Liverpool took a major delegation to India last week to strengthen international links and progress new partnerships spanning government, healthcare, innovation and enterprise.
Liverpool City Council led a programme in Hyderabad from 12 to 14 October before members of the delegation travelled to Bengaluru to support the University of Liverpool at the opening of its new campus on 15 October.
The visit brought together Liverpool’s civic leadership, universities, NHS, innovation ecosystem, business and sporting institutions as part of a collective approach developed through the Global Liverpool Partnership.
At the heart of the Hyderabad programme was a strategic Memorandum of Understanding between Liverpool City Council and the Government of Telangana. Liverpool City Council became the first UK Core City to enter into a strategic partnership of this kind with the Telangana Government, creating a long-term framework for cooperation across health and life sciences, research, innovation, trade, enterprise, skills and sport.
Other key areas of activity included:
• Knowledge Quarter Liverpool and Sciontec progressed an Innovation Bridge with T-Hub, the world’s largest innovation campus and start-up accelerator. The initiative aimed to create a two-way corridor offering soft-landing and market-access support for Hyderabad businesses looking to establish themselves in the UK and reach European markets through Liverpool, while helping Liverpool SMEs and start-ups explore opportunities in India.
• NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group developed its relationship with KIMS Hospital Group across healthcare, research and innovation, including clinical fellowships and exchanges, joint research, education and training, and workforce development. The discussions also formed part of a wider global-health agenda involving Liverpool’s healthcare and research institutions.
• Liverpool Football Club The Club’s official charity, LFC Foundation, explored potential opportunities in sport, health, wellbeing, skills and community development.
• Liverpool’s research institutions, including Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and Liverpool John Moores University, helped shape the programme and research priorities. Although not all organisations travelled, their expertise and ambitions were represented during the mission.
The wider Hyderabad programme was driven and coordinated by the Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad (RICH), an initiative of the Government of Telangana and the nodal agency for the Hyderabad Science and Technology Cluster.
RICH facilitated the delegation’s engagement with prominent academic, healthcare, research and innovation institutions across Hyderabad, bringing together relevant stakeholders around the priorities identified through the Liverpool-Telangana partnership.
Following the Hyderabad programme, the delegation travelled to Bengaluru to support the University of Liverpool at a major milestone: the opening of its new campus on 15 October. The campus strengthened Liverpool’s presence in India and created new opportunities for education, research and collaboration.
At a special event hosted at the new campus (pictured below), delegates were joined by Hon’ble Shri MB Patil, Steve Rotheram (Mayor of the Liverpool City Region), Robbie Fowler (LFC legend), Harshbir Sangha MBE FRSA (British Deputy Commissioner to Karnataka), Alison Barrett MBE (Director, British Council India), as well as senior representatives from government, business, education, research and culture and students, staff and faculty from the University of Liverpool, Bengaluru.
Together, the Hyderabad and Bengaluru programmes demonstrated the breadth of Liverpool’s ambition in India and the strength of its institutions working collectively overseas, supported by shared strategic data and intelligence through the Global Liverpool Partnership.
Hyderabad remains an internationally significant centre for pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, vaccines, digital innovation and life sciences. Liverpool brought complementary strengths in healthcare, infectious-disease research, clinical innovation, university-led research, commercialisation, advanced technology, enterprise and sport.
The mission supported long-term collaboration, helped businesses reach new markets and built partnerships capable of creating future opportunities for growth and highly skilled jobs.
Councillor Liam Robinson, Leader of Liverpool City Council, said: “Liverpool is taking a genuinely collective approach to India, bringing together our civic, university, health, innovation, business and sporting institutions to build relationships that can deliver long-term benefits for the city.
“Becoming the first UK Core City to establish a strategic partnership of this kind with the Government of Telangana gives Liverpool a distinctive platform for cooperation across health, research, innovation, enterprise, skills and sport.
“The developing Innovation Bridge between Knowledge Quarter Liverpool, Sciontec and T-Hub will create practical routes into new markets for start-ups and SMEs in both cities, while the relationship between University Hospitals of Liverpool Group and KIMS can deepen collaboration across healthcare, research, training and workforce development.
“Our visit to Bengaluru also allows us to support the University of Liverpool as it opens its new campus, a major milestone that underlines Liverpool’s growing presence and ambition in India.”
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Telangana, said: “The partnership between Hyderabad and Liverpool reflects the strength of the opportunities that emerge when two globally connected ecosystems come together.
“Both regions have complementary strengths across health and life sciences, research, innovation, technology, enterprise, education and sport, creating significant scope for meaningful and sustained collaboration. The government is committed to positioning Hyderabad as a leading global destination for innovation, investment and high-value enterprise, and partnerships such as this are an important part of that ambition.
“We see considerable potential to facilitate two-way market access, strengthen research and institutional partnerships, support businesses and startups, develop talent and skills, and create new opportunities for investment and economic growth. We look forward to working closely with Liverpool to translate this strategic relationship into long-term outcomes that benefit both regions.”
Colin Sinclair, Chief Executive of Knowledge Quarter Liverpool and Sciontec, said: “Hyderabad is one of the world’s most exciting innovation ecosystems, with particular strengths in life sciences, technology and entrepreneurship that closely align with the Liverpool City Region’s own ambitions.
“This visit has been a fantastic opportunity to strengthen our relationship with T-Hub and lay the foundations for long-term collaboration, bringing together businesses, investors and innovators from both cities to unlock new opportunities for growth.”
Professor Jim Gardner, Deputy Group Chief Medical Officer at NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, said: “We were delighted to join colleagues from Liverpool on this delegation to India and to announce an exciting partnership between UHL Group, KIMS Hospitals and the British Institute of Medical Sciences, which will create opportunities for our staff to learn from international colleagues, share expertise, collaborate on research and innovation, and support professional development through exchange and fellowship programmes.
“These stronger links will help us advance healthcare knowledge and practice, delivering benefits for the patients and communities we serve at home and abroad.”
Professor Tim Jones, Vice Chancellor of the University of Liverpool said, “We were delighted to officially open the University of Liverpool Bengaluru campus, which is providing talented students with the opportunity to study our research-informed, employer-led curricula. The opening ceremony provided a perfect opportunity to showcase our strong existing ties to the region and to forge new academic and industry partnerships.
“As a university we are incredibly proud of the important role we play in the City and the wider City Region and we know that our new campus will act as an important bridge between Liverpool, Bengaluru and the wider state of Karnataka over the years to come.”
