New initiative seeks locals with business ideas to tackle health and care challenges

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A groundbreaking initiative to tackle health and care inequalities in Liverpool City Region (LCR) communities launches today. Citizen First LCR will put power firmly in the hands of those with experience of health and care challenges on the ground.

Applications are now open to find eight inspiring LCR residents with a powerful business idea that tackles the health and care issues facing them and their communities. To remove barriers, they will receive a year’s Real Living Wage salary, seed funding, and comprehensive support, including a dedicated business advisor and cutting-edge tech support from the University of Liverpool.

Citizen First LCR is part of the University of Liverpool’s Civic HealthTech Innovation Zone (CHI-Zone), funded by the Liverpool City Region Life Sciences Innovation Zone Programme, and brings Public Life’s Citizen Incubator model to Liverpool for the first time. The model involves recruiting inspiring local people through a CV-less process and giving them a full-time salary and 12 months of leading support to turn their innovative ideas into businesses that tackle the social issues affecting them and their communities. Citizen First LCR is co-funded by the Fusion21 Foundation, the registered charity of national social enterprise Fusion21 Ltd, which specialises in efficient and impactful public sector procurement and delivers visible social value. It is also funded and supported by local housing associations Torus Foundation, Riverside, and Livv Housing Group.

Selected Citizen First LCR residents will benefit from the CHI-Zone’s expertise in health and care-tech development, gaining access to academic and technical support from the University of Liverpool. This hands-on approach means the successful applicants will be working on the ground from day one —applying data, AI, and technology to their business ideas while engaging directly with customers and communities. As their business model develops there will be opportunities to test assumptions with potential buyers, build the brand, integrate technology into their solution, and connect with investors. By the end of the year, it’s hoped they will secure investment to take the next big step in their venture.

The project delivery partners are looking for inspiring business ideas that offer new ways to tackle health and care challenges rooted in the experience of local communities. Recruitment will be completely CV-less with a focus on lived experience and entrepreneurial drive, not qualifications or work history. Neither do applicants need to be tech-savvy from the outset.

Recruitment is open from Wednesday 2 April to Sunday 4 May 2025 – events will be held in-person across the Liverpool City Region and online for those who would welcome an opportunity to meet the Citizen First team. Further information about the programme and how to apply can be found on the Public Life website at www.publiclife.org.uk/citizenfirst.

Professor Iain Buchan, W.H. Duncan Chair in Public Health Systems, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Innovation, and Director of Civic Health Innovation Labs (CHIL) said:

“CHI-Zone will mobilise data, technology, and deep collaboration with our residents to drive health and care innovations. We will support hidden entrepreneurs from local communities to pioneer solutions to challenges they’ve encountered with healthcare, social care or general health and wellbeing. Our entrepreneurs will have access to scientists, engineers, health and care experts, and established industry partners. This civic approach is core to our University’s work in breaking new ground in science and technology while responding to our communities’ needs. Those needs include the opportunities afforded by a thriving life science and digital economy in Liverpool City Region.”

James Green, CEO and Founder of Public Life, said:

“Liverpool City Region communities are full of inspiring residents with innovative ideas and the passion to drive change that comes from their own experiences. Yet, without financial security and the right opportunity, many are held back from becoming the entrepreneurs we all need if we are to tackle important health and care challenges impacting local people. Citizen First LCR is on a mission to change that.”

Jo Hannan, Head of Fusion21 Foundation said:

“Citizen First LCR is a game-changing opportunity that removes financial barriers and provides the right support for local innovators to turn their ideas into impactful outcomes. Our Foundation is proud to support a programme that puts power back into the hands of communities and fosters real, lasting change in health and care.”

Councillor Liam Robinson, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Cabinet Member for innovation, said:

“We know that local people know their own areas best and are bursting with creative ideas about how to solve issues in their communities.  We’re delighted to support Citizen First LCR which will enable people with extraordinary and innovative ideas to make a huge difference to their local area.”

The Liverpool City Region Life Sciences Innovation Zone Programme forms part of the Government’s national Investment Zone Programme, positioning the city region as a powerhouse for health and life sciences innovation.

New Strategic Partnership for The Pandemic Institute

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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.

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

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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.

 

 

iiCON strengthens team with senior appointment

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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.

The Pandemic Institute to host Pint of Science event

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Join The Pandemic Institute this May as it explores just what is so special about Liverpool, and why as a city we are leading the way in tackling infectious diseases.

Pint of Science is an annual event that takes place across three nights, in 42 cities in the UK, and in 25 countries across the world. This is the 7th year Pint of Science has taken place in Liverpool, and it has now expanded across the city and over to the Wirral. The sell-out events allow Liverpool-based researchers to share their work with members of the public, from the Mersey Marvels that trailblazed healthcare in Liverpool, to deep-sea mining and the use of AI in justice. There really is something for everyone!

The Pandemic Institute’s evening will take place on Tuesday 14th May, at Leaf on Bold Street, and will be hosted by Director Professor Tom Solomon, CBE. Liverpool has a proud history of excellence in public health and infectious diseases research, and Tom will lead a whistle-stop tour of Liverpool, from the 1832 cholera pandemic in the slums of Liverpool, to our modern-day firsts in fighting emerging infections.

One such innovative piece of work is the development of new diagnostic tests, and Dr Caitlin Thompson (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine) will join us to talk about her work, making a lateral flow test for one of the world’s most dangerous viruses (Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever). Rounding off the night, Professor Kay O’Halloran will discuss her work with Liverpool’s ‘digital twin’, and the importance of digital media to ensure that communities can make informed decisions during times of extreme risk.

With up to £800 million being invested in our region over the next 10 years to supercharge health and life sciences, Liverpool is an exciting place to be for world-leading scientific research.   

To book your tickets for The Pandemic Institute Pint of Science night, click here.

The festival will take place in Liverpool on the 13th – 15th May 2024, to see the full range of events, click here.

Vice-Chancellor’s Conference maps out a more successful future for Liverpool

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More than 170 key figures from Liverpool City Region organisations attended the University of Liverpool Vice Chancellor’s Conference today (28 November 2023) to hear local and national viewpoints on Liverpool’s future success.

The event saw Mayor Steve Rotheram launch the interim report from his Liverpool Strategic Futures Panel, which was set up to help chart the city’s path to stability and prosperity. He outlined priorities for Liverpool over next 10 years which included: rebooting regeneration; 21st century public service reform; and turbocharging the innovation economy.

Speaking on the report, he said:

“Liverpool has all the ingredients of a fantastic, truly global city. Through the panel’s work, we want to help the city seize the major opportunities that lie ahead and ensure that all our residents can share in the benefits this will bring.”  

The Mayor was joined by Dharmesh Nayee from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), whose Secretary of State, Michael Gove, has approved the report.

The event at the Maritime Museum also included a keynote speech from the Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Society of Arts, and former Chief Economist at the Bank of England, Andy Haldane CBE, on the national and local challenge in creating successful cities. Speaking about the plans for Liverpool, he said:

“The past 30 years have seen a welcome rejuvenation here. However, the pace has slowed a little in the last 15 years and Liverpool’s regeneration is plainly unfinished business – that’s what makes today’s event so timely.”

Liverpool City Council Leader, Cllr Liam Robinson and Chief Executive, Andrew Lewis discussed how they will provide leadership for a successful Liverpool. Cllr Robinson said:

“When we are given the opportunity, we can do some really significant things. We are already a world famous visitor destination but we also need more people to live, work and invest here. The future can be and must be really bright for Liverpool.”

Following this, four panel discussions with leading city figures explored different areas of opportunity:

How will we improve our economic performance?
Colin Sinclair, Chief Executive Officer, Knowledge Quarter Liverpool and Sciontec
Phil Hall, Mersey Division Port Director, Peel Ports Group
Brian Woodhouse, Business Director, Lucid Games
Jessica Bowles, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Impact, Bruntwood

How will we use development to create more successful communities?
Chris Capes, Director of Development, Peel L&P
Billy Hogan, Chief Executive Officer, Liverpool Football Club
Professor Louise Kenny CBE, Executive Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of Liverpool
Stephen Jones, Director, Core Cities UK

How will we improve the quality and performance of our city centre?
Bill Addy, Chief Executive Officer, Liverpool BID Company
Nuala Gallagher, Corporate Director City Development, Liverpool City Council
Lorna Rogers, Assistant Director of Mayoral Programmes, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
Dr Jonathan Falkingham MBE, Founder and Creative Director, Urban Splash

What have we learned and what will we do next?
Katherine Fairclough, Chief Executive, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
Laura Pye, Director, National Museums Liverpool

Professor Tim Jones stands outside the Maritime Museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

“I would like to thank all of today’s participants for their valuable and thought-provoking contributions.

“A number of priorities have been discussed today including the scale of our ambition – it is clear we need to think globally. Partnership between the public and private sector will also be critical to the city’s success in the coming years, and knowledge and innovation leaders like the University of Liverpool have a critical role to play.

“Inclusive growth to benefit all parts of our community is key, and the barriers to opportunity in our organisations and elsewhere must disappear. We’ve talked a lot and now it is time to deliver. It’s in our hands to make the changes, working together with local and central government and the private sector.”

University of Liverpool and Liverpool University Hospitals sign MOU

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Senior leaders from the University of Liverpool and Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to advance plans for an Academic Health Sciences Campus on the site of the former Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

The MoU will build on a long-standing collaboration between these Liverpool City Region anchor institutions, for the benefit of patients, students and the people of the region. In partnership with North West NHS trusts providing placements to Liverpool students, it will also help to answer challenges laid out in the recently published NHS Workforce Plan, the biggest recruitment drive in health service history

It will support the continued growth of Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter, creating jobs and seeking to attract investment in this world-leading innovation district which brings together the city region’s key partners to collaborate in a creative environment and close the economic gap with London and the South East.

The facility would house the University’s medical, dental, nursing and allied health professional students, enabling new opportunities for interprofessional learning, thereby enhancing students’ clinical understanding and professional development within the context of a clinical team.

It would also feature flexible teaching spaces, clinical teaching facilities and simulation facilities, such as mock wards and patient homes, supported by state-of-the-art IT to train students to be part of a workforce that will increasingly use robotics, artificial intelligence and data.  As part of our Health Innovation LiverpooL (HILL) programme, it would also provide vital clinical research space for health professionals seeking to address regional and global healthcare challenges.

Professor Louise Kenny, Executive Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at the University of Liverpool said:

“Since its founding in 1834, the University of Liverpool’s Medical School has been at the forefront of medical practice and associated with numerous leading medical alumni, including three Nobel Laureates. We have a rich heritage of working closely with hospitals across the region to train health professionals who go on to make a vital contribution to society.

“The new Liverpool Academic Health Sciences Campus is a really exciting opportunity to build on this work, providing new interprofessional learning experiences to enhance students’ clinical understanding and professional development within the context of a clinical team. New mock wards and mock patient homes, together with virtual reality-assisted learning and other state-of-the-art facilities and IT, would provide an authentic clinical and digital learning teaching environment for larger numbers of students, alongside a-state-of-the-art clinical research environment which would help us respond to future challenges.

“Our region has some profound health inequalities, and we remain absolutely committed to playing our part in addressing these. Increasing our capacity to train healthcare professionals and retain them here after training, something that the University has a strong record in doing, is a key part of our work in this area.”

James Sumner, Chief Executive of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: 

“The agreement between LUHFT and the University of Liverpool is an incredibly exciting opportunity for the city of Liverpool.

“A new clinical skills and health education facility would significantly improve and modernise the quality of health education for the next generation of health care workers across multiple professions, including medicine, dentistry, nursing and the allied health professions. It offers opportunities for collaboration and partnership in clinical research and innovation for the benefit of the NHS across the region, which is essential for improving the care and treatment we deliver whilst also helping to tackle challenges, such as the health inequalities within the Liverpool City Region.

“It would also be an important investment in the redevelopment of a key city centre location, sitting alongside two of the newest hospitals in the country and in the heart of the Knowledge Quarter, all of which serves to benefit the people of Liverpool and beyond. We are committed to working with University of Liverpool to help support making this new facility a reality in the coming years.”

Liverpool led way in reopening big cultural events

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Liverpool researchers have authored a new study detailing definitive population-based evidence of risks of Covid-19 transmission around the early reopening of mass cultural events before restrictions were lifted.

Liverpool City Region hosted the world’s first regional cluster of experimental reopening of mass cultural events after Covid lockdowns as part of the UK Events Research Programme (ERP), including a business festival, two nightclubs (Circus’ First Dance) and a music festival (the Sefton Park Pilot).

All ticketholders were required to take a lateral flow test ahead of the events – a negative test would allow them access. Attendees were encouraged to take a PCR test on the day of the event, and a second one five days later, and gave consent for their routine NHS Covid testing data to be linked.

The analysis, published today (23 June 2023) in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, finds that of 12,256 individuals attending one or more events over 5 days, there were just 15 linked cases detected through research, public health and clinical testing using population-wide linked data.

Half of the cases were likely primary or secondary, reflecting transmission no higher than the background rate at the time, in contrast to a concurrent outbreak of more than 50 linked cases associated with a local swimming pool.

The key strengths of the study are its population-wide design and the realistic way the events were run. The Liverpool City Region was the first region in the world to introduce voluntary open-access asymptomatic testing, and used real-time linked data systems to study patterns of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and coordinate public health responses from November 2020 through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The University of Liverpool’s Professor Iain Buchan, Principal Investigator for the Events Research Programme in Liverpool, said:

“Around the May Bank Holiday of 2021, the Liverpool City Region ran the world’s first experimental reopening of a realistic set of mass cultural events after COVID-lockdowns. We studied the feasibility and effects of risk-mitigations including supervised self-testing, contact-tracing and joint communications between event organisers and public health teams. The events were designed to be realistic, so mask-wearing was not compulsory. Out of 12,256 eventgoers there were 15 event-linked cases detected through research and routine NHS testing – no greater than background rates, which were low then – just before the Delta variant surged. The same surveillance system detected over 50 cases linked to a swimming pool in the area at the time, which did not have pre-attendance testing.”

He added:

“This public health initiative was a response to the social development and mental health needs of young people, who were last to be vaccinated, and among whom mental health referrals were rising. It was also a response to rising unemployment in the events and hospitality sector, and the importance of this sector for social wellbeing. Future pandemic recovery might take greater advantage of digital links between ticketing, events management, and public health systems, including testing and risk communications.”

The live links between different data sources, including events ticketing and public health testing were built by the Liverpool City Region Civic Data Cooperative (CDC), which is funded by Mayor Steve Rotheram and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, and hosted by the University of Liverpool. The CDC is the UK’s first Civic Data Cooperative and was launched just before the COVID-19 pandemic to mobilise health-related data across the city region to improve the health and wellbeing of its residents.

Director of Culture Liverpool Claire McColgan CBE, said: 

“The Events Research Programme remains one of the most challenging projects I have ever been involved with and one that I’m incredibly proud of. At a time when restrictions were in place, we couldn’t mix indoors with family and friends, and mask wearing was the norm – Liverpool stepped up to be the focal point of a pilot project which would help shape national policy and breathe life back into the culture and leisure sector.

“This industry represents more than half of our local economy and it was in our interests to do everything we could to start to bring a sense of normality back. The eyes of the world were on us as we blazed the trail, and worked around the clock with the University, Government and event organisers to make each activity a safety success, and help unlock live events for the rest of the country.  And in terms of legacy, our learning from those projects has been invaluable, shaping how we now deliver major events, such as the highly-acclaimed Eurovision host city programme, and as a result are regarded as an exemplar of best practice in this field.”

Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, said:

“Being the first region in the country to reopen its hospitality and events sector in the midst of a global pandemic was no mean feat, yet we knew it was essential one – not only for our economic recovery, but for our collective wellbeing.

“While the rest of the world watched on, we worked with our world-leading scientists, researchers and our ethical Civic Data Cooperative, to safely reopen our visitor economy to the public. Few areas can claim to have made a bigger impact on global health than the Liverpool City Region – and it’s a legacy that we’re proud to be continuing today.”

Click here to read the full paper.

(Image credit: Blossoms Perform / Liverpool City Council)

£6.9M funding to better understand child mental health

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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 Mental Health Research Centre is established in KQ Liverpool

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Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Liverpool have teamed up to create the first ever Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC), where service users co-design the innovations they need and want, alongside health professionals, researchers, industry partners, and public advisers.

The Centre will be awarded £10.5 million of government funding from the Office for Life Sciences and the National Institute for Health and Care Research. It is part of the national ‘Mental Health Mission’ which aims to accelerate mental health research through a UK network of leading investigators called the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration which includes M-RIC in Liverpool.

M-RIC will create a world first ‘learning system’ where treatments improve the more they are used, studied and refined. The focus will be on under-researched areas such as early intervention in psychosis, depression, and children and young people’s mental health. Research will underpin Liverpool City Region’s commitment to service users, providing easy access to clinical trials and increasing their involvement in better care, closer to home.

Professor Joe Rafferty CBE, Mersey Care’s Chief Executive, said:

“Investment in mental health research has huge potential to boost economic growth, reduce health inequalities, and address the associated £13bn per annum the UK economy loses in productivity to poor mental health.

“To improve mental health, the Centre will advance understanding of how mental, physical, and social conditions are interlinked, and trial new interventions with industry in real life settings.”

Professor Iain Buchan, the University of Liverpool’s Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Innovation, explained:

“Mental health is vital to us as individuals, families, and communities, yet despite advances in public health and healthcare, mental health has been declining, particularly in disadvantaged areas like Liverpool.

“Our Centre will have particular depth in mental health data science and engineering, driving innovations for a connected world – continuously improving as the research underpinning them is embedded in mental health services.”

The data-sharing required for the project will be facilitated by Liverpool City Region’s Civic Data Co-operative (CDC) which uses data to deliver better care for residents.

Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said:

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated many of the health inequalities that exist in our society today – few more so than the extreme disparities in mental health support and funding. Coupled with the spiralling cost of living, it’s little surprise our country is now in the midst of a mental health crisis – which is costing the UK economy nearly £118bn every year.

“It’s one of the many reasons we invested in an ethical Civic Data Cooperative, to allow local experts to analyse our residents’ health and wellbeing needs and to help us improve care and service delivery locally.

“Our area has been a global leader in health research and innovation for centuries, and it’s fantastic to see this legacy continue today with the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre. I’m really looking forward to seeing how it helps us identify and explore new, improved ways to treat the mental health and wellbeing of our 1.6 million residents.”

Professor Nusrat Husain, Mersey Care’s Director of Research and Innovation, and Global Centre for Research on Mental Health Inequalities, added:

“The investment for innovation in mental health provides important opportunities to build upon our existing work to address mental health inequalities.

“For example digital technologies are helping to improve access to mental health services and becoming an important part of our clinical practice. These innovations in the way we deliver mental healthcare will not only have an impact on Liverpool City Region, but also nationally and globally.”