VEC launches Novel Innovation for Leaders initiative with business
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The University of Liverpool’s Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC) joined forces with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to launch a trailblazing new programme that aims to support Liverpool’s business leaders to become world-class in the field of R&D and Innovation commercialisation.
A select group of 64 of the region’s leading business owners, tech experts, entrepreneurs, investors and leaders from local government and the Department of Business gathered at the Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot for the launch and inaugural session of Novel.
Novel is a radical new programme under the UK Shared Prosperity Fund’s ‘Horizons’ initiative that brings together some of the region’s most ambitious and highest growth potential companies from across sectors of advanced engineering, biotechnology, manufacturing, digital, creative and third sector.
Attendees are benefiting from continuous, in-depth coaching and support from a curated network of global business and innovation specialists. In the latest session, delegates had the opportunity to hear from successful entrepreneurs and investors about strategies for realising their growth visions through R&D and innovation. The Novel teams are focused on cultivating a new wave of innovation leadership, aimed at helping the city region to maximise its growth potential and fully commercialise its R&D efforts.
Director of Politics of the Tony Blair Institute Ryan Wain joined the VEC’s Chief Innovation Officer Andrew Borland on stage to set out the opportunity for the city region’s economy and R&D plan from the devolution agenda.
Andrew Borland explained: “Novel is not a leadership programme; it’s an Innovation Programme for business leaders. We are empowering some of our highest potential SMEs with world-class training, creating a unique peer network of private and public sector leaders, who can make change happen. With the support of our research-intensive HEIs and all the lessons VEC has learnt about knowledge exchange and commercialisation over the last decade, we have already caught the attention of the government and are looking forward to building on the Novel model nationally.”
Novel is a three-month programme comprising three residential sessions, a peer network and R&D support from the VEC.
The programme builds on the VEC’s track record from over a decade of developing and delivering high-impact industrial R&D programmes and collaborations. Over the last ten years, the VEC has worked with hundreds of businesses, developing over 160 new products, reaching new markets and has helped SMEs add £325M to the local economy.
Image from L-R: Andrew Borland, Chief Innovation Officer at VEC, Ryan Wain, Politics Executive Director, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Paul Jones, Chief Executive, Northern Automotive Alliance, Julie Meadows, Motordrive Limited and Chair, Northern Automotive Alliance, Jon Corner, Senior Digital Strategy and Policy specialist, Founder, Director, Chair, NED and Jim Mooney, Head of Enterprise and Investment Programmes at VEC.