23 Liverpool city region innovation projects secure almost £5.5m and include digital tech and ideas to tackle coastal communities from climate change. Tony McDonough reports

Projects to tackle climate change in coastal communities are among 23 Liverpool city region innovations to secure a total of almost £5.5m.

Cash from Innovate UK’s ground-breaking Launchpad programme will fund the projects, many of which are focused on net zero and digital technologies. And applications for funding will shortly be invited for projects around advanced manufacturing.

This is the second round of Launchpad funding. In the first round nine collaborative R&D projects, involving businesses working with research and technology organisations, were awarded a total of just over £4m.

Among the latest projects to win funding include protecting coastal communities from flooding, increasing energy efficiency and developing hydrogen, solar and wind power technologies

Other high-tech schemes include developing remote-controlled factories and making plastic recycling more efficient

Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “This is about attracting more innovation funding into our region and the wider North, helping us to create secure, well-paid jobs and training opportunities for local people.

“For far too long they have been held back from fulfilling their potential not by a lack of talent, but a lack of opportunity. As Mayor, I’m working to put that right.

“It is fantastic to see our Launchpad status starting to bear fruit with this first £5.5m of funding coming into the region.

Successful projects, receiving between £128,000 and £694,000, include schemes to manufacture:

• An eco-friendly block to help protect coastal communities against climate change-related flooding run by Liverpool SME Virtus Concrete Solutions in conjunction with Liverpool John Moores University.
• Advanced fuel cell technology for large power applications, such as HGVs and marine – delivered by Mersey Fair Air in partnership with KC3 Concrete Equipment.

A further 14 projects shared a total of £1.44m, receiving up to £100,000 each. These projects are to develop innovations for manufacturing, including:

• A pioneering wind turbine with an eco-friendly energy storage system developed by Enturi.
• Floating solar arrays. FloGen will research and test construction of very low carbon floating solar power units with structures built from natural and recycled materials.

Mr Rotheram added: “This is just the tip of the iceberg. We have got a £3bn pipeline of new projects still to unlock and, under my plans, will invest 5% of our GVA in innovation over the next few years – nearly double the national target.

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“We are positioning ourselves at the forefront of UK science and innovation – and are ready to take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way.”

The Launchpad pilots have proved so successful that Innovate UK will be announcing a further eight Launchpads across the UK this spring with the intention to launch their first funding calls in the summer.

Indro Mukerjee, chief executive of Innovate UK, said: “The Innovate UK launchpad programme and our other partnership activities are strongly contributing to boost business-led innovation across the region.”