From toddlers exploring science through messy play to packed venues at the British Science Festival, 2025 was a year in which Faculty staff and students brought science to life for patients, families and communities.
New initiatives
A notable highlight of the year was the launch of the first Toddler Science Club delivered in partnership with Everton in the Community in March. The sessions encouraged young children to explore animals, medicine and ecology through messy play, storytelling, crafts and songs. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, leading to further sessions in November.
Festivals and events
In May, over 90 staff and students took part in sold-out Pint of Science events across Liverpool and the Wirral, engaging with over 400 attendees with topics ranging from the first 1000 days of a child’s life, and making medicines better and the science behind the fiction.
Family-friendly continued throughout the year at events including Nature at Ness, Discover Nature and VetFest where visitors could bring their teddy bears for ‘surgery’, enter their dog for the waggiest tail competition and explore poisonous plants and bee behaviour.
2025 was also the 10th anniversary of our flagship Meet the Scientists programme, in partnership with National Museums Liverpool - with a weekend of free activities at venues across the city centre, including the unforgettable Bob the Butterfly!
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September brought the highly anticipated British Science Festival in Liverpool which featured a packed programme of activities hosted by Faculty researchers including ‘Game On, Snack More’ with Festival award winner, Dr Becky Evans, Antiviral Roller Skaters from Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and Biochemistry, workshops and drop-in activities including the Superpower of Zines with Dr Gayle Brewer.
Innovations by Professor Andrew Weeks and Dr Ariel Camp featured at the Victoria Gallery and Museum‘s Lightbulb Moments exhibition which explores the origins of the city’s most remarkable discoveries and ideas, and runs until Autumn 2027.
Lived experience, equality and public conversations
Tackling health inequalities remained central with Faculty researchers working with communities as diverse as firefighters to footballers via the NIHR-funded Return project to improve dental care while the School of Dentistry’s Smile Squad continued its partnership with the LFC Foundation, addressing childhood dental inequality across the Liverpool City Region.
Engagement rooted in lived experience was also central with the launch of the children’s Dementia Explorer Game by Dr Clarissa Giebel, and Dr Idalmis Santiesteban’s Autism Hub.
BBC presenter, Naga Munchetty and record-breaking marathon runner Paula Radcliffe were just two of the guests on the Between 2 Ovaries women’s health podcast series hosted by Dr Nicola Tempest, Eleanor Bristow, Lorna Salvini and Dr Alison Maclean.
Faculty researchers featured strongly in the University’s Original Ideas podcast with Professor Neill Liptrott, Dr Rajarshi (Rishi) Mukherjee, and Dr Danielle Brain speaking the latest groundbreaking discoveries in medicine. The next episode featured Professors Emma Boyland and Charlotte Hardman with Dr Becky Evans who explored the influence of junk food marketing on diet followed by Professors Ben Michael and Michelle Briggs in Episode 11, who spoke about the latest evidence-based insights into the neuroscience of pain to international audiences.
Thank you to everyone who shared their time, ideas and expertise through public engagement in 2025.
Watch our highlights video on YouTube for a snapshot of the energy, creativity and impact behind the year.