Liverpool is to celebrate its position at the heart of discoveries that have challenged human understanding on everything from medicine to astronomy and particle physics.
The first ever Liverpool Knowledge Festival will take place from October 13-27th to raise awareness of the city’s £1 billion-a-year knowledge economy and a tradition of pioneering science and engineering that spans more than 300 years back to amateur Toxteth astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks.
The festival will celebrate Liverpool’s role in discoveries as diverse as radio transmission, helicopter technology, IVF, the Higgs Boson particle and cancer treatment. It will spotlight the work of current pioneers and encourage a new generation of ‘knowledge heroes’.
It will feature more than a dozen events including a Mayoral knowledge summit for businesses, the launch of the British Society for Nanomedicine, lectures, family events and a celebration of the work of young scientists emerging from schools across the city region.
Full details of the programme are available here
Liverpool Vision Chief Executive Max Steinberg said: “We talk about the Beatles as four lads who shook the world. Our global impact across the worlds of everything from astronomy and physics to medicine has been no less revolutionary – and that’s the point we are making.
“The city’s knowledge economy is worth more than £1 billion a year and the impact of the work carried out reaches every corner of the globe. We want our own people to feel proud of our tradition as scientific pioneers and innovators and we want to inspire a new generation to work and invest in the Liverpool knowledge economy.”
The two week festival is a collaboration between the city’s three universities, Liverpool Science Park, the Royal Liverpool University Hospitals and the city’s economic development agency, Liverpool Vision.
Visitors to the It’s Liverpool website during the festival will also get the chance to learn about some of the most famous Liverpool ‘knowledge heroes’ while specially commissioned essays by academics currently working in city will shine a light on the latest breakthroughs and challenges in fields as diverse as astrophysics, medicine and regeneration.
