Liverpool City Region (LCR) has set itself some ambitious targets for research and development (R&D) spending by 2030 – 5% gross value added (GVA), which is double the UK target. 

Far from being an aspiration, with little chance of realisation, this forecast is based on an existing £3bn pipeline of projects and a growing cluster of health and life sciences/infection control, advanced manufacturing/ materials chemistry, emerging technologies, and net zero/ smart city innovations in the city region. ¹ 

LCR also has a strong network of science, innovation, and industrial assets, of national and global importance: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and iiCON; the University of Liverpool’s Materials Innovation Factory; Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation; Daresbury Science and Technology Park; and Glass Futures, in St Helens.  

So how do you capitalise on this wealth of academic research and development (R&D), real-world science/technology innovation, and an industrial network primed to commercialise great ideas, whilst driving sustainable investment, growth, and jobs?  

LCR unveiled a multi-billion-pound innovation plan and accompanying innovation prospectus, to help realise Liverpool’s ambitions of becoming the ‘UK’s science superpower’. The innovation prospectus helped LCR to gain investment backing from central government and to highlight the wealth of opportunities available to investors or companies looking to relocate to or partner with the region.  

But with many strands to this growing ecosystem, LCR needed mechanisms to harness the brilliance and extend real growth opportunities to SMEs and innovative businesses across the region. In 2022 LYVA Labs launched, with a £7.5m grant from Metro Mayor, Steve Rotheram, and the job of joining some of the dots and pulling together strands of innovation, R&D, investment opportunities, and assets.  

LYVA Labs has subsequently invested £531,000 in three innovative companies and helped four more companies secure a total of £1.8m from other sources. We’ve also been awarded £3m ²  to set up our Innovation Partner consultancy service, with the aim of strengthening collaboration across the LCR innovation ecosystem and supporting SMEs and larger organisations with tools, knowledge, investment, partnerships, and access to assets they need to commercialise new products and services.    

Here, LYVA Labs’ Innovation Partner consultancy team explains how the work they do is helping to deliver LCR’s innovation aspirations. 

Q 1. What is the Innovation Partner Consultancy service and what can you offer to SMEs and larger organisations looking to innovate, grow, and secure funding? 

Our team connects ideas, people, and assets to drive innovation-led business growth across Liverpool City Region, applying innovation expertise gained during many years in industry with blue-chip companies. 

We help businesses to explore new opportunities through guided strategy and ideation workshops. We also build partnerships with subject matter experts and help signpost businesses to resources and investments that enable them to develop new products and service ideas – moving them closer to commercialisation. 

We can also provide small kick-starter grants for the ideas that have the strongest potential for growth and jobs in the region. 

Q 2. Who is eligible to apply for support from the consultancy and how can you help with business model and ideation development? 

Liverpool City Region (LCR) based businesses, large or small, are encouraged to contact us for advice and support in bringing product and service ideas to market or help to define their business’ overall approach to innovation.  

We’re open to any sector and are looking for ambitious, established businesses that are looking for innovation-led growth, or research-led spinouts and start-ups that are seeking new commercial collaborations. 

We want to find business leaders with innovative ideas and technologies, and answers to real-world challenges that can help fuel future growth for our region. 

Q 2. Where do you think there have previously been barriers to commercialisation and innovation growth for SMEs and organisations in LCR?  

Having worked with and for SMEs in the region, and in marketing and research and development (R&D) teams in larger corporations, our view is that the barriers to innovation often come down to the same three constraints of time, money, and expertise. 

• How can I secure time for me or my team to explore new ideas? 
• How can I fund these new ideas without damaging our bottom line? 
• How can I find the right expertise to bring these new ideas to market? 

Our Innovation Partner service is built to help address each of these three constraints. Our time is fully funded and structured as a co-development partnership to quickly explore, identify and develop high potential ideas. We have small kick-starter grants to help reduce risk and initial costs to businesses. And we have a team with diverse sector experience and connections into our knowledge assets – so the right expertise is always available when required. 

Q 3. Part of your work is around connecting businesses with assets, academic and knowledge partners, and industrial networks. Why is it important to encourage collaboration between these different sectors? 

We believe in the power of open innovation, where organisations do not rely solely on internal resources and capabilities but seek ideas and knowledge from external sources. Customers, partners, and external experts can help organisations discover new opportunities that accelerate their innovation and growth. 

Organisations that embrace open innovation and prioritise strong ecosystem engagement have a 58% revenue growth rate premium over organisations that pursue open innovation alone³. So, a core part of our mission is to ensure that businesses and knowledge assets, with shared interests and ambitions, are building new partnerships and seeing those benefits.  

Cross-collaboration is essential to keeping the UK ahead of the competition and at the forefront of scientific discovery; drawing different approaches together can also help organisations work collaboratively towards an innovative goal. 

Q 4. Both central government and LCR have placed innovation investment at the heart of their priorities for driving economic growth and supporting the levelling-up agenda. Why is innovation so integral to sustainable economic growth? 

Innovation should be integral to our regional economy if it is to be competitive and deliver sustained growth that can impact lives and livelihoods. Innovation delivers multiple benefits for our economy’s businesses and organisations; it also increases productivity, attracts new investment, enhances market competitiveness, and creates new high-skilled jobs for the region. 

Mayor Steve Rotherham’s target to invest 5% GVA into research and development – nearly double the government’s national targets – will help drive LCR’s mission of becoming the country’s innovation engine. 

Q 5. LCR has some clusters of expertise, around science and innovation, what are they and why is it important to identify and fortify these clusters? 

As outlined in the refreshed Innovation Prospectus, LCR is home to three world-leading specialisms in infection prevention and control, materials chemistry, AI solutions, emerging technologies, and net zero projects. These assets can help us lead the ‘green industrial revolution.’ 

Highlighting these strengths in an overarching regional innovation strategy enables investors and policymakers to prioritise our region for growth in these sectors. It also helps the regional business community to see what capabilities they can leverage into their organisations to develop innovative new products and services. 

Q 6. Where do you think the consultancy work you do can add value to the strengthening of LCR’s presence as a ‘science super cluster’? 

Our services support businesses that want to innovate but need initial guidance and connections to help them realise their ambitions. Building on the work of the innovation prospectus, we will highlight knowledge assets in the region and help establish new business partnerships. 

Creating purposeful connections will help us to deliver more high-return innovations that help to cement LCR’s reputation as a science super cluster. 

Q 7. What would success look like for your Innovation Partner service?  

Our mission is to connect ideas, people, and assets, to drive future growth across Liverpool City Region. We want to scope 50+ new innovative ideas in the next five years, with 25 receiving kick-start grants from us. We want to move 15 projects towards commercialisation or further funding, with support from LYVA Labs. 

Our ambition is to ensure that LCR is receiving its fair share of Innovate UK grant funding. LCR broadly has the same success rate to other regions in Innovate UK grant competitions, but the number of applications is lower than national averages, as is the average level of grant funding being sought. By helping to develop new innovative ideas with businesses, we hope to positively shift these statistics. SMEs that received Innovate UK funding, on average, grew their turnover by £5 million to £10 million, and employment by 30 to 40 employees, after 2 to 4 years, compared to similar companies not supported by Innovate UK⁴. 

⁴Source – Finding the true value of investing in innovation – UKRI, Oct 22. 

A new Innovate UK-funded Microbials (Microbiome, Biofilms & Phage) Accelerator is now accepting applications from SMEs for a programme of support to help scale their businesses and secure funding for the commercialisation of innovative microbial technologies. Funded as part of the Biomedical Catalyst, the programme consists of a unique package of business support and access to clinical, scientific, technical and commercial advice at no cost to the company. Applications for the microbial accelerator programme close at midday on June 6^th.

The accelerator is co-led by LYVA Labs and Bionow, with support from a dynamic consortium of partners including iiCON, University of Liverpool (UoL), CPI, and the Innovation Agency (IA).

The scope for the accelerator includes technologies, products, processes, and services that have the potential to impact microbial communities or biofilms related to health, including new technologies to protect beneficial microbiomes or to control harmful microbial communities or biofilms.

Please note that developing new antibiotics to combat AMR and microbial diagnostics is out of scope.

The Microbials Accelerator partnership offers a programme of developmental courses and mentorship opportunities. The programme is designed to give businesses the knowledge and support they need to move products and services from the development stage to market readiness. To be successful in their application, businesses must:

• Be a UK-based SME (small or medium-sized business), or an academic in the early stages of forming an SME.
• Have an innovative idea to develop a novel product/technology/process/ or service, which is in scope and can be evidenced to impact a sizeable healthcare challenge positively.
• Be developing a technology/product/process/service with a clear and obvious route to market that will lead to a commercial opportunity.

The accelerator programme, funded by Innovate UK as part of the Biomedical Catalyst, comes in two phases. An initial 20 organisations will take part in an online ‘pre-accelerator’ course that will cover topics including market research, commercial analysis, market exploitation, finance and clinical trials. For phase two, 8-10 of these organisations will be selected for the full accelerator programme and will receive bespoke support. Industry mentors will be matched to the cohort and guide them through their accelerator journey.

The phase two cohort will also be supported to draft a ‘mock’ Biomedical Catalyst grant application, which will prepare them to apply to the closed Biomedical Catalyst Feasibility call, later in the year. SMEs will end the programme with a final pitch session to a panel of early-stage investors.

Companies not selected for phase two will get an action-planning session with Bionow, which may include referrals to experts in their network who can support them with their onward progression.

Commenting on the programme, Lorna Green, CEO of LYVA Labs, said: “The Liverpool City Region has a key strength in microbial research and development. This new microbial accelerator will help us capitalise on the unique academic research, facilities, industry partners, and growing ecosystem in our region, enabling us to incubate and support upcoming talent and real-world solutions.”

Geoff Davison, CEO of Bionow, added: “Research into the relationship between microbes, their hosts, and the environment, could hold the key to vital solutions to some of society’s biggest health challenges.

This programme will help SMEs and startups to get their innovations to market with the potential to transform treatments and health outcomes across a wide range of health sectors.”

Janet Hemingway, Founding Director of the Infection Innovation Consortium (iiCON), an LSTM-based collaboration which works with industry to bring new therapeutics to market, said: “Exploring new technologies and creative collaborations that will deliver next-generation treatments is at the heart of iiCON’s mission. We’re therefore delighted to be collaborating with LYVA Labs on this targeted support programme, which will give SMEs and those with new ideas access to a variety of really impactful benefits, such as the ability to upscale and unlock product development obstacles.”

Professor Steve Paterson, University of Liverpool Director of Microbiome Innovation Centre, and Professor Rasmita Raval Director of the Open Innovation Hub for Antimicrobial Surfaces and Co-Director, National Biofilm Innovation Centre, said: “University of Liverpool has world-leading expertise and unique facilities in the analysis of microbiomes and biofilms, which we study from the nanoscale to microbial communities. New technologies have revolutionised the microbial field and so we are excited by the opportunity to use these insights to support emerging businesses in Liverpool and nationally.”

Applications for the microbial accelerator programme close at midday on 6^th June. You can apply on the Bionow Website and completed applications should be sent to microbialsaccelerator@bionow.co.uk.

About LYVA Labs:

LYVA Labs is a wholly owned subsidiary of LCR Ventures Ltd and was created to drive growth and innovation across Liverpool City Region. 

The team consists of some of the region’s most well-respected names in the health and life sciences sectors, across both public and private sectors.

With initial funding of £10.5m from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, LYVA Labs has created a streamlined process for early-stage investment for people, ideas and projects that are transforming the region and taking us to a new tomorrow.

Find out about LYVA Labs here. 

We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Cluster Manager role for Liverpool City Region as part of Innovate UK’s ground-breaking Launchpad programme.

Liverpool City Region was chosen as one of two pilot cluster Launchpads which aim to drive innovation in England’s regions. Launchpad focuses on developing innovations that will transform the region’s advanced manufacturing cluster, with an emphasis on digital technologies and net zero outcomes.

Last week, 23 projects were announced as recipients of Innovate UK first round of Launchpad grant funding securing nearly £5.5m. Alongside those awards, Innovate UK sought a lead organisation to develop and manage the emergent innovation cluster for advanced manufacturing within Liverpool City Region. LYVA Labs has been chosen to lead on this activity until March 2025.

Joining LYVA Labs as Innovation Manager for the Advanced Manufacturing Cluster is Paul Tallon. Paul is an experienced Design Engineer whose past work includes 8 years as a manager and consultant at 3M Buckley Innovation Centre. His role will include fostering collaborative engagements, growing the network and celebrating the technologies, projects, skills and assets in our advanced manufacturing cluster.

An exciting range of activities is planned for the two-year programme, including the establishment of both in-person and online communities, with the involvement of key city region and national stakeholders who supported LYVA Labs’ bid. We will support cluster members to leverage other public and private funding to increase their R&D activity and commercialise new technologies that will bring major benefits to Liverpool City Region. We’re looking forward to sharing more details with you soon.

Lorna Green, CEO of LYVA Labs, said: “LYVA Labs was established to deliver economic growth through commercialisation of innovation; inspiring ideas, creating partnerships and attracting investment. Securing this Innovate UK contract, within our first year of operation, provides us with the resources to support even more ambitious business to innovate and to develop a nationally recognised advanced manufacturing cluster.”

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has pledged to invest 5% of local GVA in R&D by 2030 and the advanced manufacturing innovation cluster, as one of the largest and most productive in the UK, will play a crucial role in supporting these goals.

If you would like to get involved in the Launchpad Cluster please contact us directly and please subscribe to our newsletter below to keep up to date with our work.

LYVA Labs, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s innovation commercialisation organisation, has announced its latest six-figure investment in Daresbury-based fertility technology start-up Myma Medical Ltd.   

Infertility is the most common healthcare condition for 30-40 year olds, affecting 3.5 million people in the UK and 186 million worldwide. Using automated technology, Myma Medical aim to significantly improve success rates for people struggling with infertility by removing the current manual process and replacing it with an automated machine.  

Currently, the process of physically taking the best sperm available to fertilise eggs by manual injection only has a 30% success rate and is subject to human error. Myma Medical’s patented automated process aims to reduce the reliance on personal skill and significantly increase the success rate. 

The automation process will also aim to eliminate the need for multiple procedures. These are often needed due to the low success rate, which comes at the cost of £10k-12K per cycle, therefore often meaning IVF is a road few can afford multiple times over. 

LYVA Labs have invested an initial £106,000 into Myma Medical, matched by a £390,000 Innovate UK SMART grant.  This investment will lead to the creation of 12 jobs in the region.  

As the city region’s dedicated innovation commercialisation vehicle, established by the Combined Authority with a £10.7m investment, LYVA Labs is key to achieving Mayor Steve Rotheram’s ambition to invest 5% of the region’s GVA on Research and Development (R&D) by 2030 – nearly double the government’s national target.  

Lorna Green, CEO of LYVA Labs said: “Myma Medical is a brilliant, innovative start-up with a model to significantly enhance the experiences of people struggling with their fertility. So many of us are touched by fertility issues in our lives, either personally or through our communities so I am incredibly proud to bring a business like this to our ever-evolving region”. 

“I’m also pleased to see that again; we are using the Combined Authorities’ regional funding and support via LYVA Labs to establish a new company in the region and leverage national sources of innovation funding. It is vital we continue to support this approach to future-proof the investment cycles of early-stage businesses.” 

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: 

“People from the Liverpool City Region have got the talent, ambition and creativity to rival anywhere else in the world. But for too long, their potential has gone unfulfilled because of a lack of opportunities and investment. I launched LYVA Labs to help fix that. 

“With nearly £11m of investment, we’re helping to turn great ideas into successful businesses, creating jobs, economic growth and prosperity for local residents. It’s fantastic to see this latest investment supporting a business that will not only generate new employment but deliver potentially life-changing support to families.” 

Formed in 2020, Myma Medical is a spin-out organisation from nine years of research in the automation of egg and sperm manipulation and injection at the University of Birmingham, Department of Mechanical Engineering. The research has been led by Dr Mozafar Saadat, Associate Professor and his colleague Dr Amir Hajiyavand, Assistant Professor at the university.  

Several PhD students have worked under stewardship of Dr Saadat in automated egg and sperm selection, manipulation, and injection in Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), a popular male infertility treatment. AutoICSI is one of the various ongoing medical robotics projects conducted by the research team at the University of Birmingham.  

Dr Saadat is Director and Chief Technology Officer of the company and Dr Hajiyavand is Director and Chief Operating Officer. The Chief Executive Officer of the company is Mr Yash Khandhia, who has over 30 years of entrepreneurial experience and expertise in the field of robotics and automation. 

Yash Khandhia , CEO of Myma Medical said: “We are excited to bring this innovative, game-changing technology to the fertility market to enhance the outcome of the treatments while saving money for the couples and improving their physiological and physical conditions. This technology is built through a great team effort over nearly a decade of fundamental and translational research.” 

In its earlier years, the project secured valuable financial support, totalling £351k from various scholarships, the Medical Research Council (MRC), Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC), and ICURe (Innovate UK).  

Hannah Randles, Pipeline Investor Manager at LYVA Labs, recently sat on a discussion panel at the Innovation Agency’s Bridging the Gap event.  

Held at The Spine, the event catered to 150 attendees from healthcare SMEs, clinical entrepreneurs, and established innovators to help innovators bridge the gap between their initial success and scale-up success.  

With various panels and roundtables across the day, the event provided information & discussions on the best ways in which innovators can gain access to support from various institutions, such as the AHSN (Academic Health Science Network), with the aim of gaining further investment and scaling up their successes.  

Hannah was part of the ‘Investment Landscape’ panel discussion along with Andy Round, Investment Director at Praetura Venture, and Ben Carter, Investment Manager of life sciences at Deepbridge Capital.  

They discussed challenges in healthcare investment such as a potential recession and the impact it would have on the industry and how businesses can navigate this perspective landscape. The panel also provided information on the best way to operate a business that will ultimately secure investment.  

Hannah said: “There are various challenges that innovators can encounter when in the latter stages of the innovation pathway, events such as Bridging the Gap allows them to discuss these issues with fellow businesses. It also enables those within the industry such as investment managers to provide tools and knowledge on how businesses steer such challenges.” 

Other speakers included Dr Phil Jennings, CEO of Innovation Agency, Jordan van Flute CTO Inovus Medical and Mark Tatnarajah, Managing Director C2-Ai as well as keynotes speeches from St. John Crean, Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Central Lancashire, plus many more.  

The workshop session covered topics such as digital readiness, and scale adoption as well as discussion from various healthcare investment professionals on the complexities of working within the NHS and how the AHSN (Academic Health Science Network) can help support innovators within their innovation journey in the Liverpool City Region.  This also included a second keynote speech from Lindsey Hughes, Director of Research and Engagement in the Innovation, Research and Life Sciences Group and Accelerated Access Collaborative – NHS England.  

Hannah continued: “Bridging the Gap was a great event that allowed SMEs and Innovators to be aware of the support available to them. Events like this help to establish the LCR as a hotbed for innovation, whilst making innovators aware of the challenges they might face and how to overcome them.” 

Our CEO Lorna Green and Innovation Director Dilruk Yahathugoda attended BioNow’s BioCap 2022 event, where Lorna acted as judge for the Digital Pitching Competition and ultimately awarded University of Liverpool’s’ Marie Yang O’Brien’s spin-out company ReNewVax, which aims to prevent life-threatening bacterial infections and combat antimicrobial resistance with vaccines.  

BioNow hosted the event at Alderley Park Conference Centre in Macclesfield, which was attended by a variety of life science businesses, researchers, investors and university delegates. There were three investor insight speakers, Marion Bernard, Chief Investment Officer of Northern Gritstone, Jon Moulton, Chairman and Founder of Better Capital and Dr Avi Spier, Executive Director, Search & Evaluation, NIBR BD&L, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.  

The event aimed to connect SMEs and Innovators to businesses, researchers and potential investors, whilst also providing an informative experience to help navigate the life science funding landscape and identify potential investment opportunities that might advance and support their business.  

There were a variety of topics discussed at the event, such as the funding landscape in general, challenges that the health and life sciences industry faces, as well as discussing innovators, SME’s and their respective funding issues. Also in discussion was skill shortages within life science and its overall impact on the industry.  

Start-ups in attendance also had the opportunity to present their technology and offerings.  

BioCap 2022 reassured innovators that post-Covid the focus on investment into SME, innovators and their products is increasing. The support system available for small-scale innovators is increasing, and events like BioCap make investment and collaboration opportunities more accessible within the region. 

CEO Lorna Green said “It was a massive honour to present the BioCap 2022 pitching award. The event provided yet another great opportunity for SME’s and innovators to meet with potential investors. As the health and life sciences industry seeks to recover from the pandemic, events like these are massively valuable not just to innovators, but to investors who have a genuine passion for driving innovation within the region”.   

LYVA Labs provides the opportunity for SMEs to network with people within innovation and investment, we are actively looking to attend more events of a similar nature.  

Continuing to move through a pipeline of health and life science investment, LYVA Labs has announced its latest investment in emerging biotech, Daresbury Proteins.   

Halton-based Daresbury Proteins produces proteins used in academic and industrial research. The ‘one of a kind’ catalogue of proteins was produced for university-based scientists and is unavailable commercially elsewhere. The company can also rapidly assess the functionality of proteins, whilst reducing cost and risk by removing the manufacturing bottlenecks associated with cell line development. Most recently, Daresbury Proteins was able to develop an ultra-sensitive Covid-19 test to assess the effectiveness of the vaccines and natural infection.   

The company has previously received funding from Mayor Steve Rotheram’s £3.2m Future Innovation Fund. 

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “Our area has been a hotbed for innovation and scientific discovery for centuries, a legacy we’re proud to be continuing today. Our investment in local innovation is giving businesses across our region the chance to not only reach their full potential – but contribute to ours and the country’s prosperity too.   

“I want the Liverpool City Region to be known as a global innovation hub, as a place that creates more businesses, attracts greater investment and files more patents. There’s already been a huge appetite from businesses who want to work with us, and I can’t wait to see where these investments will catapult them to in the next stage of their journey. Most importantly, we’re helping to create well-paid, highly skilled jobs for local people.”  

Factors such as decreasing costs and ease of use are driving the growth of the global protein expression market. The research reagents market topped $3.88 billion in 2021 and is projected to grow at a rate of 11.33% next year.  

LYVA Labs has made a £250,000 investment from their Health and Life Science Challenge fund and three new jobs will be created at Daresbury Protein, with plans to expand this to 50 new jobs within the region in the next five years. The investment into Daresbury Proteins will enable the development of their proprietary enabling technology for difficult-to-express biotherapeutics.  

As the city region’s dedicated innovation commercialisation vehicle, LYVA Labs is key to achieving Mayor Rotheram’s ambition to invest 5% of regional GVA on Research and Development (R&D) by 2030 – nearly double the government’s national target.  

Jennet Beesly, Director at Daresbury Proteins said: “The growth of the market is attributed to some key driving factors such as increasing incidence of chronic diseases, growth in the geriatric population, and increasing demand for protein biologics.   

Emerging economies are likely to create significant growth opportunities for players in the market, and companies, such as LYVA Labs are noticing this and understanding the impact this sort of business will have on the region.”  

Lorna Green, CEO of LYVA Labs said: “It’s an exciting time for biotech and in particular the global protein expression market, and innovators like Daresbury Proteins are impacting the industry in a big way.   

Bringing such an interesting, and growing, sector to the city region, as well as the opportunity for the increased workforce, is great, and we’re proud to be a part of Daresbury Proteins’ journey.”   

LYVA Labs CEO Lorna Green was amongst the panelists at the Investor Ladder investment event which brought together key people in all aspects of innovation and investment from across the UK, along with an impressive showcase of SMEs with a focus on both impact investment and healthcare.

Speaking at the event, which took place on September 28^th at The Spine, Lorna also headed up a roundtable where she discussed pre-seed medtech funding.

Following on from the event in 2020 which looked at the challenges facing the industry, this year’s Investor Ladder focused on the new initiatives, investment vehicles and innovation programmes that have evolved over the last year. It also aimed to provide the opportunity for small businesses and innovators to network and connect with investment companies, and open doors to potential collaborations and partnerships.

As well as Lorna’s pre-seed medtech investment session, other round table topics included talent & people by Gordon Bateman, recession-proof healthcare hosted by Andy Round and Helen Heap discussed social impact investing.

Lorna Green said: “The Liverpool City Region is becoming a hotbed for innovation. Though exciting, this also comes with its own challenges. The Investor Ladder event allowed for those industry challenges to be addressed, whilst giving the chance for people to mutually discuss opportunities within the sector.

The roundtable discussion provided an informal chat on important industry topics for both investors and innovators. Networking events such as Investor Ladder allow innovators to explore investment opportunities and gain valuable insights into current key trends. This makes events like this imperative for our region and it also allows investors and key industry people to see the immense talent on offer within this brilliant region.”

LYVA Labs provides local SMEs with opportunities to network with key people in innovation and investment and we are looking forward to the next Investor Ladder event.

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