Sensor City

Backed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Sensor City is a joint venture between The University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, and is one of only four University Enterprise Zones (UEZs) in the country. Positioned at the intersection of industry and academia, the purpose-built innovation hub enables businesses to undertake rapid prototype development and promote their sensor solutions and IoT applications to a global market. Sensor City has over £1m of state-of-the-art equipment in its laboratories, including multi-material 3D printers, PCB fabrication machines and a VR suite, which businesses can access along with its engineering expertise, business connectivity support and student talent. Home to a growing, specialist community of innovative SMEs from a range of industries, Sensor City also works with large corporates, academics and intermediaries to provide an engaging programme of events including corporate challenges, technical workshops and networking seminars. Over a 10-year period Sensor City aims to drive economic growth both locally and beyond, creating a cluster of over 300 new businesses and over 1,000 jobs in emerging technologies. The market for sensor systems is estimated to be $490bn globally and is growing at over 10% per annum. The UK sensor industry is a £13bn/annum sector supporting 70,000 jobs and producing £6bn in exports. Around 1.4m people in the UK are employed in sensor-aligned professions of which 159,000 are in the North West and 27,000 are in the Liverpool City Region.