Liverpool has been named one of the first-ever Cities of Innovation by a United Nations body, just days after Andy Burnham and Gordon Brown vowed to make the UK into an Innovation Nation.
The UN World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has named Liverpool an inaugural City of Innovation, alongside Shanghai and the Belgian city of Charleroi. Liverpool was selected from a shortlist of 15 global finalists, impressing the jury with its vision of 'innovating for tomorrow'.
City region leaders' pledge
In their bid, city region leaders vowed to "scale up activities to unlock the creative and growth potential of its diverse communities and business base, to further transform the entire city region".
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: "I've long said that we're the UK's innovation capital, and now we've got a global award to back it up.
"This award genuinely puts us on the world stage. It recognises what many of us have known for a long time: there's something special happening here, with world-class science, brilliant businesses and people who aren't afraid to do things differently.
"But we're not doing all this so we can pick up a trophy and put it on a shelf. It's about what innovation can do for the lives of ordinary people, creating good, high-value jobs, bringing investment into our communities and finding solutions to some of the biggest challenges we face.
"We've got the talent in spades, and we've got the ideas and ambition to go even further. This award gives us a fantastic platform to build on that, and we're determined to make the most of it."
Winning bid backed by key partners
The city's bid was led by Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Knowledge Quarter Liverpool, backed by Liverpool City Council and Sci-Tech Daresbury.
Cllr Liam Robinson, Leader of Liverpool City Council, said: "Having been a finalist in the European Capital of Innovation awards last year, I am delighted that Liverpool has continued to strive for excellence winning this new, globally renowned City of Innovation title today.
"I look forward to working with city region stakeholders in the coming months to deliver the standout pledges included within our winning bid, which will set the tone for future Cities of Innovation to strive towards."
Colin Sinclair, chair of Invest Liverpool City Region Partnership Taskforce and KQ Liverpool, said: "Being named as the first WIPO City of Innovation is testament to the collaborative efforts of our quadruple helix partnerships across the Liverpool City Region, who are using inclusive innovation mechanisms to democratise R&D, and ensure genuine co-creation with direct, hyper-local benefits.
"Coupled with the new MOU, winning this award will now accelerate Liverpool's actions, by galvanising investors, innovators, government, academia, health bodies and communities to focus concerted efforts on invention and commercialisation – improving lives and driving growth for local and global good."
Brown backs innovation push
Last week former Prime Minister Gordon Brown told BusinessLive why he was backing Andy Burnham's plans to boost innovation in Britain.
He said: "I want Britain to move forward and be the success story of the next 10 years.
"And I think that we've got a period of political stability coming ahead. We've got great universities, we've got a great history of innovation, and we've got to make more of it. And if we're going to increase living standards and if growth is going to get to every part of the country, then the driver is innovation."
And he added: "So we're at a real inflection point, a real turning point in the history of innovation, where the next decade will see the biggest breakthroughs in science and technology that we've seen in our lifetimes."
