, £160m Life Sciences Investment Zone programme, referred to locally as the Innovation Zone, that’s forecast to create £8,000 jobs and stimulate up to £800m of public and private investment, in addition to AstraZeneca’s £450m investment in its Speke vaccine facility announced in March.

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority will consider the seven projects at its meeting on June 7, with final approvals to follow in the coming weeks and months after further scrutiny.

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 national 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.”

The first seven projects set for approval are:

- KQ Liverpool Future Innovators Programme: Led by Knowledge Quarter Liverpool, the programme will aim to raise awareness and aspiration for careers in life sciences and will work with local employers to develop traineeships and opportunities for young people.
- Embedded Skills Development Programme: Delivered by St Helens-based surgical simulator creator Inovus, the programme will facilitate 250 practical, skilled work experience placements for young people within health and life sciences over 5 years. It will replace the traditional two-week work experience by embedding 16-18-year-olds within businesses over 4-6 months. The aim is to expand the pilot across all city region boroughs through a network of host businesses to offer around 600 placements in the first five years.

- Health Tech Business Incubator: Led by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the programme will work to drive innovation and commercialisation of research in the city region’s health and life sciences sector. Start up and early-stage businesses will be offered support including grant funding, support, training and access to Sci-Tech Daresbury’s world-class facilities. The four-year programme is expected to support 30 businesses.

- iiCON Phase 3: Led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, iiCON (Infection Innovation Consortium) has grown into a £260m programme, delivering 36 new products to market since its creation in 2020. Phase 3 will deliver a new containment level 3 laboratory equipped with robotics and AI for the safe handling of pathogens. The new facility is forecast to support a 10-fold increase in the value and volume of activities, driving forward development of new treatments. iiCON is seeking £10m Innovation Zone funding with additional grant funding from the Wolfson Foundation and RED/UKRI.

- Microbiome and Infectious Disease Innovation Hub: Led by the University of Liverpool in partnership with the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), the hub will become a UK leader supporting industry to develop and commercialise microbiome and infectious disease innovations and therapies. This will drive forward preventative medicines and alternatives to antibiotics, helping address antimicrobial resistance.

- Pharmaceutical Services – Upstream Monoclonal Antibody Capabilities: TriRx is seeking £2m towards a £12m programme to install enhanced manufacturing facilities at its Speke site. The equipment is expected to increase productivity by 25% and satisfy global demand for monoclonal antibody drugs. The equipment will also contribute to R&D by city region research institutions.

- Sci-Tech Daresbury Violet Phase 2: £9.5m is being sought for a £24m project to build 90,000 sqft of containment level 2 ‘grow on’ laboratory and office space, addressing a local and national shortage. Two new buildings will be constructed which are expected to attract high-growth and established tenants resulting in at least 300 new jobs, with around 70-75% at degree-level or equivalent.

LCR’s first Innovation Investment Week to highlight huge opportunities, while inspiring future innovators

8th May 2024/in The Knowledge Quarter/by efarrington

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, The Animates – Learning in Liverpool, to inspire 6 to 8-year-olds into science and innovation, developed by KQ Liverpool in partnership with Connected Places Catapult.

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.
  
  The Spine, Liverpool

- 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 7^th 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 21^st 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.”

Change Makers Live returns to The Spine

30th April 2024/in The Knowledge Quarter/by efarrington

More than 100 business leaders and representatives from across the Liverpool city region and beyond gathered for the second annual Change Makers Live Conference 2024 at The Spine, hosted by Downtown in Business.

Change Makers Live is a national business & innovation conference designed with the aim of exploring innovative solutions to the challenges facing the UK and global economy in the twenty-first century. This unique event invited some of the county’s leading entrepreneurs, academics, thinkers, and politicians to join us to discuss the key issues that are affecting businesses across sectors, not just in the UK, but around the world and start to offer innovative solutions to address these difficulties.

Speakers such as Jo Phillips, former adviser to both Paddy Ashdown and Bob Geldof and Nathan McNamara, chief executive DB3 Group joined us to give talks at the event, which was sponsored by Knowledge Quarter, BDP Design, Bruntwood SciTech, Connected Places Catapult, the House of Wisdom Group and Liverpool BID Company.

In the first talk of the day The Future is Co-operation, Rose Marley, chief executive Co-operatives UK, discussed how co-operation affects everything from AI to public funding and why it’s important to change makers.

KQ Liverpool’s assistant chief executive Emily Robson chaired an Innovative Design & Placemaking panel discussion, which brought together change makers Ged Clouser, principal architect, BDP Design, Colin Sinclair, chief executive of Sciontec and KQ Liverpool, Jessica Bowles director of strategy, Bruntwood SciTech, and Chris Bishop, Senior Project Manager, Muse to discuss Social Value In Place Making and how companies and new developments can contribute to their communities.

The How To Catapult Growth panel talk, facilitated by Alex Cousins, (business director of Connected Places Catapult) featured Rachael Stevens, (Knowledge Quarter Liverpool), Natalie Reeves-Billing, (Author), and Ruth Wood, (chief executive, Mersey Maritime) who discussed business growth and the best methods to foster and drive growth in various sectors and industries in the region.

Delegates enjoyed a delicious lunch before an insightful session with Tim Heatley, Co-Founder, Capital & Centric a ‘disruptor’ property development company, who shared some of his insights and experiences on current affairs in the property industry. He discussed regeneration and creating demand in a place where it doesn’t exist, and how this can help to rejuvenate a stagnant economy.

The conference ended with the important point that We Can’t All Be Scientists And Professors!, as we heard from Elaine Bowker (principal, City of Liverpool College), Sophie Gilmore (chief executive, HybridTec), Emily Robson and Steven Hesketh, Hospitality Hero, who discussed how diversity in sectors and careers is key.

Frank McKenna, chief executive of Downtown in Business, said:

“This year’s Change Makers Live Conference saw some amazing insights from our members and many of the delegates form valuable and long-lasting connections.”

Drones, swabs and robotic dogs feature in latest Future Innovators Programme tour

30th April 2024/in LJMU, UoL, LSTM, The Knowledge Quarter/by efarrington

We were pleased to be joined by students from Cardinal Heenan School in West Derby as part of our Future Innovators Programme.

The programme encourages young people to learn about the innovation, science and technology career opportunities available in KQ Liverpool, with an aim of creating tangible aspirations. The programme works with Secondary school pupils and their career leads, physically bringing them into previously unopened areas within KQ Liverpool to demonstrate what’s on offer right on their doorstep.

The group of Sixth Form students took part in a tour of several facilities and were able to experience first-hand the incredible variety of innovation that takes place in our innovation district.

The day-long tour included visits to iiCON at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Digital Innovation Facility at University of Liverpool, Manufacturing Technology Centre at Liverpool Science Park and LJMU Built Environment, where a range of experts were on hand to kindly give their time to explain the work their organisations undertake and some of the career opportunities available within KQ Liverpool.

KQ Liverpool shortlisted for social impact at national awards

30th April 2024/in The Knowledge Quarter/by efarrington

KQ Liverpool has been named as a finalist in the Property Week Awards 2024.

We have been shortlisted in the Social Impact Initiative – Commercial Property category in recognition of our Future Innovators Programme and wider skills outreach work.

The programme works with local schools and school leaders to encourage pupils to gain a deeper understanding of the various pioneering projects taking place within KQ Liverpool and open their minds to the many potential career opportunities that may be available to them in future.

A full Future Innovators Programme prospectus can be found here.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London on 3 July. To find out more about the Property Week Awards and review this year’s other finalists, please click here.

iiCON strengthens team with senior appointment

30th April 2024/in UoL, The Knowledge Quarter/by efarrington

The Infection Innovation Consortium: iiCON has welcomed a new senior member to its team with the appointment of Professor Patryk Kot.

Professor Kot, a global expert in sensor technology, joins the consortium, which works propel the discovery and development of innovative treatments and products for infectious diseases, as Senior Business Development Manager.

iiCON, led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), is comprised of partners Unilever, Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust, University of Liverpool, LifeArc, Evotec, and Infex Therapeutics.

Professor Kot, one of the youngest professors in the UK, joins iiCON from a role as Deputy Director of the Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies (BEST) Research Institute, and Professor of Microwave Sensor Technologies at Liverpool John Moores University.

The consortium has recently received £10 million in funding to develop what is believed to be the UK’s first Category 3 AI Robotic laboratory as part of the Liverpool City Region Health and Life Sciences Investment Zone. Investment Zone funding will support the development of the high-containment laboratories within LSTM capable of handling deadly pathogens and fitted out with leading-edge robotics and AI technology.

In his new role, Professor Kot will be a key part of an expert team that will specify and design the new laboratories. His expertise in sensors will support the development of new products in the iiCON portfolio, helping to commercialise industry innovations. He will also lead on the development of new partnerships, providing expertise and guidance on the best routes to market for the innovative products iiCON has developed to date.

His vast experience over a 12-year career includes leading a multidisciplinary research team in the design and development of bespoke microwave sensors for global challenges. His research team has developed microwave sensors for applications such as biohazards detection (DASA), healthcare applications (SBRI and UKRI), cultural heritage (Horizon 2020) and chemical process enhancement (Horizon 2020 FTI) with a total external funding award of over £25 million.

This experience includes working on a number of key projects through iiCON funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to explore the adaption of the fundamental concept of microwave spectroscopy for the detection of insecticide on walls for quality assurance of Governmental Indoor Residual Spraying programmes in low- and middle-income countries (India and Africa) to prevent vector borne diseases.

The developed prototype was manufactured in 2023 and the success of this project led to further external funding of £1.3 million from BMGF to explore the fundamental concept of microwave spectroscopy being applied as a wearable technology for the detection of Lymphatic filariasis in humans.

Professor Patryk Kot said:

“I am delighted to be joining the iiCON team. I am eager to support the development of new products and contribute to the development of pioneering AI and robotics Category 3 laboratories, where technology comes together with scientific advancements through academia, research, and industry to combat global infectious diseases. An extraordinary opportunity to drive meaningful change.”

Professor Janet Hemingway, iiCON’s founding director, said:

“Patryk is a leading expert in sensor technologies and we’re very pleased to be welcoming him to the iiCON team. His expertise and experience will help us drive forward next-generation technologies and support industry and academic co-innovation. Patryk will also be a key part of the team we are bringing together to support the design and develop of our next-generation Category 3 Robotic laboratories.”

Founded in 2020 with an £18.6m UK Government grant, iiCON brings together industry, academia and clinicians to accelerate the discovery, development and deployment of new treatments and products for infectious diseases – saving and improving millions of lives across the world. The consortium has quickly grown into a £260m programme working with a global network of more than 800 companies.

By enabling industry access to world-leading facilities and expertise, it has supported 36 new products to market, with more than 5 billion units of life-saving products and treatments reaching communities across the world. It has also created 559 jobs and bolstered the region’s R&D infection spend by £700m.

£500k awarded for research to combat bird flu

25th April 2024/in The Knowledge Quarter/by KQ Liverpool

The Pandemic Institute has come together with The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections (HPRU EZI) and the Pandemic Sciences Institute (PSI) in Oxford, to award almost £500,000 for research on Avian Influenza, in collaboration with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

Avian Influenza, also known as Bird flu, is a virus that can cause illness in captive and wild birds, and also has the potential to spread to mammals including humans. Certain forms of the virus are termed ‘highly pathogenic’, which means they have greater potential to cause serious illness and even death. The aim of this funding is to address critical research gaps in Avian Influenza knowledge, especially highly pathogenic Avian Influenza, particularly in the following areas:

Diagnostics
Anti-virals
Vaccines
Mathematical modelling to better understand the disease evolution and spread
Non-pharmaceutical interventions e.g. behavioural changes

The funding will be distributed across eight projects from several organisations, including the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, University of Liverpool, University of Oxford, all working alongside UKHSA, the government agency responsible for preventing, preparing for and responding to infectious diseases and environmental hazards.

Dr Carolina Arevalo, Deputy Director, Research, Evidence & Knowledge at UKHSA said:

“We are pleased to collaborate with The Pandemic Institute on this funding call, addressing key research needs and strengthening existing partnerships with university researchers.”

One of the funded projects will seek to develop ‘drug knowledge libraries’, using mathematical modelling to simulate the optimal dose of particular drugs during a future outbreak or pandemic.

Professor Saye Khoo, a Professor of Pharmacology, Therapeutics at the University of Liverpool said:

“This is an important first step in building capability to respond to any emerging virus should an outbreak occur. There is no guarantee that an antiviral licensed for one disease will necessarily achieve effective target concentrations for another virus or new variant, and having these libraries will further allow us to respond flexibly and adapt rapidly to emerging flu outbreaks.”

Dr Shaun Pennington will be working with colleagues from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine on a Controlled Human Infection Model, or CHIM, which is a research method where healthy volunteers are deliberately exposed to a specific pathogen, such as a virus or bacteria. This controlled exposure allows scientists to study how the pathogen interacts with the human body, including how the infection progresses over time, and how the immune system responds to the pathogen. CHIM studies play a crucial role in advancing our understanding of infection and disease and are now routinely used to evaluate the effectiveness of treatments and vaccines.

“This funding will facilitate the development of a new CHIM using a weakened strain of temperature-sensitive avian influenza. This strain is particularly suited for CHIM as it can only replicate in the nose at cooler temperatures and cannot replicate in the lungs or cause illness. Through the establishment of this CHIM, we aim to significantly contribute to the development and evaluation of new diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines, thereby enhancing the UK’s readiness to address future disease outbreaks.“

Other projects will focus on developing new diagnostic tests and mapping potential risk to humans. Dr Emily Nixon, a Lecturer in Mathematics for Healthcare at the University of Liverpool said:

“Understanding the spatial variation in risk of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in wild birds and poultry is crucial for assessing the risk of exposure to humans. This funding will allow us to map risk to poultry workers and the public, and will build on mathematical models developed at the University of Liverpool by Professor Sharkey.”

You can find a full list of awarded projects below.

About The Pandemic Institute
The Pandemic Institute’s is a unique collaboration of academic, civic and health partners, whose mission is to protect the world from emerging infections and pandemic threats. Launched in 2021, the Institute is formed of seven founding partners: The University of Liverpool (host organisation), Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool City Council, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Liverpool University Hospital Foundation Trust, and Knowledge Quarter Liverpool.