STREAM 1: Maritime and Last Mile Net Zero (MaLaMi)

Context, place and cluster: The 2022 Science and Innovation Audit (SIA)1 for the Liverpool City Region (LCR) highlights Net Zero and Maritime as an emerging regional capability, with net zero being an area in which the LCR Combined Authority (CA) has stated its ambition to grow an innovation cluster. The LCR hosts one of the UK's largest maritime clusters, encompassing shipping and ports; renewable energy generation; and international freight logistics. LCR is the gateway of a nascent green shipping corridor linking the Irish sea and cross-Atlantic routes, which from political and economic perspectives, are of national strategic importance. The two principal LCR HEIs (LJMU and UoL), have been working in close collaboration with a community of industrial and policy partners, whose expertise spans the breadth of the maritime net zero sector through multiple real-world projects in the region (e.g., Bibby's world-first large electric ship2).

Challenges: The LCR has the advanced innovation infrastructure (e.g., Innovation Board, SIA, Innovation Prospectus1 3) and a strong innovation asset base with market-defined comparative advantages (e.g., Port and Manchester Ship Canal).

1) What is lacking currently is an established interlinking framework necessary to underpin a fully-functional innovation ecosystem that can facilitate strong, productive and sustainable collaborations between academic, civic and business actors.

2) Also lacking is an approach to defining the best pathway for research impact to accelerate maritime decarbonisation in a currently 'hard to abate' sector which falls outside the LCRCA's Net Zero by 2040 pledge.

MaLaMi aims to realise the co-creation and impact acceleration of the applied research base, and establish the foundations for future innovation-based growth that translates new developments in research and technology into commercial applications and non-academic impact, via the following three objectives:

O1) To facilitate a step change strengthening the potential functioning and subsequent impact of an established research-civic-business innovation ecosystem, focused on the translation of research through TRL3-5.

O2) To facilitate diverse and novel interdisciplinary public-private research collaborations, and sustainable partnerships, that allows for the translation of fundamental research into practical solutions and implementation plans relevant to the industry.

O3) To provide an environment that supports and accelerates the careers of next-generation researchers and technical specialists through responsible research and innovation (RRI) training, and opportunities to lead project streams with impact potential.