Our Collaborations
Partnership is at the heart of successful health and care innovation. In our CHI-Zone Collaborations section, we proudly showcase a range of news stories reflecting the impact of our work with national networks, commissioners and providers, and pioneering HealthTech businesses. These stories offer practical insights and inspiration for prospective partners. You’ll find updates on projects as they evolve, testimonials from partner businesses, and concrete examples of how collaboration with the CHI-Zone has accelerated innovation journeys. These stories highlight the breadth of support available and the tangible benefits of working together.
Spotlight: vTime – AI-generated immersive training for healthcare
Meet vTime, a Liverpool-based company, building Project Seacole - an AI-driven immersive training platform for healthcare professionals.
Announcing the recipients of our CareTech Developers for Adult Social Care Small Grants Programme
The CHI-Zone small grants programme for CareTech Developers supports innovators to explore, develop and test digital solutions with adult social care and support providers across the Liverpool City Region. We are delighted to announce this year’s grant recipients, who are now working with our Adult Social Care Testbed partners to develop and test their digital solutions and transform adult social care provision across the region.
Spotlight: Scenegraph Studios – advancing ethical AI avatars for mental health simulation training
Meet Scenegraph Studios, a Birkenhead-based company, developing developing Pxl-Persona, an AI-driven avatar platform designed to transform how healthcare professionals practise complex mental health conversations.
Spotlight: Facial Dynamics – supporting recovery and confidence through remote facial rehabilitation
Meet Life Analytics Ltd, developers Facial Dynamics, and one of our XR for Community Healthcare grant awardees. Facial Dynamics is addressing the clinical and psychological impact of facial palsy through remote monitoring and augmented reality.
Spotlight: Tend VR – expanding access to mental health support with immersive technology
Meet Tend VR, one of the awardees of our Extended Reality for Community Healthcare Grants. Tend is using immersive technology to widen access to mental health support and ease pressure on overstretched services.
New University of Liverpool-US collaboration to accelerate drug discovery using AI
Artificial Intelligence will be used to accelerate new medicine discovery in a University of Liverpool partnership secured following Mayor Steve Rotheram’s US trade mission.
The University of Liverpool will work with Boston-based BPGbio, Inc. to harness large-scale healthcare data to accelerate the development of new treatments.
Announcing the Recipients of Extended Reality for Community Healthcare Grants
We are delighted to announce details of the five SMEs awarded funding through our Extended Reality (XR) Solutions for Community Healthcare Small Grants Programme.
CHI-Zone Fellowship Session 5: Building with Integrity
Week 5 of the CHI-Zone Fellowship focussed on building with integrity, bringing important discussions around regulations, ethics and IP.
CHI-Zone Fellowship Session 4: From Idea to Impact, Taking Solutions to Market
Session four of the CHI-Zone Fellowship switched us from opportunity exploration and market scoping to building business and delivering solutions to market. The focus was on what it really takes to grow a digital health business, work effectively with the NHS, and stay grounded in purpose and people along the way.
CHI-Zone Fellowship Session 3: Understanding Demand
For the third CHI-Zone Fellowship, our focus shifted from ideas to evidence. We took a deep dive into understanding demand, and discussed the importance of challenging assumptions and ensuring our propositions are grounded in real world evidence.
Taking a wider view, we emphasized that evidence gathering is critical not only to solution development, but to building a credible, defensible commercial narrative.
CHI-Zone Fellowship Session 2: Breaking Moulds & Building Futures
Last week our CHI-Zone Fellowship gathered for the second session — and what a session it was. We travelled to St Helens to visit Glass Futures, heard from two extraordinary innovators, and came away reminded how the best might come from the most unexpected corners.
Launching the CHI-Zone Fellowship: Bringing People Together to Rethink Mental Health Futures
Last week marked the first session of our inaugural CHI-Zone Fellowship , a first-of-its-kind programme that gathers innovators from across sectors into one room, sparking fresh thinking and bold new approaches in health and care, with this years’ theme focusing on Mental Health Futures.
New partnership signed to advance global health and care innovation
The University of Liverpool’s Civic Health Innovation Labs (CHIL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Busan Techno Park (BTP), a leading South Korean public innovation foundation, to strengthen international collaboration in digital health and social care innovation.
Discovering Our Digital Potential: new report makes recommendations for future-proofing Adult Social Care in the LCR
Today, we are publishing a new report setting out how data, technology and digital skills could empower adult social care providers and support organisations in the Liverpool City Region and beyond.
Prototyping XR Solutions in Mental Health
Over recent months, CHIL commissioned Holovis, a global leader in immersive technology, with the support of Rivermotion Group and The Insight Works, to map the XR landscape in mental health, present a high-level analysis of the potential for innovation in XR in the Liverpool City Region, and co-design a number of XR prototypes with Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust that could benefit patients and the workforce.
We are sharing the results of their work today to inform healthcare professionals and XR developers who are eager to pioneer in the space.
Inspirational entrepreneurs selected to tackle regional health challenges
Hospital robots, AI-guided sleep support and a mobile hair salon are among a selection of innovative business ideas chosen to receive investment from a unique new Liverpool City Region (LCR) programme.
New initiative launches to develop extended reality solutions for mental health care
We have launched a new initiative to promote the development and use of Extended Reality (XR) – including virtual and augmented reality – to support mental healthcare.
New initiative unites social care and industry to pioneer CareTech
A groundbreaking initiative to transform adult social care through technology and data-driven solutions has officially launched.
New initiative seeks locals with business ideas to tackle health and care challenges
A ground-breaking initiative to tackle health and care inequalities in Liverpool City Region (LCR) communities launches today. Citizen First LCR will put power firmly in the hands of those with experience of health and care challenges on the ground.