Colin Sinclair, who has led Knowledge Quarter Liverpool as chief executive since its inception, reflects on the organisation’s decade of success and its plans for the future.
Colin Sinclair pictured outside Liverpool Science Park in Knowledge Quarter Liverpool. Image by Gareth Jones
In 2016, we gathered with stakeholders from across Liverpool City Region and the UK at the London headquarters of the Royal College of Physicians to launch Knowledge Quarter Liverpool (KQ Liverpool).
Our founding members – University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group and Liverpool City Council – wanted to harness the city region’s knowledge economy and the strength of its innovation facilities to develop a world-class destination for science, education, technology and culture, to deliver inclusive growth.
The event was also an opportunity to mark the news that the Royal College of Physicians had chosen Liverpool, in a KQ Liverpool led bid against strong competition from Manchester and Leeds, for its new northern headquarters, to be housed in a new landmark building known as The Spine, at the heart of Liverpool City Council’s flagship development site at Paddington Village.
Fast forward 10 years and KQ Liverpool is now one of the UK’s most successful innovation districts, with more than 400 businesses employing 15,000 people, and welcoming 60,000 students.
In 2020 we created a spin-out development company, Sciontec, to bring investment into the quarter. A competitive process led to Bruntwood SciTech joining KQ Liverpool as its sixth subscribing member and as a shareholder in Sciontec, which today owns and operates the highly successful Liverpool Science Park and CENTRAL TECH buildings and manages the all-inclusive workspace at The Spine. Sciontec is also developing HEMISPHERE One, a major £67m laboratory and workspace scheme at Paddington Village.
The Spine towers over Knowledge Quarter Liverpool
Major milestones include becoming a founding member of the UK Innovation Districts Group and joining the Global Institute of Innovation Districts. We helped Liverpool to rank third in the 2026 European Capital of Innovation Awards. We’ve also won 15 industry awards in recognition of our placemaking and social value achievements.
Our KQ Futures inclusive innovation programme reaches hundreds of students each year and our book, The Animates: Learning in Liverpool, was distributed to 433 primary schools across LCR, helping to introduce young children to innovation.
Colin Sinclair, Mayor Steve Rotheram, Knowledge Quarter Liverpool Assistant Chief Executive Emily Robson, author Natalie Reeves Billing and Alex Cousins join children at Pleasant Street Primary with The Animates book
None of this could be possible without the foresight and guidance of our board and the support of non-subscribing members and observers including Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Fabric District CIC, Hope Street CIC and the RCP.
To celebrate, we’re planning ‘ten for ten’ events and initiatives. Among those, I’ll be putting my running shoes back on (after last year’s 52-mile LCR in a Day run) and undertaking an endurance challenge raising money for Clatterbridge Cancer Charity, The Brain Charity and Alfie’s Squad.
My personal mission is to give young people the best chance in life, through charitable fundraising, and also raise their aspirations, through the work of the KQ Liverpool team. The motivation harks back to my own background as the son of a Lancashire coal mines worker and being the first in my family to get to a University. I still remember my Dad joking about me going to University, asking ‘when was I going to get a proper job’. He was proud though and I’m proud of what we, as a team, are doing to improve people’s lives here in Liverpool.
We are just putting the finishing touches to my KQ Liverpool 10th anniversary ultra running challenge, so watch this space!
Other 10th anniversary activities include a time capsule capturing today’s technology and future aspirations, ready to be opened in 2040, a community festival recognising our unique location near residential communities, and an art competition for secondary school pupils.
It’s also vital that as KQ Liverpool, the City and City Region that we capitalise on Liverpool’s third place in the European Capital of Innovation Awards, so we’ll be actively engaging with the iCapital alumni network and developing our international partnerships, sharing best practice and contributing to thought leadership. Indeed, we‘ve already visited Grenoble to see their incredible innovation work, from being France’s lead on semi-conductors to combatting climate change.
Reaching this milestone is a proud moment for us but we know there is still much to do to create future generations of innovators here in the city region. As I said, we’re on a mission.
