Royal Academy of Engineering opens its new Enterprise Hub at the £2m Central Tech facility in Liverpool to support local engineering and technology innovators and entrepreneurs. Tony McDonough reports
A new support hub for local engineering and technology innovators and entrepreneurs has opened in Liverpool this week to tap into the ‘deep bench of talent’ in the city.
This is the latest in a series of similar hubs opened by the Royal Academy of Engineering. Liverpool is the fifth location outside of London, alongside Belfast, Swansea, Glasgow and Newcastle.
Located at the new £2m Central Tech facility in the city’s Knowledge Quarter, Enterprise Hub Liverpool will focus on transforming engineering and tech innovations into successful spinouts, startups and scaleups.
Led by senior enterprise manager Ben McAlinden, it will seek to support IP-rich innovations from all areas of engineering and technology, from across the North West region.
The academy believes 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 such as advanced manufacturing, life sciences, new materials and AI technology.
Gillian Gregg, associate director, regional engagement at the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: “We see a clear role for the Enterprise Hub to help connect the region’s talented engineers and technologists with investment opportunities.
“Liverpool’s strengths in life sciences, materials chemistry and AI technology, in particular, are part of a much broader regional engineering and technology ecosystem that we look forward to supporting.
“By harnessing local talent and capitalising on the city’s impressive research, development and innovation assets we will help unlock economic growth that will support the delivery of long term regional economic and societal objectives.”
Sciontec opened Central Tech in the former Sensor City building on Copperas Hill in May. A number of tenants have already signed up to occupy around 9,000 sq ft of the 27,000 sq ft facility.
Investment in research, development and innovation is key to creating knowledge-based companies, says the academy. The Enterprise Hub’s Spotlight on Spinouts 2025: UK academic spinout trends showed a year-on-year investment increase of nearly 40% across UK university spinouts.
However, current levels of both higher education and business expenditure on R&D in the Liverpool city region are lower than the UK average and access to funding has been challenging.
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Leader of Liverpool City Council and Combined Authority Cabinet Member for Innovation Cllr Liam Robinson, added: “Here in 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.”