Plans move forward at HEMISPHERE One & Two

Ambitious new plans have been unveiled for HEMISPHERE, a pair of £156m laboratory and workspace innovation developments by Sciontec, to be located in the Knowledge Quarter Liverpool innovation district, at Paddington Village, Liverpool City Council’s flagship development site.

HEMISPHERE One and Two will offer a unique combination of chemistry labs, data labs, bio labs and innovation labs, alongside incubator and grow-on space, with some of the world’s most advanced facilities.

HEMISPHERE Two will be home to a new double-height robotics and AI-enabled chemistry  laboratory space on the ground floor to help drive innovation research and develop manufacturing capability.

Plans for biology and chemistry labs at HEMISPHERE One are already underway, with work expected to begin later this year, supported by funding from Liverpool City Council’s Strategic Futures fund and the LCR Innovation Zone.

It was also announced this week that Morgan Sindall has been appointed as preferred contractor on HEMISPHERE One, with Worthington Owen and Avison Young instructed as leasing agents. Carter Jonas has been appointed as leasing agent for HEMISPHERE Two.

Colin Sinclair, chief executive of KQ Liverpool and Sciontec, said:

“Building on the growing momentum of HEMISPHERE One, it is also fantastic to share the plans for the unique robotics and AI chemistry labs at HEMISPHERE Two.  Crucially, these developments do not sit in isolation, but rather as part of an ambitious and burgeoning innovation ecosystem within KQ Liverpool.”

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of Liverpool City Region, said: 

“These plans exemplify our ambition to create a life sciences superpower through collaboration and innovation. Not only can it help to improve health outcomes in our communities, but it can also boost economic growth by creating a cluster of clinicians, scientists and facilities that will attract major new investment and co-location from industry, adding more than £1bn of economic impact to the city region.”

Click here to see more about HEMISPHERE One and Two.

 

Sciontec to revitalise Liverpool innovation hub with launch of CENTRAL TECH

Sciontec has revealed plans to open CENTRAL TECH, a new urban technology building, within the Knowledge Quarter Liverpool (KQ Liverpool) innovation district. 

The 27,000 sq ft facility on Copperas Hill, formerly Sensor City, will open on May 1 following a commitment of fresh investment to create a global hub for innovation in health, life sciences, technology and digitalisation, utilising the ultrafast LCR Connect network. 

Located near to Liverpool Lime Street and Central stations, CENTRAL TECH stands adjacent to Liverpool John Moores University’s Student Life and Sport Buildings, which opened in 2021, giving customers access to the university’s facilities, as well as the vibrant retail and leisure offer in the city centre. 

Each customer in the building can also tap into the Academic Support & Knowledge (ASK) initiative, which connects them to a specialist team or expert at the University of Liverpool or Liverpool John Moores University to support their work. 

Professor Mark Power, vice-chancellor at Liverpool John Moores University and chair of Sciontec, said:

“Sciontec has worked closely with the Sensor City company and the key grant funders, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to bring this important facility back to life, with vital new investment. 

“This landmark deal with our Universities, City Council and private sector partner Bruntwood SciTech will mark an exciting transformation in the city’s innovation and technology infrastructure. We are confident that CENTRAL TECH will help to create high value jobs in health, science and technology and bring growth to the City Region.”

Trish Wallace, Strategic Projects and People Manager of Sciontec, said:

“Liverpool City Region is rapidly becoming a superpower in health and life sciences innovation, so we are pleased to announce our plans to reopen the building and invite anyone that would like to see the space for themselves to contact us.”

Sciontec is the Knowledge Quarter Development Company owned by Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Liverpool, Liverpool City Council and Bruntwood SciTech, a triple helix partnership committed to growing the knowledge economy to drive inclusive growth.  

CENTRAL TECH will join the growing Sciontec portfolio of innovation facilities, which already includes the three Liverpool Science Park innovation centres, iC1, iC2 and iC3, as well as serviced space offer Sciontec AI at The Spine and the planned HEMISPHERE One and Two labs developments at Paddington Village, Liverpool City Council’s flagship development site.

Councillor Nick Small, Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Growth and Economy, said:

“This announcement of new investment is fantastic news for the city’s Knowledge Quarter and a huge vote of confidence in our blossoming life sciences sector. This building will be an amazing facility and builds on the recent multi-million pound boost for our plans to continue the development of nearby Paddington Village. This kind of investment attracts high quality businesses and high skilled, well-paid jobs and I’ll be delighted to see CENTRAL TECH open its doors.”

Sciontec hopes to enjoy similar success to its takeover of Liverpool Science Park (LSP) in 2020, which has seen occupancy levels improve significantly and increased retained profits, with the three Science Park buildings now operating near to full capacity and more than £1m recently invested at LSP in a new entrance and other enhanced customer facilities.

Professor Tim Jones, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, said:

“Liverpool has a growing global reputation for digital innovation and CENTRAL TECH has the opportunity to help us shift that dial even further, providing a unique, supportive environment where new ideas can flourish, centrally located in the heart of the city.”

Chris Oglesby, CEO of Bruntwood SciTech, said:

“The acquisition of Sensor City marks a significant milestone in ours and Sciontec’s ongoing commitment to further enhancing innovation and growth within Knowledge Quarter Liverpool. CENTRAL TECH will serve as a dynamic hub for health, life sciences, technology and digitalisation, while continuing to drive high-value job creation and contributing to the economic growth in this vibrant region.”

 

Find out more about CENTRAL TECH here.

Connecting Paddington Village and KQ Liverpool

Colin Sinclair, chief executive of Knowledge Quarter Liverpool

 

With the recent announcement that Liverpool City Council has appointed Morgan Sindall to lead the next phase of works at Paddington South, at its flagship Paddington Village site, we’re excited that further progress will soon be made towards realising the huge potential of our new urban village. 

 

It also got me thinking. As Paddington Village continues to grow – and deliver large elements of the LCR Health and Life Sciences Investment Zone’s ambitions – how do we ensure that as a place Paddington and its neighbouring communities feel ‘connected’ to the rest of the Knowledge Quarter and, in turn, to the wider city centre and region. 

 

The importance of ‘feeling’ connected

For KQ Liverpool to grow as a truly world-class innovation district, it must have a connection and impact that extends way beyond its physical boundaries. A positive impact on the communities that surround it, and reaching out across the whole City Region. People who live, work or invest here need to see and feel that physical and social connection – that they are part of something bigger. 

This applies to newcomers and to long-time residents. We need to inspire young people, not only through our KQ Liverpool Future Innovators and Careers Insights programmes, but also through the way we design the places and spaces where they live, study and will, in the future, work.  

For obvious reasons, we love our anatomical connotations here in KQ Liverpool, from The Spine building to Sciontec’s plans for HEMISPHERE. So, forgive me for pointing out that a beating heart is of little use if it’s disconnected from the arteries and veins it needs to thrive.

The physical symbols of a place – the bricks and mortar – its buildings, institutions or welcome signs – tell us it exists, and if you look at a map it might suggest it’s next to other places, and thus ‘connected’. 

Yet, that’s not always how it ‘feels’. Sometimes, places can be surrounded, but feel isolated or incongruous. So what can we do to cultivate a strong sense of integration between different places, within KQ Liverpool and at Paddington Village? 

 

People first

 

Creating a connected community begins and ends with people. Public places are intended to attract people, so it’s crucial to consider why people use a place and how we can adapt it to make that use more accessible, enjoyable or effective.

 

Our spin out development company Sciontec is very good at fostering connections within its buildings, whether at Liverpool Science Park or within The Spine, but what about connecting people across buildings, workplaces, labs and communities.  

 

Events are a primary example of how to bring people together, and a central part of our plans moving forward is to ensure that Paddington Village plays its part in city-wide events, whether they be cultural, commercial or educational. 

 

Not just when it’s ‘finished’ but now – the so-called ‘meanwhile’ uses. We should be using Paddington Square, bordering The Spine, HEMISPHERE and Novotel, as well as the new green spaces at Paddington South, even before they are finished as these will become key locations for community activities in the years ahead.  

 

Avoid accidental disconnection

 

When new developments are conceived and delivered, it can often lead to a sense of dislocation, where the pre-existing space ends and the shiny new stuff begins. The last thing we want is ‘ivory towers’ surrounded by discontent. 

 

However, you see this happening in towns and cities all over the world. A programme of regeneration is far too often targeted at a certain location within a specific boundary, which works well in theory, but all too often it becomes a living, physical boundary too, as the new paving gives way to older tarmac pavement, or new street signage stands out against the worn signage on the next corner.  

 

The development of Liverpool One overcame this intelligently by instructing different architects across the site, resulting in a mix of themes and styles that complemented its surroundings and bled into existing streets. There isn’t a hard boundary, it’s open and welcoming.

 

This kind of accidental disconnection is exactly what we aim to avoid across KQ Liverpool, including Paddington Village, as new developments are brought forward. Instead, we want to fuse across boundaries, seamlessly. 

 

Signage and furniture

Consistent and high quality pavements, lighting, signage and street furniture – ‘public realm’ – not only make moving around a place more comfortable, they can also help to create a sense of ‘arrival’. This can be even more effective if they’re used across micro-boundaries to make areas feel more joined-up. 

By adopting the same quality of signage and furniture throughout KQ Liverpool and into Paddington Village, we can hope to subtly create the feeling that a person has remained in one, unified space. 

Within our new public realm, we can also include nods to the wider area, perhaps with art installations depicting major landmarks, or signage that illustrates its proximity to and natural interaction with the city region.

Moving around

Paddington Village is located to the east of Grove Street, an arterial road running north to south, providing access to the city’s universities and health campus, plus connections to the major road network. Wide, busy roads can present a challenge when creating connected places by introducing an element of reticence or even danger to people’s decision-making.

We will continue to work with the City Council and University of Liverpool to understand ways to minimise both the aesthetic and safety impact of this divide and maximise connectivity at its key junctions. We know the road is essential, so how do we mitigate its challenges to improve the sense of connection between Paddington Village and the rest of KQ Liverpool?

 

The first step is to make it as friendly as possible to pedestrians and cyclists moving within the innovation district. Wider pavements, phased traffic signals and dedicated cycle lanes can all help to alleviate the sense of severance, while additional trees and other greenery support greater wellness and complement plans for green space at Paddington South, creating one seamless stretch of nature. 

 

Other simple ideas include consolidating loading bays or relocating them to side streets to avoid unnecessary impediments and noise, and introducing consistent road and pathway surfacing to create that sense of thoroughfare.

 

Public transport can play a crucial role. A regular, sustainable KQ Liverpool rapid transit route looping from Paddington Village into the heart of the city centre could transform that feeling of connectivity, reduce the perception of distance and reinforce a single destination. The essence of trackless trams we have proposed in the past is now in sight with the showcasing of the ‘glider’ buses recently in the city. 

 

Introducing the ‘gliders’ or trackless trams would harness the combined strengths of the innovation corridor from Central Station up Brownlow Hill, branching out to capture many of the area’s key innovation assets; the universities, Liverpool Science Park and the health campus, going on to Anfield or the film studios planned for Edge Lane. 

 

Bespoke measures

 

There are no fix-all solutions. Close to home in recent times, we’ve seen the advent and decline of skyways in Liverpool, new towns such as Skelmersdale experimenting with roundabouts and underground passageways, with very mixed success, and the pros and cons of pedestrianisation in towns such as St Helens. 

 

The key is for us to find a balanced blend of measures that works right here, right now to create sustainable improvements, and that’s what KQ Liverpool is working hard to do alongside its stakeholders and partners. Never before have we had such an inventive, progressive and joined up approach from the City Council to the City Region and the Universities to the NHS. So watch this space!

 

Partner Up to Scale Up with KQ Liverpool

Colin Sinclair, chief executive of Knowledge Quarter Liverpool

Scale-up businesses account for just 1% of UK SMEs but generate nearly 10% of SME employment and more than a fifth of SME turnover, amounting to around £500bn each year, according to analysis from the Social Market Foundation.

This is clearly a significant contribution, but there is real potential to make an even greater impact and for scale-ups to give the UK a competitive advantage for future generations,  creating even more high-quality jobs, leading investment and innovation and driving forward our productivity. So how can we help to make that happen?

At the heart of the answer is a commitment to collaboration and having the right environment for growth. For innovation businesses, this means finding an innovation ecosystem where your plans can flourish and you can find like-minded peers to share and develop ideas.

An effective innovation ecosystem, like ours at Knowledge Quarter Liverpool (KQ Liverpool), can also help to mitigate some of the barriers to growth around issues such as funding, technology, access to talent and market insight.

Our network of partnerships with Liverpool John Moores University, University of Liverpool and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, alongside other institutions, offers a wide range of opportunities for scale-up businesses.  Here are some of the ways that KQ Liverpool’s innovation and growth services can support businesses to achieve greater scale.

Talent pipeline

Our innovation district is home to the original ‘Red Brick’, the University of Liverpool, and one of the UK’s top 10 young universities, Liverpool John Moores University, creating a collective of more than 70,000 students and an incredible pipeline of talent for businesses to access as they search for the right future skills for their growing teams.

Scale-ups can engage with universities and their students at an early stage, to influence their adoption of specific skills and instil a company culture that will aid a smooth transition into working life, as well as provide professional development training, again via universities.

At KQ Liverpool, we also work with local Sixth Form students through our Future Innovators Programme, helping to showcase the innovations and associated career opportunities available in their city. Recent examples of this include a cohort of students who visited the Swab and Send project at iiCON (Infection Innovation Consortium) in addition to the Manufacturing Technology Centre and Digital Innovation Facility

Innovative thinking

Our anchor institutions are at the cutting-edge of research and development, with sites such as the £81m Materials Innovation Factory, Digital Innovation Facility and Snakebite Research Centre among the many groundbreaking facilities within KQ Liverpool.

Businesses looking to scale-up here can gain access to state-of-the-art technology, laboratory space and the very latest research, all on their doorstep. This can make a fundamental difference to the viability and ultimate success of their ventures, while helping to embed innovation and collaboration within their organisations.

Those technologies continue to evolve and receive investment, with iiCON’s £10m plans for high-containment Cat 3 Robotics Laboratories, supported by LCR Investment Zone funding, a clear example of what the future holds for KQ Liverpool.

An effective network

Of course, behind that research and technology are teams of experts, many of them world-leading in their respective fields. Their deep understanding of specific topics can benefit scale-ups in myriad ways, whether as a ‘critical friend’ for their ideas, an exemplar of best practice, or even a potential development and investment partner.

This can be even more powerful when experts come together, as we saw when LYVA Labs convened expert partners to deliver LCR’s first Microbials Accelerator programme on behalf of Innovate UK. Set across six months, 24 UK businesses benefited from the world-leading microbials academic expertise and commercialisation support to help drive their growth.

UoL is leading two projects which reflect the importance of collaboration. CHI-Zone will spearhead the use of AI and other data-driven tech to transform healthcare, social care and wellness, while the Microbiome and Infectious Disease (MaID Innovation Hub will provide scientific consultancy, access to cutting-edge technology, a strong partnership network and a rich range of guidance on issues such as funding, regulatory, IP and manufacturing.

 

Having that level of expert advice at your disposal, effectively an arms-length extension of your team, is a really efficient and cost-effective way for businesses to explore their future options and avoid what might otherwise be an unaffordable cost.

Financial and professional support 

Our KQ Grow offers a bespoke business support programme to give businesses the support they need to grow and thrive here. The programme aims to fill any gaps SMEs may have in their knowledge or resource, with free guidance provided by expert partners. KQ Grow also enables scale-ups to become better connected to the business community across Liverpool and provides direct access to the City Region’s talent pipeline.

University partnerships can help to unlock new funding schemes to support R&D, innovation or growth, working alongside organisations such as UKRI

Funding for LCR scale-ups can also be secured from sources such as LYVA Labs, which is based in a Sciontec AI space at The Spine and supports economic growth by commercialising innovation; inspiring ideas, creating partnerships and attracting investment.

‘This is the place’

Ambitious business owners can take a tangible sense of confidence and optimism from knowing their business is located in the right place, they are working with the right people and they are perfectly positioned for scale.  

If you are looking to scale your business, collaboration and partnership should be top of your agenda, and KQ Liverpool may be just the place to begin.

New children’s book based in KQ Liverpool set to inspire next generation of innovators

Dozens of primary school children helped KQ Liverpool and author Natalie Reeves Billing launch our new book, The Animates – Learning in Liverpool, designed to inspire the next generation of innovators.

Pupils from Pleasant Street Primary School joined us at The Spine building for a reading of the book, which tells the tale of a group of animals – including a panda, sloth, ostrich and mouse – that crash land from space at Liverpool Science Park and have to repair themselves and their ship with the help of local innovators around the KQ Liverpool innovation district.

Written for 6-8-year-olds, the aim is to place copies of the book in every Liverpool City Region primary school.

Natalie Reeves-Billing said:

“This has been such a great project to work on. Distilling complex concepts into engaging, fun and palatable stories has been just as insightful for me as for the young readers.

“We want children everywhere to know that there is a place for them and their specific skills and talents within the innovation sector.”

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

“The Life Sciences Investment Zone plans involve supercharging Liverpool City Region’s economy, creating 8,000 new jobs and saving lives across the world. KQ Liverpool will be at the engine room for those plans and we are keen to show the next generation of innovators the opportunities that exist here.

“Our new book aims to provide a unique way of doing that and, by engaging young children in the ideas of invention and creativity, we hope it allows them to see what their own future might hold.

“It was wonderful to watch the children enjoying the story and see an interest in innovation sparking into life among a new generation of pioneers.”

The Animates – Learning in Liverpool was specially commissioned by KQ Liverpool in partnership with Connected Places Catapult and will also be launched in front of a business audience on Wednesday.
It is part of a major focus on inspiring and training the next generation of local innovators, while retaining more graduates to power the city region’s innovation ambitions.

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Executive Director of Investment, Dr Aileen Jones, said:

“These are hugely exciting times for innovation in the Liverpool City Region. Innovation Investment Week will allow us to celebrate and showcase our creativity, entrepreneurship and scientific brilliance.
“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. They also offer massive opportunities to local people through the creation of thousands of high-quality jobs.
“It is vital we give local people the right skills to take advantage of these opportunities. Natalie’s excellent book is sure to fire the imagination of children and inspire some on a creative, innovative and scientific path.”

The book was launched at The Spine which is the northern headquarters of the Royal College of Physicians and is located at Paddington Village, Liverpool City Council’s flagship development site.

The launch ushered in the city region’s first ever Innovation Investment Week which will showcase the region’s world leading innovation and billions of pounds of opportunities.

Four days of innovation-themed activity includes 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 Tuesday, 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 create 8,000 new jobs and is in addition to AstraZeneca’s £450m investment in its Speke facility announced in March.
The city region is one of only three places in the UK to benefit from both Investment Zone and Freeport status.

Mayor Steve Rotheram has set a target to invest 5% of the city region’s economy each year on R&D by 2030 – nearly double the UK target. Achieving the 5% 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 growing strengths in net-zero and maritime innovation.

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 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 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.
  • Images from the book can be found here.

Join KQ Liverpool for the launch of Animates Liverpool

KQ Liverpool is hosting a special launch event for its new science and innovation story based here in the city.

The event will give leaders from local businesses, charities and academia a chance to hear more about Animates; Learning in Liverpool, a tale of a team of seven animal inventors who crash land in the Knowledge Quarter Liverpool innovation district and embark on an adventure to explore the different innovations that will get them back into space.

To book your space at the event, please complete this form.

Animates; Learning in Liverpool is designed to introduce young children to the concept of innovation and inspire them to understand the various science, technology and innovation careers on their doorstep.

Author Natalie Reeves-Billing will give an exclusive reading of the book, created by KQ Liverpool under exclusive licence with Connected Places CatapultThis will be followed by a panel discussion focussed on the importance of innovation skills.

Rachael Stevens, head of partnerships at Knowledge Quarter Liverpool, said:

“Animates Liverpool is a unique way of engaging young children in the ideas of invention and creativity. Knowledge Quarter Liverpool abounds with bright minds making incredible discoveries and we hope the book allows them to see what their own future might hold.

“We look forward to welcoming senior leaders from across the city region to hear more about our book and find out more about our efforts to encourage a spark of innovation in a new generation of pioneers.”

The event takes place on Wednesday 15 May (8.30am – 10.30am) at the Manufacturing Technology Centre at Liverpool Science Park.

 

£6.9M funding to better understand child mental health

Further funding to enhance the flagship birth cohort study Children Growing Up in Liverpool (C-GULL), which opened this spring, has been announced today (4 July 2023).

The new ‘Microbes, Milk, Mental Health and Me’ (4M) strand, supported by £6.9M funding from the Wellcome Trust, seeks to better understand the early-life origins of mental health conditions.

Poor mental health is a growing public health challenge, particularly exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and yet there is still much to be learned about their early-life origins. Compelling evidence suggests that gut microbial colonization, strongly influenced by breastmilk, impacts neurodevelopment and mental well-being, but more research is needed to fully understand the underlying mechanisms.

This funding will enable the collection of additional bio-samples for the diverse birth cohort, including state-of-the-art gut microbiota and breastmilk profiling. Researchers will utilize large-scale genomic and epidemiological data to perform experiments, discover new biological insights, and carry out epidemiology and translational science. They will also establish an internationally unique archive of paired bio-samples from mothers and babies and identify keystone bacteria and milk constituents that influence neurodevelopment and mental health.

The findings from this study will inform new methods for preventing and treating adverse mental health conditions in children. The Children Growing Up in Liverpool (C-GULL) program is the first large-scale birth cohort study in the Liverpool City Region and will follow 10,000 first-born Liverpool babies and their families from early in pregnancy through childhood and beyond.

C-GULL is a partnership between The University of Liverpool, The Wellcome Trust, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Liverpool City Council, The Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and NIHR Clinical Research Network North West Coast. The study will also introduce further collaborations with University College London, The Wellcome Sanger Institute, and the University of Manitoba.

“The Children Growing Up in Liverpool (C-GULL) study represents a unique opportunity to explore the complex interplay between early-life exposures, gut microbiota and mental health,” said Professor Anthony Hollander from The University of Liverpool.

“We are thrilled to receive this additional funding from The Wellcome Trust which will allow us to further advance our understanding of how we can improve the mental health of children.”

Dr Catherine Sebastian, Head of Evidence for Mental Health at The Wellcome Trust, said:

“Poor mental health is increasing in children and young people, and we need to understand more about how these problems develop to better tackle this public health challenge. The 4M strand of C-GULL will generate important new insights into the relationship between gut microbes, breast milk, and mental health during child development, and will provide a foundation for future research in this field.”

The official opening of the C-GULL research centre will take place later this month in the academic unit at The Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

Participants and prospective participants can find more information on the study at the patient-facing website: https://www.cgullstudy.com/

New testing facility targets Liverpool’s health challenges

A specialist unit has opened at the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital which will perform clinical trials aimed at tackling some of the region’s most common diseases. 

The opening of the new Liverpool Clinical Research Facility (CRF) unit follows a £5.3m funding award from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).  

A significant proportion of the local population will benefit from the advanced testing at the CRF, as it will explore new treatments and vaccines for a range of diseases prevalent in Liverpool’s communities. This includes research into cancer and heart disease as well as neurology and neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease.  

The old Royal Liverpool University Hospital had previously housed the CRF since 2009, where researchers have been investigating high priority health problems for the Liverpool area. Moving to the state-of-the-art Royal Liverpool University Hospital, which was opened in October 2022, will significantly enhance the Liverpool CRF’s capabilities. 

Key benefits of the new site include increasing the number of beds from 12 to 26 and being one of only two NHS units in England that holds M accreditation, an industry standard benchmark for medical trials.  

The unit has been designed with the team’s research needs in mind and is laid out in a bespoke manner to facilitate medical trials, such as having open bed bays and areas for volunteers to relax. This design means the unit can conduct phase one human trials, which is the first step in testing a new treatment in humans.  

To speed up research, sample handling labs and specialist facilities for procedures including bronchoscopies have been created onsite. Operating in alignment with one of the region’s major NHS hospitals means that the CRF has easy access to relevant experts and medical support without adding to NHS workloads and waiting lists.  

The NIHR Liverpool CRF has worked closely alongside Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUFHT), which runs the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, since it was first hosted by the Trust. Its achievements in this time have seen it awarded the funding to set up a new site as well as establish partnerships with key regional organisations such as the Infection Innovation Consortium (iiCON), The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre (CCC) NHS Foundation Trust, and the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. 

iiCON acts as a catalyst for the CRF to filter trials in the infection space. Established in 2020, iiCON is a world leading centre for infection innovation and R&D based at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, which works in partnership with Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT). 

The first phase one clinical trial is currently underway at the new facility in partnership with iiCON and Alderley Park based Infex Therapeutics. This trial will progress a novel therapeutic treatment to treat dangerous multi-drug resistant infections into clinical trials over the next 12 months as part of a programme supported by iiCON. The RESP-X programme targets serious recurrent respiratory infections in patients with damaged lung functions. 

Richard Fitzgerald, Consultant in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and Director of the CRF at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: 

“The research benefits of the new NIHR Liverpool CRF facility will significantly boost our efforts in tackling a range of local healthcare challenges. Thanks to this work taking place within the Royal Liverpool Hospital, one of the region’s major healthcare hubs, many patients will be able to access some of the most advanced medicines and therapies available. 

“Right now, teams are already hard at work on ground-breaking studies into a number of diseases. This activity is a great testament to the world-class medical research taking place in Liverpool and I’m excited to see what advances are going to be made thanks to our new facility.”  

To increase the pipeline of new trials, iiCON is planning to expand its collaboration with LUFHT and the NIHR Liverpool CRF moving forwards.  

Janet Hemingway, iiCON Director, said: 

“The Liverpool CRF has been at the cutting edge of innovative drug discovery for some time and its site at the new Royal Liverpool Hospital will supercharge the capabilities of this exceptionally talented team. 

“The work that’s underway on Infex’s RESP-X programme illustrates the fantastic collaborations our region is capable of. Bringing together advanced researchers with leading industry specialists and clinical experts is at the heart of iiCON’s mission, as it is vital to delivering the next generation of treatments for infectious diseases.” 

The Liverpool CRF at LUHFT played a key role during the COVID-19 pandemic, by working in partnership with the University of Liverpool and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to test and develop vital vaccines and medicines. 

CDC Launches Solution-Based Thinking for the Future of Public Services

The Liverpool City Region’s (LCR), Civic Data Cooperative (CDC) has redesigned solution-based thinking for the future of public services through the development of their ‘What’s your problem?’ series.

The Good Business Festival 2022

Liverpool City Region’s festival spirit, that has previously delivered unforgettable global events such as The International Festival for Business, will return in 2022 with The Good Business Festival.