Liverpool City Region considers investing a further £7.5m into the £24m Project Violet at Sci-Tech Daresbury after ploughing £9.5m into the scheme in 2024 – creating space for an estimated 250 jobs. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is to consider investing a further £7.5m into an expansion of the Sci-Tech Daresbury science and innovation campus.
Sci-Tech Daresbury in Halton is already home to around 150 companies as well as a £30m supercomputer. In 2022 it built phase one of Project Violet, comprising three buildings totalling 43,000 sq ft at a cost of £17.8m.
Project Violet phase two secured planning consent in December 2023. It will comprise a 60,000 sq ft laboratory facility and a 23,000 sq ft office building. Combined they could create capacity for around 250 people.
In 2024 Sci-Tech Daresbury, a joint venture between Langtree, the Science and Technology Facilities Council and Halton Council, secured £9.5m for the laboratory element from the city region’s Innovation Zone funding.
This latest £7.5m would be invested in the office building which, on its own, could create capacity for 100 jobs. Work on Violet phase two is planned to start in summer 2026. A decision will be made on the £7.5m following the submission of a full business case.
Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “Sci-Tech Daresbury is one of the jewels in our region’s innovation crown. It’s a place where world-leading research and cutting-edge businesses are helping to power our economy.
“That’s why we’re continuing to invest to create hundreds of high-quality jobs, attract new businesses and build the kind of thriving, forward-looking economy that gives local people the chance to succeed.”
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The Combined Authority will also consider backing a £900,000 Health and Life Sciences Proof of Concept Fund as part of the Life Sciences Innovation Zone.
This funding would go towards a three-year, £1.15m initiative delivered by The Science and Technology Facilities Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.