Mersey Maritime has set out more details of the scope of its new ‘Navigating Maritime Innovation in the Liverpool City Region’ project. The initiative utilises £100,000 of government funding, which is matched by Mersey Maritime industry support and will see a range of deliverables focused on innovation priorities realised between now and March 2026. This follows a soft launch in December 2024, after confirmation of funding from the Department for Transport’s ‘Maritime Cluster Development Fund’ was announced.
The formal launch event took place on 4th February as part of the regional cluster organisation’s monthly ‘Face-2-Face’ networking event, which was hosted by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCR CA) at Mann Island. The event received a detailed update from the LCR CA ‘Economic Growth’ team around their plans and ambitions for the region in the coming years, from both an investment and innovation perspective. Presentations and Q&A took place with Tim Games – Executive Director (Investment and Delivery) and Simon Reid, Assistant Director of Business Growth.
Launching the project, Ruth Wood, CEO of Mersey Maritime, said:
“Mersey Maritime cannot emphasise enough the importance of this project for our region.
We have world class maritime expertise in the region, leading maritime education institutions and significant R&D credentials, but we don’t currently have all of these strengths drawn together or listed in a digestible format. One of the most important elements of the project, is to develop a maritime innovation database – engaging with our members, academia and local government to better understand the opportunities, strengths and barriers to maritime innovation in the LCR.
Crucially, we want to ensure that this work doesn’t sit in isolation. Our engagement with industry and wider activity across the sector and the region will cement the projects’ success long after it officially comes to an end. In the last 12 months, this focus on our regional maritime capability and embedding that into the thinking of our regional government more fully has been a major focus for Mersey Maritime. My own involvement in the LCR CA Business & Enterprise and Innovation Boards is testament to that. We are excited to push this to the next level with delivery of this innovation focused project and encourage all our members, large and small, to engage with us to make it a success.”
Commenting, Simon Eardley, Mersey Maritime’s Head of Policy and Innovation, said:
“Liverpool has been at the heart of maritime innovation for hundreds of years. Just as we’ve embraced maritime innovation over time, we are keen to be part of driving it forward in the future too. That’s what this project is all about. We believe this project is right for us on three counts. Firstly, it aligns with our own stated priorities as an organisation – to support our members who are working on decarbonisation and digitisation projects and prioritising careers and skills in the industry. Secondly, members have told us that a focused, aligned and joined up approach to maritime innovation is important to them – to help them link up with partners, to maximise funding opportunities when they arise and to share best practice. And thirdly, innovation is a big agenda and theme for the LCR Combined Authority and Metro Mayor Rotherham – with its commitment to invest 5% of Liverpool City Region GVA in Research & Development (R&D) by 2030. As one of the United Kingdom’s leading maritime clusters and building on Liverpool’s reputation as a global port city, we are fully committed to realising our goals.”
The launch event saw a panel discussion take place with input from some of the project partners: Christian Matthews – Director of the School of Engineering – Liverpool John Moores University, Richard Willis – Technical Director (Smarter and Greener Ports) – Royal HaskoningDHV, and Linton Roberts, Chief Technical Officer – APCL / Cammell Laird. The initiative is also supported by Bibby Marine, the University of Liverpool and the Manufacturing Technology Centre.
To round off the day, Mersey Maritime facilitated visits to two significant businesses in the region for a team of officials from the Department for Transport. Roundtable discussions and fact-finding took place at Cammell Laird Shipbuilders & Shiprepairers in Birkenhead and Stanlow Terminals at the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex near Ellesmere Port.
Find out more about the project here: https://merseymaritime.co.uk/innovation/
