Liverpool John Moores University opened a new world-class facility which will further boost the city’s competitive edge.

In 1975, the University became the first to recognise sport as a science and is now again leading the field with a £25.5million facility, launched by LFC captain and LJMU Honorary Fellow Steven Gerrard.

LJMU chose to name the facility the Tom Reilly Building after the late Professor known as the ‘Father of the Science of Football.’ He was the UK’s first Professor of Sports Science and a plaque was unveiled in his honour by his wife and daughters, Jill, Anna and Siobhán Reilly.

The state-of-the-art building, which houses the School of Sports and Exercise Sciences and the School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, offers some of the best facilities in the world. These include appetite laboratories, psychology testing labs, neuroscience labs, an indoor 70-metre running track, physiology suites, a DEXA scanner for measuring body fat, muscles and bone density, a driving simulator and a chronobiology lab.

The specialist teaching and research areas account for around 50% of the new building's 70,000 sq.ft. floorspace, with the remainder being used for teaching, IT suites and staff accommodation. All room layouts have been flexibly designed to ensure they can be adapted for potential future changes.

Steven Gerrard commented: “This is a fantastic facility which will further enhance Liverpool’s reputation as a city of sporting and academic excellence and I’m delighted to be here today to help the University celebrate its opening.

“Thanks to the University developing the UK’s first Sports Science degree, football and other sports are no longer seen as only a game but as a science.

“It’s a great privilege to be launching the building named in honour of Professor Tom Reilly. Like me, his two great passions in life were football and family. I've been told he was actually an Everton supporter but he loved the game as a whole and I’ve been assured that he would have been happy for me to officially launch the new facility!”

LJMU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Brown, said: "The laboratories and advanced facilities in this new building will enable us to take our Natural Sciences, Psychology and Sport and Exercise Sciences research in new and exciting directions.

"LJMU has a globally unique approach to Higher Education and our talented academics and researchers need facilities that will enable them to continue delivering outstanding research results. We are also striving to become the university whose graduates are most valued by employers. But in order to have 'fit for purpose' graduates you need 'fit for purpose' buildings, where students can gain both a thorough grounding of their chosen academic discipline and secure vital work-related skills and experience."

Approximately 8,000 students based at the Byrom Street campus will have access to the new building, studying a range of subjects including BSc Psychology and Forensic Science, BSc Animal Behaviour and BSc Science and Football.

The most recent 2008 Research Assessment Exercise confirmed LJMU is among the best in the world for Sports Science and recognised that the University’s School of Natural Sciences and Psychology produces a broad portfolio of research including work of world-class and international standard.

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