The Royal Academy of Engineering has opened a new Enterprise Hub at Central Tech in Liverpool, designed to support local engineering and technology innovators and entrepreneurs with equity-free funding, smart and flexible training and mentoring from industry experts.
Liverpool will be the Academy’s fifth location outside of London, and the second regional hub in England after Newcastle. Further hubs can be found in Belfast, Swansea and Glasgow. Led by senior enterprise manager Ben McAlinden and based in the heart of the city’s Knowledge Quarter, the Hub in Liverpool will seek to support bold, IP-rich innovations from all areas of engineering and technology, from across the wider North West region, striving to solve the world’s most complex environmental, economic and social challenges.
The Academy believes the Liverpool City Region has all the ingredients to be a hive of deep-tech companies, as the home of two science and innovation districts with strengths in sectors like advanced manufacturing, life sciences, new materials and AI technology. The Liverpool City Regional Combined Authority and the Liverpool City Metro Mayor have also set out a clear path to deliver growth with their Plan for Prosperity. The plan highlights a “relentless focus on innovation”, capitalising on the city’s green industrial revolution and turning citizens’ potential into prosperity.
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Innovators previously supported by the Enterprise Hub have raised over £3bn in additional funding and created almost 6,000 jobs since 2013 thanks to:
- Access to the mentoring capability of the highly talented engineers and business leaders that make up the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship.
- Equity-free funding.
- Smart and flexible training, designed around the needs of entrepreneurs.
- A dedicated presence in the UK’s nations and regions, embedded in the local ecosystem.
- Long-lasting ongoing benefit and support from the Academy’s global network.
The Academy has recently set out its Strategy 2030, with an aim of ‘Engineering better lives’, and regional enterprise hubs are a key pathway to deliver that goal. Sir John Lazar CBE FREng, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: “Lack of access to capital means cutting-edge innovations – and the entrepreneurs who create them – don’t get the chances they deserve, and as a country, we don’t get the solutions to the issues we face. We want our new Liverpool Enterprise hub to create a climate where more investors become aware of the enormous potential of this deep bench of talent in the region.
“The commercialisation of research can be transformative in terms of breakthroughs and new products. Turning these discoveries into disruptive startups, spinouts and scaleups is the business of what we do with our Enterprise hubs. We want to help drive innovation and grow the economic future for everyone in the Liverpool City Region.”
Cllr Liam Robinson, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Cabinet Member for Innovation, added: “Here in the Liverpool City Region we have been pioneers for centuries and innovation is still at the heart of our strategy to drive economic growth.”
“We have world class strengths in areas including advanced manufacturing, life sciences, materials science and AI technology, and a huge amount of talented and ambitious entrepreneurs with ideas that can tackle the challenges the world faces today.”
“The Royal Academy of Engineering has recognised these strengths and opening their new Enterprise Hub in the heart of our Knowledge Quarter will play a vital role in helping turn talent and ideas into economic growth and prosperity that benefits everyone.”
