As we ramp up our growth to support innovators in the city region, LYVA Labs has been busy attracting a range of talent into the team, utilising the extensive networks and wide range of high-value candidates the city region has to offer.  

Since launching, we have recruited a team of experts to support us to deliver our vision. Integral to this is LYVA Labs’ wider ambition of supporting the retention of graduates from the city and leading by example to encourage those we work with to do the same.  

Lorna Green, CEO at LYVA Labs explains: “Though many members of our team have studied elsewhere or gained experience far and wide, they have all noticed the immense, unique opportunities here in the city region. As we see great innovation begin to emerge and scale here, we believe it’s never been a more important time to attract talent back into our ecosystem and I’m proud that we’re working hard to do this at LYVA labs” 

Meet our recent starters:  

Dr Rachel Lawless, Innovation Funding Manager:  

A University of Liverpool graduate, Rachel studied at the city centre institution for seven years while gaining her bachelor’s degree in physiology, and her MRes and PHD in musculoskeletal ageing with 3 years of postdoc in molecular biology 

Since then, Rachel has worked in the life science industry working with  SMEs to help them obtain grants, through investment proposals.  

Through this work Rachel is able to bring her impressive knowledge from both a technical point of view and the funding arena, having worked to both raised funding and invest. In previous roles, Rachel has been involved in raising nearly £9million of funding, including £550,000 in 8 months in her last role.  

This is just an example of the great work that Rachel can achieve, and we are extremely excited to have her as part of the inner LYVA Labs team. The work she will be able to achieve with innovators is going to be incredibly impactful.  

Although Rachels roles have helped companies across the country, Rachel is proud to be back in Liverpool and using her expertise to support local innovators, establish grants and funding, changing the lives of people from her home region.  

Rachel said: “Working to overcome some of the world’s greatest health challenges, is a passion of mine, and being able to support upcoming innovators is very exciting. I’m proud of my Liverpool background and I’m looking forward to helping to propel Liverpudilian-born innovation onto the world stage.” 

Kate McDermott, Business Operations Manager:  

Liverpool John Moores University graduate, Kate, has three years of experience in attracting inward investment for the city region. Her roles have seen her provide a range of free professional advice to companies considering establishing a physical presence in Liverpool City Region.  

This included providing detailed markets, sectors and workforce demographics, identifying all available support and incentives to support the projects, providing a comprehensive review of all sites/premises available and making introductions to industry networks and partner organisations. 

Her expertise in how to achieve investment within the region is incredibly valuable and will help provide essential support to our innovators. Her inside knowledge of what the city region is interested in, and how to spark interest from key stakeholders, is unmatched.  

Kate said: “I am really excited to join the team at LYVA Labs, it’s a fantastic addition to the regional innovator support system and will provide a lot of support to local start-ups. Innovation is high on the region’s agenda and I look forward to working within an organisation that will play a key role in shaping this. 

Liverpool is becoming a hub for exciting innovators and I’m looking forward to being a part of that. With so many opportunities on offer, people might not be aware of what is on their doorstep. My aim is to help people utilise these support systems, to create an incredible sector of growth for our region.” 

Conor Rodgers, Media & Communications Support:  

Conor is a media, culture & communications graduate, with experience in content creation, social media management and digital marketing. Originally from Wolverhampton, Conor obtained his degree from Liverpool John Moores and remained adamant that he wanted to pursue his career within the city.  

His strong capability to communicate with a variety of partners, stakeholders, and external teams, will offer a huge benefit to those starting out and looking to gain external attraction. By creating variations of content across multiple internal and external marketing channels, including social media, Conor will be helping us deliver our promise of providing all our innovators with a platform.  

As part of LYVA Lab’s dedication to growing talent, we will also be offering mentoring to Conor to help him expand in his role with Caroline Kenyon, director of communications and engagement at The Innovation Agency. As well as working with Caroline, Conor will be offered the opportunity to shadow team members from organisations such as Sciontec Liverpool and Active Profile. 

Conor said: “This position is one that really interests me and after conducting my own research about LYVA Labs, I recognise that it is an exciting time to join. I believe that the culture of the company suits me, my way of working and my interests, which is something that is important to me and my career aspirations.”  

Conor will be responsible for managing LYVA Labs social media channels, creating content, event planning and management and delivering communications campaigns. 

Conor is a graduate from LJMU and has been hired through the LJMU graduate futures project. He is from Wolverhampton and will be returning to Liverpool to take up the role. He has 6 months of experience working for a sports club digital marketing agency. 

On June 13^th it was announced that Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham would provide an extra £3.2m to LYVA Labs, to support start-ups and innovators in the Liverpool City Region.  

Set up in December 2021 as LCR Ventures, and subsequently rebranded, LYVA Labs supports and funds entrepreneurs and innovators in the health and life sciences sector, one of the strongest sectors in the country with over £2bn in research in infection alone per year. However, with the extra £3.2million injection, creating a total of £11million, LYVA Labs will now look to expand its activity into new sectors and turn more entrepreneurial ideas into high-growth businesses and create high-value jobs.  

As the city region’s dedicated innovation commercialisation vehicle, LYVA Labs will be key to achieving the LCR Combined Authority’s ambition to invest five per cent of regional GVA in research and development (R&D) by 2030 – nearly double the Government’s national target. 

As part of its drive to boost innovation, the combined authority has published its Innovation Prospectus, a multibillion-pound plan to supercharge the city region’s innovation powerhouse credentials linked to its distinctive world-leading capabilities in materials chemistry, infection control, and AI solutions, plus emerging strengths in net zero. 

Mr Rotheram said: “Our region is home to a thriving ecosystem of innovators who have got the talent, ambition and creativity to rival anywhere else in the world. I want to offer them a helping hand with the additional funding that can help them to realise their potential. When local businesses flourish, the rest of our economy does too. 

“I want the Liverpool City Region to develop a global reputation as a place that creates more businesses, attracts greater investment and files more patents. The more we can encourage businesses to tap into their entrepreneurial spirit, the faster we can realise our ambition of becoming an innovation powerhouse.” 

The additional funding for LYVA Labs is a response to Project Boom, commissioned by the LCR Innovation Board to examine how economic growth could be maximised and accelerated by the distinctive innovation assets of LCR. 

This financial boost will enable LYVA Labs to address the three urgent needs identified by the report, namely improving the commercialisation of ideas generated by the city region’s knowledge base, enhancing innovation collaborations between the knowledge base and city region industry, and developing large scale collaborations to exploit the city region’s unique base and capabilities. 

LYVA Labs will do this with a four-part programme: 

• Creating a £1m Challenge Fund supporting the establishment of start-ups from the LCR knowledge base. 
• Consultation work to create a portfolio of new high value innovation opportunities linking larger businesses and HEI across Liverpool City Region. 
• Developing new consortia between established businesses and the knowledge base both by deploying insights and through the provision of grants to fund the development of initial concepts. 

• General support to ensure that initial ideas are supported to access other business support mechanisms within the Liverpool City Region. 

Lorna Green, chief executive of LYVA Labs, added: “We’ve had amazing support from the innovation community for the launch of the Health & Life Sciences Challenge Fund and have already established a strong pipeline for investment.  

“This second phase of funding allows us to work with established businesses across all sectors who want to innovate, and to establish up to 20 new deep tech businesses. The Combined Authority approved an initial £7.5m investment to create LCR Ventures, later rebranded as LYVA Labs, in August 2022, to allocate a further £3m.” 

If you have an innovative project or idea and you’re based in Liverpool City Region, get in touch on how LYVA Labs can help you find an accessible route to early-stage investment.  

www.lyvalabs.com  

The developer of a new life-saving platform that can detect early signs of bacterial sepsis has been revealed as the first company to secure funding from LYVA Labs, the Liverpool City Region’s innovation fund.

Frequasense Ltd has secured £175,000 to develop technology that rapidly detects sepsis – an infection that affects 245,000 people and is responsible for at least 48,000 deaths in the UK every year.

Once fully developed, Frequasense Ltd’s platform, which involves a quick finger prick test, will be used by hospitals, GP surgeries nursing homes and paramedics.

Sonja Jonas, CEO at Frequasense Ltd, said: “We have worked tirelessly to develop our platform, which will save the lives of so many who will go on to be diagnosed with sepsis. This investment from LYVA Labs will provide us with the funding and support we need to accelerate our offering to its final stage of development. 

“We have built a fantastic relationship with the LYVA Labs team and look forward to re-locating into the city region and receiving the support we need to secure the future of this life-saving platform.”

LYVA Labs was created with a £10.5m investment from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority announced by Mayor Steve Rotheram in August 2021. Frequasense Ltd’s product is the first investment the programme has made since its successful launch of the LCR Ventures Challenge Fund earlier this year.

It is a key vehicle for achieving Mayor Rotheram’s ambition to invest 5% of regional GVA on Research and Development (R&D) by 2030 – nearly double the government’s UK target.

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “For centuries, the Liverpool City Region has been the birthplace of some of the greatest scientific discoveries that have changed the world we live in – and our understanding of it.

“I want to make sure that we continue that legacy and we’re very lucky to be building on enviable foundations. Our region is home to thriving ecosystem of world leaders in everything from infection control to AI – with world-class clusters of innovation on our doorstep, like the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and our Pandemic Institute.

“We launched LCR Ventures with £10.5mbecause we want to tap into the latent potential of companies with the ambition, and capability, to deliver transformational innovation. It’s a big part of my wider ambition for the Liverpool City Region – I want to stake our claim as the UK’s innovation powerhouse – and we’ll only get there by investing in the bright minds and big ideas that, potentially, could see our region change the world once again.”

Lorna Green, CEO of LYVA Labs, added: “We are extremely proud to be working with Frequasense Ltd as our first investment company. The product Frequasense will make a huge difference to the early diagnosis and treatment of sepsis, something that could save the NHS an average of £57 million pounds a year and drastically reduce hospital stays for patients who have been diagnosed.”

Steve Stuart, Chairman of LYVA Labs said: “Our goal at LYVA Labs is to build on the assets of Liverpool City Region’s health and life sciences sector and Frequasense Ltd is a fantastic first addition to our growing portfolio of innovative technologies across the region.”

The deal comes as part of Liverpool Combined Authority’s plan to invest more than double its national target on research and development by 2030. A plan that is linked to £3 billion of innovation projects across the region. 

Expert advice was provided by the Innovation Agency, which helps the NHS to adopt innovations. Andrew Cooper, Clinical Director for the Innovation Agency said: “The Frequasense platform will provide a quick, simple test that accurately identifies bacterial sepsis as the cause of acute illness, several hours sooner than the current methods of identification, which will significantly reduce current patient mortality rates. We look forward to supporting Frequasense Ltd to bring their product to market once development is completed.”

LYVA Labs’s investment will enable Frequasense Ltd to secure a £300,000 Innovate UK SMART grant to finalise the development and testing of its product in a clinical environment, with support from Liverpool University Hospital Foundation Trust (LUHFT) and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.