Liverpool City Region’s Investment Zone plans to supercharge health and life sciences and create 8,000 jobs

The unveiling of Liverpool City Region’s Life Sciences Investment Zone plans marks a significant milestone in the region’s economic development and global impact. With ambitions to create 8,000 new jobs and contribute to saving lives worldwide, this initiative underscores the area’s commitment to innovation and progress.

The Prospectus not only highlights the region’s existing strengths in life sciences but also outlines 21 transformative projects. These projects range from establishing state-of-the-art facilities to offering comprehensive business and innovation support, as well as nurturing the talent pipeline for future advancements.

By leveraging its world-leading innovation strengths and assets, Liverpool City Region is poised to make significant contributions to the life sciences sector, both locally and on a global scale. This initiative not only promises economic growth but also underscores the region’s dedication to advancing healthcare and improving lives worldwide.

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

“With up to £800m of investment and thousands of quality, high skilled jobs on offer, the Liverpool City Region Innovation Zone is an important tool in our arsenal to position our area at the head of UK science and innovation.

“But in the Liverpool City Region, we’re proud to do things differently. Throughout the development of our Innovation Zone, I have been clear that any investment in our area must go further than purely financial incentives. I want to use our status as a force for good, to connect our residents up to secure, well-paid jobs and training opportunities, and attract transformational investment into our communities.

“Becoming an innovation superpower is a lofty ambition – but I firmly believe that, if anywhere has the potential to achieve it, then it is the Liverpool City Region.”

Projects planned as part of the Investment Zone include:

• HEMISPHERE One and Two in Paddington Village, Liverpool City Council’s flagship regeneration scheme in the Knowledge Quarter Liverpool innovation district. The two multi-storey high-tech new builds will help satisfy a soaring demand for chemistry and life science laboratories.
• Within Knowledge Quarter Liverpool, Investment Zone Funding will enable the expansion of the University of Liverpool’s world-first Centre of Excellence for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT) and the Civic HealthTech Innovation Zone (CHI-Zone), which will spearhead the use of AI to transform health and social care. The Pandemic Institute will also continue to progress its plans to tackle emerging infections and pandemic threats.
• New high-containment Category Three labs fitted with leading-edge robotics and AI technology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine for use by the Infection Innovation Consortium: iiCON, a £260m programme that works with more than 800 companies worldwide and has delivered over 5 billion units of life-saving products and treatments in just 3½ years.
• Major expansion of Sci-Tech Daresbury. The Investment Zone will help deliver a new laboratory and new office building to accommodate further growth on the north of England’s only national science and innovation campus. It would ultimately deliver 70,000 sq m (750,000 sq ft) of new laboratories, offices and technical facilities. The site is home to the NW Healthtech cluster and hosts more than 150 high-tech businesses, including 50 involved in health and life sciences. It is also home to the UK’s most powerful supercomputer dedicated to industrial R&D. Investment Zone support will help Sci-Tech Daresbury towards ambitious plans to increase its workforce from 2,000 to around 10,000 over the next 15-20 years.
• A Mental Health Digital Research Centre at Mersey Care’s 42-hectare Maghull Health Park, which is home to Europe’s largest concentration of complex secure mental health services and leading clinical excellence for serious mental illness. Based on the former HMP Kennet site, the new centre will create the environment for innovators to develop new treatments to support improved mental health care. Mersey Care’s expansion plans are expected to create 1,270 new jobs.
• St Helens Manufacturing and Innovation Campus. The £500m project will redevelop land formerly used by the glass industry to expand the area’s manufacturing and innovation capabilities. It has the potential to create more than 1,000 new jobs. Key players include St Helens Borough Council, Glass Futures, Inovus Medical, NSG Pilkington, Network Space and SINA Medical Glass, which is creating a modern manufacturing facility.