Novel was launched in Liverpool in early 2025 with a mission to deliver a new approach to how business support is delivered – and its first-year participants report impressive productivity gains. Tony McDonough reports
A Liverpool programme with a mission to deliver a new approach to how business support is delivered says it has made a significant impact in its first year.
Novel has spearheaded the wider “Horizons” programme with participating businesses reporting productivity gains averaging 47%. And Andrew Borland, who is leading the project, told LBN Novel has successfully created a dynamic peer network of SME innovation leaders in Liverpool city region.
Novel is an initiative of the University of Liverpool’s Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC) supported by Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. The VEC’s team of digital experts already has a track record of helping firms to successfully adopt new technologies and innovations.
It has brought together some of the region’s most ambitious and highest growth potential companies from sectors spanning advanced engineering, manufacturing, digital, creative and third sector. It is part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund’s ‘Horizons’ programme a partnership between LJMU, Edge Hill University and the University of Liverpool.
In the last year, attendees have benefited from a series of in-depth innovation leadership residentials delivered by a curated network of global business and innovation specialists. One event was addressed by former ‘Minister for Merseyside’ Lord Heseltine.
Figures show 166 people from 102 organisations attended the Novel events in the first 12 months. Novel also produced over 20 podcasts to showcase some of the SME leaders and owners in the region and their personal journeys, attracting views in the thousands.
And now, Novel is looking towards a second stage of the programme – cultivating a new wave of innovation leadership, aimed at helping the city region to maximise its growth potential and fully commercialise SME R&D efforts.
“Collaboration is right at the heart of the programme,” said Andrew. “Too many good SMEs and their teams are working without support. They are doing good work but often lack different perspectives that could accelerate their growth and development.
“Novel wanted to take a new approach of working with SMEs by working with owners and leaders to think about what innovation would look like in their businesses. Then offering hands-on technical and engineering support to help those leaders’ de-risk and realise their ideas.
“Investing in and utilising digital technology is of course an increasingly important part of growth and innovation, but so often it is simpler than that. We’ve seen people implement straightforward new processes that have transformed productivity.”
The Horizons parent project is backed by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund where the VEC was the lead among partners at Liverpool John Moores and Edge Hill universities. Including Novel, it has so far supported more than 100 Liverpool city region SMEs.
In 2025, Horizons helped more than 50 businesses adopt new technologies and processes, contributing to the creation of more than 170 jobs. The programme also supported the launch of four new enterprises.
Building on Horizons’ momentum, VEC established Novel as a dedicated innovation programme designed to engage directly with business leaders across the Liverpool City Region.
Its purpose is to deliver an innovation programme for leaders rather than a leadership programme about innovation and to foster collaboration, encourage knowledge sharing, and help organisations work together to accelerate innovation.
Since its launch, Novel has developed a distinctive network of forward-thinking businesses, generating new collaborations while cultivating a growing community of returning leaders who share its vision and recognise the value of collective innovation
“Events were exceptionally well attended, with many businesses and individuals returning for multiple sessions, which was great to see,” added Andrew.
“The strong engagement throughout the 2025 programme has encouraged more SMEs to explore R&D and innovation, with many accessing support programmes for the first time.
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“But I feel like we are just getting started. Novel isn’t a rigid programme. We want it to be shaped by its participants and over the next 12 months it will evolve further to fit the needs of growing SMEs and help them leverage the technical assets, expertise and support available in the city.
“This programme has really sparked something different, growth comes from the private sector which is why innovation in the regional business has so much potential to make a huge impact in the Liverpool city region economy.”