Specialising in research into the use of sensors, the £15m Sensor City is a collaboration between the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University. Tony McDonough reports

Sensor City has secured six new tenants to its world class innovation hub in Liverpool city centre with each of the businesses already working across the world.

The facility, which specialises in research into the use of sensors and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), is a £15m collaboration between the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University.

Now calling Sensor City their home are Visual5d (V5D), Render Nation, Nova, Pulse Systems, Sensicon and Aerodrums.

Extensive support

Having worked with construction giants Kier, Balfour Beattie, Morgan Sindall and Laing O’Rourke, V5D is widely recognised as a trailblazer in 4D structural sequencing. The firm’s managing director, Johanna Mylius, said: “The on-site laboratory facilities and extensive support from the team makes Sensor City the perfect place to take us through this next phase of growth.”

Render Nation is an international production support and 3D rendering expert. The company hopes to capitalise on the connection and collaboration opportunities at Sensor City to develop its computer-generated images, animations and augmented reality (AR) apps for its clients.

Significant growth

Dr Joanne Phoenix, interim executive director at Sensor City, added: “2019 has already seen Sensor City undergo a period of significant growth. This is largely due to the fact that it is now attracting organisations with a diverse range of products and offerings, that operate on both a national and international scale.

“While we are still very much committed to promoting Liverpool city region as leading the Industry 4.0 revolution, we are also focused on building our international presence. This latest cohort of tenants is really helping to cement that global vision.”

Liverpool-based tech start-up co-foundry Nova has recently moved into the Sensor City building to help identify and support local entrepreneurs by developing ideas into successful, scalable tech start-ups in sectors including healthcare, fintech, education and eGaming.

Next generation

And Aerodrums has taken up residency to develop a next generation of products and grow its team, with Sensicon hoping to use its Sensor City status to help start-ups and SMEs in developing product to market strategies.

Having first used Sensor City’s hot-desking facilities in January 2018, sensor innovator Pulse Systems has now taken up permanent office space within the building to develop its business activities further.

Sensor City has welcomed 15 tenants and 56 hot deskers since its launch in 2017 and aims to further bridge the knowledge gap between new disruptive technologies and local enterprise.