Protecting coasts and developing green energy technologies among Liverpool City Region innovation projects to secure nearly £5.5m

NEARLY £5.5m has been awarded to 23 Liverpool City Region innovation projects; with an emphasis on digital technology and tackling the climate emergency. The funding is part of Innovate UK's ground-breaking Launchpad programme which aims to drive innovation beyond South East England and is being piloted nationally in the Region.

Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, who has pledged to invest 5% of local GVA in R&D by 2030, said:- "The Liverpool City Region has the political will, research strengths and drive to succeed as a leader of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It was that ambition and our underlying status as a hotbed of innovation that led to Innovate UK making us 1 of only 2 Launchpad pilots in the country. This is about attracting more innovation funding into our Region and the wider North, helping us to create secure, well paid jobs and training opportunities for local people who, for far too long, have been held back from fulfilling their potential not by a lack of talent, but a lack of opportunity. As Mayor, I'm working to put that right. It is fantastic to see our Launchpad status starting to bear fruit with this 1st £5.5m of funding coming into the Region. But this is just the tip of the iceberg; we have got a £3bn pipeline of new projects still to unlock and, under my plans, will invest 5% of our GVA in innovation over the next few years; nearly double the national target. We are positioning ourselves at the forefront of UK science and innovation – and are ready to take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way."

Nine collaborative R&D projects, involving businesses working with research and technology organisations, were awarded a total of just over £4m in the 1st round. A 2nd round of competitive grant applications will open this month for advanced manufacturing projects.

Successful projects, receiving between £128,000 and £694,000, include schemes to manufacture:-

►   An eco friendly block to help protect coastal communities against climate change related flooding. The project, run by Liverpool SME Virtus Concrete Solutions Limited in conjunction with Liverpool John Moores University, to develop a new eco-friendly concrete 'Geoblock' which would completely replace cement for use in breakwaters and non-structural applications through recycling industrial and domestic wastes.

►   Advanced fuel cell technology for large power applications, such as HGVs and marine; delivered by Mersey Fair Air Limited in partnership with KC3 Concrete Equipment Limited, both Liverpool startups

►   A further 14 projects shared a total of £1.44m, receiving up to £100,000 each. These projects are to develop innovations for manufacturing, including:

►   A pioneering wind turbine with an eco-friendly energy storage system developed by Enturi, to make significant contributions towards net zero goals and future energy security. It comes as UK companies face an urgent need to decarbonise

►   Floating solar arrays. FloGen Limited will research and test construction of very low carbon floating solar power units with structures built from natural and recycled materials

►   Energy efficient ceramic filtration membranes used to produce ultra clean water, delivered by Evove Limited

►   Innovate UK's Launchpad programme opened in September and focussed on developing innovations that transform the Region's advanced manufacturing cluster, with an emphasis on digital technologies and net zero outcomes.

The decision to choose the Liverpool City Region reflected its highly developed place based innovation approach. It also followed publication of the area's 1st Innovation Prospectus that highlighted world leading strengths in infection prevention and control, advanced manufacturing, AI solutions, plus emerging capabilities in net zero and maritime technologies.

The Innovation Prospectus showcased more than £12bn of investment opportunities including a £3bn R&D project pipeline, at least £4bn in the Mersey Tidal Power programme, and £5bn in HyNet. It also highlighted the area's distinctive innovation assets and clusters, fertile innovation ecosystem and exceptional partnerships between industry research organisations and the public sector.

In 2022 the City Region also became the 1st place to refresh its Science and Innovation Audit and the 1st to announce a landmark partnership and action plan agreement with Innovate UK.

The Combined Authority, Growth Platform; the Region's growth company, STFC Daresbury Laboratory, and other key local stakeholders were directly involved in developing the Launchpad programme, which offered competitive grants of between £15,000 and up to £1m for businesses of all sizes.

Grant funding of up to £1m is available for projects that provide exceptional impact to the cluster of SMEs centred on the Liverpool City Region, including the STFC Daresbury Laboratory, at Sci-Tec Daresbury, and extends beyond the City Region into areas including:- Warrington, Cheshire West and Chester, Deeside, and South Lancashire.

The programme is designed to build on innovation clusters that have clear growth potential and successful applicants will receive wrap-around support from local and national organisations. Innovate UK also encouraged applicants to show how they had considered equality, diversity and inclusion within their proposal.

The programme follows through on Innovate UK's commitment in its Plan for Action to help build local strengths and help businesses benefit from them, in support of the Government's levelling up agenda.

Launchpad's key objective is to ensure more places in the UK host world leading and globally connected innovation clusters, creating more jobs, growth, and productivity in those areas.

The Launchpad pilots have proved so successful that Innovate UK will be announcing a further 8 Launchpads across the UK this Spring, with the intention to launch their 1st funding calls in the summer.

Indro Mukerjee, CEO of Innovate UK, said:- "Innovate UK is building strong Regional partnerships across the UK to support local innovation and commercialisation. I am pleased to work with Mayor Steve Rotheram and support his vision for his Region. The Innovate UK launchpad programme and our other partnership activities are strongly contributing to boost business-led innovation across the Region."

Welcoming the grant awards, Dr Jon Hague, Head of Clean Future Science and Technology for Unilever Homecare, who chairs the LCR Innovation Board, said:- "2022 was an extraordinary year for the Liverpool City Region innovation agenda with the launch of our 1st Innovation Prospectus, publication of our second Science and Innovation Audit, being the 1st place to announce a pioneering Partnership and Action Plan with Innovate UK, plus our selection as a national pilot for UKRI's Launchpad programme. Today's announcement of the amazing successful Round 1 Launchpad projects is a fantastic way to start 2023, reflecting the diversity of our innovation ecosystem and marking the shape of things to come in what promises to be an even more momentous year for LCR Innovation than the last."

Welcoming the 2nd round, Janice Mears, Head of Business Growth at Growth Platform said:- "It is fantastic to not only see 23 successful projects benefit from the 1st round of the Launchpad pilot, but it is also encouraging to see the collaborations and types of projects that have been successful. For our City Region to innovate, develop and strengthen the advanced manufacturing cluster our businesses need additional support and funding that will continue this upward trajectory – Launchpad is 1 such initiative that will help businesses maximise their potential and create additional opportunities and I would encourage any businesses within the advanced manufacturing sector to apply for round 2 funding."
 

Solo exhibition by Linda Heavon 'A Closer Look' to be held at ArtHouse Southport

AFTER graduating from De Montfort University in 1993 with a degree in Visual Arts, mixed media artist, Linda Heavon, went on to study psychology, counselling and a variety of complementary healing therapies and philosophies:- "I initially worked with Social Services for 13 years, and in 2016, decided to take my own coaching advice and became a full time artist. I became an associate artist with Castlefield Art Gallery in Manchester and when I moved to Southport in 2018, I joined Southport Contemporary Arts."

Painting and printing with watercolour, acrylic, oil pastels, gouache and charcoal are the main media Linda uses to explore contrast and balance, the human desire to create meaning with pattern and how colours elicit their own unique response:- "I mostly paint from life and sometimes from a memory to capture an emotion, the feel or essence of my experience. I attempt to reflect that on my canvas or paper using bold, expressionistic marks, layers and line. In 2000 I was introduced to Reiki and mindfulness meditation, later becoming a Reiki Master myself. I noticed that my realistic drawings were morphing into abstracts that I called "the essence' of what I was drawing rather than its physicality."

When Linda moved to Banks she inherited a magnificent garden filled with year round colour and pattern. An ever-changing microcosm of the universe, it has since become her muse towards exploring and expressing her ideas:- "I am fascinated by the impression of randomness and freedom yet knowing nature is ordered and precise. Seeing nature this way intrigues my long time interest in physics, metaphysics, quantum physics, quantum mechanics, theosophy and philosophy that always seem to find a way into my work."

Linda's adoption of abstraction and symbolism was initially fuelled by a painting by German Romantic landscape artist, Caspar David Friedrich:- "'The Monk by the Sea' was the 1st painting to stop me in my tracks and stirred up emotions I was not aware of having. This visceral reaction led me to Mark Rothko's colour fields and my interest in the emotional response to a visual image."

Linda has since developed her own personal methodology to the process of realising her visionary art that also has to allow for the unexpected:- "I cannot begin to be creative (in a way that I like) until I have meditated and/or found some other way to "get in the zone.' It is not possible, for me, to do this to a schedule due to the demands of everyday life and so my creativity is sporadic and can have long periods of absence. Once in the zone though is another, exciting story. Exciting because no 2 sittings are the same and I can often spend hours that feel like only moments. I can have a plan of what I want to have as an outcome and sometimes I achieve that but mostly I go off on tangents as I respond to the image that's unfolding."

This solo showing by Linda Heavon is certainly not 1 to be missed. Catch it while you can. The work will be on display at the ArtHouse, Eastbank Street, Southport from:- 28 February to 11 March 2023. The gallery is open:- Tuesday to Friday, from:- 10.00 to 15.00 and Saturday, from:- 11.00 to 16.00.