Liverpool City Region + a Science & Innovation Audit Main Report
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LIVERPOOL CITY REGION + A SCIENCE & INNOVATION AUDIT MAIN REPORT SPONSORED BY THE DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY SEPTEMBER 2017 OUR FINALISED SCIENCE & INNOVATION AMBITIONS: Infection To consolidate the LCR's position as an international centre of excellence in tackling infectious diseases, and create a cluster of anchor and high growth companies to take advantage of global market opportunities in infection. Materials Chemistry To apply the LCR's world class materials chemistry capabilities and commercialisation model to provide transformational opportunities for mature UK sectors, create new high-growth industries, and become a recognised global leader. HP&CC To harness the LCR’s world-leading High Performance and Cognitive Computing1 capabilities to accelerate cross-sector growth and productivity, public sector transformation, and develop a world-class data-centric and disruptive digital technologies cluster. Innovation Excellence For the LCR to be a national exemplar of place-based and innovation-driven economic growth that supports the UK Industrial Strategy. 1 NB. We have chosen to use this term rather than “Artificial Intelligence”, while acknowledging that the two are closely related. Contents FOREWORD FROM THE MAYOR OF LIVERPOOL CITY REGION I INTRODUCTION FROM THE LCR+ SIA CONSORTIUM II 1 INTRODUCING THE LIVERPOOL CITY REGION+ 1 2 STRENGTHS IN SCIENCE AND INNOVATION 10 3 FOCUSING ON OUR SIA – THEMES AND PROCESS 15 4 IN DETAIL: SIA THEME 1 – INFECTION 17 5 IN DETAIL: SIA THEME 2 – MATERIALS CHEMISTRY 30 6 IN DETAIL: SIA THEME 3 – HIGH PERFORMANCE & COGNITIVE COMPUTING 44 7 REVISING OUR HYPOTHESES AND AMBITIONS, AND PROPOSALS FOR ACTION 56 8 TO SUMMARISE . AND THEN TO MAKE IT HAPPEN 64 Appendices APPENDIX 1: GOVERNANCE ARRANGEMENTS AND KEY STAKEHOLDERS APPENDIX 2: KEY ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS AND COMPARATOR CITY REGIONS APPENDIX 3: MAP OF LIVERPOOL KNOWLEDGE QUARTER APPENDIX 4: LCR+ SIA CONFERENCE, 7 MARCH 2017, LIST OF ATTENDEES AND SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION APPENDIX 5: ADDITIONAL MATERIAL RELATING TO OUR STRENGTHS IN SCIENCE AND INNOVATION APPENDIX 6: ADDITIONAL MATERIAL RELATING TO INFECTION APPENDIX 7: ADDITIONAL MATERIAL RELATING TO MATERIALS CHEMISTRY APPENDIX 8: ADDITIONAL MATERIAL RELATING TO HP&CC APPENDIX 9: THEME-LEVEL PROJECT PROPOSALS IN DETAIL Foreword from the Mayor of Liverpool City Region As the newly elected Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, I am delighted that we are submitting this “LCR+” Science & Innovation Audit (SIA) report, an important initiative that was specifically referenced in our Devolution Agreement with government. This is an exciting time for the City Region, and maximising our exceptional scientific, industrial and innovation assets is critical to effecting the transformational and inclusive economic growth that is at the heart of my vision for the future. So much so in fact, that I have taken on personal responsibility for leading the Innovation Portfolio on behalf of the Combined Authority. I would like to record my thanks to the core partners involved for their hard work, vision and rigour in producing this detailed evidence-based analysis, and equally to the numerous other businesses and key stakeholders, both within the City Region and across the North and beyond, for their input and involvement. The initiatives set out here touch every part of the Liverpool City Region, demonstrating how broadly-based our science and innovation economy and assets are. By the same token, we are clear that the world-leading initiatives profiled in this audit can only be fully realised by collaborating with the “best of the best” elsewhere. Working closely with government, UKRI, the LCR Innovation Board, industry and other strategic partners, I am very pleased - together with Asif Hamid as the Local Enterprise Partnership Chair and designated LCR Business Portfolio Lead - to commend these LCR+ SIA proposals and confirm my personal commitment to delivering them in practice. Steve Rotheram, Mayor of Liverpool City Region Asif Hamid, Chair of Liverpool City Region LEP I Introduction from the LCR+ SIA consortium We are at a pivotal moment in the Liverpool City Region’s history. We must respond to the major economic, technological, environmental and political changes that are underway so that our economy and its people prosper in the future. The grand challenges we face include shifting trade patterns, in part generated by Brexit, increased automation as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), driven by data and computing power, becomes pervasive, and new demographic and health concerns, including anti-microbial resistance. These challenges bring with them opportunities and threats, which we must understand and navigate if we are to achieve our ambitions for our City Region. In May 2017, our residents elected their first-ever City Region Mayor who will take control of newly devolved budgets – ranging across Transport, Skills, Infrastructure, Planning, Housing, and Business Support, including support for Innovation – as part of our historic Devolution Agreement. Devolution provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to take charge of our economic future. To build on recent success and to address the challenges before us, we will work with national and international partners to develop and implement policies and programmes that promote economic growth, which is both sustainable and inclusive. The Government’s Industrial Strategy Green Paper, launched in February 2017, identifies 10 pillars that underpin industrial success. Partners used these pillars, together with the indicative Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund themes, to shape development of this Science and Innovation Audit. We are ideally placed to work with Government to strengthen and build on these industrial priorities, based on our track record of: Promoting sustainable and inclusive economic growth; Developing world-class infrastructure and world-leading research institutions and businesses, and Leading the Devolution agenda. The City Region’s capabilities across a range of industry sectors, its economic resilience, and its distinctive assets are key to our efforts to drive economic growth for our and the wider UK's benefit. Interlinking these assets and collaborating ever more closely is multiplying and accelerating the Liverpool City Region’s resurgence. And the strength of that resurgence is already significant. Our City Region economy is worth almost £30bn in GVA terms, equivalent to the entire outputs of the national economies of Lithuania or Slovenia. We have the second highest incidence of high- growth firms in the England. Our City Region is internationally renowned with an outstanding physical environment, and a waterfront recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. And wrapping around all this, we have significant and deep- rooted industrial strengths, which underpin fully the four prime capabilities defined by the Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review of 2016. II Our single Growth Strategy, Building Our Future, published in 2016, sets out how we will capitalise on our strengths to unlock further economic growth and create tens of thousands of new jobs and businesses. We aim to achieve: 100,000 additional jobs by 2040; A net increase of 20,000 businesses over the next 25 years; An additional 50,000 people coming to live in the City Region by 2040, and Increasing the City Region's economy to around £50bn by 2040. We are a happening, moving, and exciting place. Our SIA is a vital part of the work we are progressing to add further to our ambition for transforming the Liverpool City Region. With a clear and robust basis in evidence, overlaid with participative and creative thinking from 150+ organisations, it sets out the three ‘themes’ where our wider City Region, both in its own strength and by working with others, has proven excellence in science and innovation, which can be further exploited. These areas are: Infection; Materials Chemistry, and High Performance Computing & Cognitive Computing. At a Glance – our LCR+ Science and Innovation Audit 2017 Source: SDG Economic Development III We have no doubt that the relationships and ideas that this SIA has helped to catalyse will contribute directly to consolidating and heightening our international standing in the three focal areas considered within this SIA, and drive us on to achieve new global benchmarks. They will add further to a vibrant and dynamic innovation ecosystem which continuously builds and strengthens links within the City Region, the Northern Powerhouse, and the wider UK. Having had a relatively small share of investment in science and innovation, LCR has a pipeline of significant and exciting ideas which are ripe for investment from public and private sectors. We hope that you will work with us to help deliver our SIA projects and ambitions, as well as develop new, related collaborations. This is because they matter and can make a difference, not just for our place – the Liverpool City Region – but also for the wider North and indeed the rest of the UK. On behalf of the Liverpool City Region+ Consortium Joe Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool, Liverpool City Council; Professor Janet Beer, Vice Chancellor, University of Liverpool; Dr. Jon Hague, Vice President Operations & Open Innovation, Unilever; Chair of the Liverpool City Region Innovation Board; Professor Janet Hemingway, Director, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and Professor Susan Smith, Head of Daresbury Laboratory, Science & Technology Facilities Council.