LJMU in £3.5m ‘clean growth’ network project
Liverpool John Moores University is sharing in a £67m Government grant aimed at driving forward university commercialisation across the country.
The University will be part of a £3.5m ‘Connecting Innovation for Clean Growth’ project, led by the University of Brighton and with the University of Portsmouth, which will link three ‘clean growth’ business networks including the University’s Green Growth Platform.
Funded by Research England (formerly the Higher Education Funding Council for England), the Platform was launched in 2014 to drive growth in the environmental business sector in Sussex by providing business support, innovation and R&D support, events and skills development.
LJMU will be working with the University of Brighton, who will now lead on the creation of Clean Growth UK (CGUK) which will extend across the country and Higher Education sector.
This innovation in clean technology through LJMU will also support Liverpool City Region businesses in addressing the sustainability and environmental regional agenda.
It will link SME innovators to specialist university expertise and connect them to large public and private sector organisations through innovation events and demonstration projects.
LJMU Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Weatherill said: “This excellent investment for LJMU’s low carbon agenda will galvanise impactful innovation and collaborative solutions to address challenges related to climate change and clean growth. We firmly believe that innovation and enterprise drives economic growth in partnership with business and industry, and this funding will further connect public and private sector with university research. This will allow for highly functional proven and novel approaches to drive innovation and growth across cleantech sectors.”
Professor Debra Humphris, University of Brighton Vice-Chancellor, said: “We are delighted to be playing a part in driving clean growth and innovation in business – essential if we are to combat the pressing environmental challenges facing our planet.
“The University’s leadership of the Clean Growth UK is a reflection of the hard work and commitment invested by colleagues throughout the University and, in particular, those involved with the Green Growth Platform and research and enterprise.”
Zoe Osmond, Director of the Green Growth Platform, said: “This is an exciting opportunity to join forces with some of the leading clean growth business networks in the UK, and to create enduring links between the University knowledge base and 4,000+ dynamic and innovative low carbon, environmental businesses.”
This is one of a number of university-led projects which complete the Government’s £100m funding to support universities in helping deliver its Industrial Strategy.
Some 54 higher education institutions will be collaborating with each other and with businesses and investor networks. More than 12 different local enterprise partnerships will benefit.
The projects are attracting over £322 million of additional investment from universities, businesses, investors and other partners.
With five Catapults and several key Research Councils involved, the projects also build on partnership working across many of the organisations that make up the new UK Research and Innovation body.
David Sweeney, Executive Chair of Research England, said: “These projects demonstrate the commitment of universities to work together to strengthen the R&D and technological capabilities of the UK, building upon our successful Higher Education Innovation Fund.
“In the Industrial Strategy, the Government asked us to improve our ability to turn exciting ideas into commercial products and services. Universities have stepped forward in these projects to show that they can do world class commercialisation, alongside world class science.
“I believe these projects present important innovations that should inform our strategic approach to commercialisation in UK Research and Innovation for the future.”
