Former Sensor City building in Liverpool Knowledge Quarter will utilise the ‘ultrafast’ LCR Connect network to become a £2m tech innovation hub for business customers. Tony McDonough reports
Five years after it closed the former Sensor City building in Liverpool is set to reopen as a £2m tech innovation hub.
Now called CENTRAL TECH, the 27,000 sq ft facility on Copperas Hill will reopen on May 1 with the Knowledge Quarter Liverpool (KQ Liverpool) innovation district. It is aimed at business customers looking for support with new technical innovations.
Utilising the “ultrafast” LCR Connect broadband network, it will be a central hub offering expertise in health, life sciences, technology and digitalisation. Sciontec, operator of nearby Liverpool Science Park (LSP) is behind the new venture.
Sciontec is the KQ development company owned by Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Liverpool, Liverpool City Council and Bruntwood SciTech. On Tuesday it appointed a contractor for the new £61m HEMISPHERE One lab and office scheme.
Close to both Lime Street and Liverpool Central train stations, CENTRAL TECH stands adjacent to Liverpool John Moores University’s Student Life and Sport Buildings, which opened in 2021. It will give customers access to the university’s facilities.
Each customer in the building can also tap into the Academic Support & Knowledge (ASK) initiative, which connects them to a specialist team or expert at the University of Liverpool or Liverpool John Moores University to support their work.
Professor Mark Power, vice-chancellor at LJMU and chair of Sciontec, said funding for CENTRAL TECH had come from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
He added: “This landmark deal with our Universities, city council and private sector partner Bruntwood SciTech will mark an exciting transformation in the city’s innovation and technology infrastructure.
“We are confident that CENTRAL TECH will help to create high value jobs in health, science and technology and bring growth to the city region.”
This new facility will join Sciontec’s portfolio which includes LSP’s iC1, iC2 and iC3 buildings, as well as serviced space offer Sciontec AI at The Spine and the planned HEMISPHERE One and Two labs developments at Paddington Village.
Trish Wallace, strategic projects and people manager at Sciontec, added: “Liverpool city region is rapidly becoming a superpower in health and life sciences innovation, so we are pleased to announce our plans to reopen the building.”
Opened in the city’s Knowledge Quarter (KQ Liverpool) in 2017 as a hub for sensor technology, Sensor City was a joint venture between Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Liverpool.
However, the concept did not take off and the Copperas Hill site closed during the first pandemic lockdown in 2020.