The "Knowledge Quarter" is an area of Liverpool city centre covering 450 acres, incorporating the vicinity around London Road, Islington, the so called 'Fabric District', Paddington Village and part of Canning.

The Knowledge Quarter contains a number of institutions that operate within the knowledge economy. Some of the institutions within the area include the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Royal College of Physicians and various others across Liverpool Science Park and Paddington Village.

Since the mid-2000s, the Knowledge Quarter has been the subject of numerous Liverpool City Council masterplans and frameworks which have helped to cultivate the area's status as an innovation district based on science, technology, education, medicine and culture. Such plans have encouraged billions of pounds worth of investment and have informed redevelopment, which is ongoing today.

Early plans emerged in 2006 to incorporate Hope Street and Islington in to the Knowledge Quarter, Liverpool Vision (now defunct) followed with the publication of a prospectus to encourage collaboration between the district's various academic institutions in 2007. Various plans to advise on streetscape and public realm improvements came about in 2008. The Liverpool Knowledge Quarter Strategic Investment Framework was formulated in 2011 to promote the area's branding and development. In 2011/2012, Liverpool Vision continued to target the area for economic growth, job creation and attracting businesses in health and life sciences.

2013 saw the expansion of Liverpool Science Park with additional offices and laboratory space. Mayor Joe Anderson proposed the area's expansion in 2015 in to what is now known as Paddington Village. KQ Liverpool launched in 2016 as a collaboration between Liverpool City Council, the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University NHS Trust, to promote the Knowledge Quarter as one of Europe’s leading innovation districts. Additional planning frameworks followed.

Liverpool's most recent Local Plan aims to build on the economic potential of the Knowledge Quarter and to bring under-utilised, vacant land and buildings back into productive use. London Road will be developed, a growing residential community around Islington will be encouraged and Paddington Village will be expanded. The public realm, connectivity and infrastructure across the area will also be improved. In 2024, the UK central government pledged millions of pounds worth of investment to encourage more regeneration and life science laboratories at Paddington Village.

Liverpool's Knowledge Quarter covers a large portion of Liverpool city centre. At the north west corner is the Liverpool John Moores University James Parsons Building, at the north east is the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, to the south east is Liverpool Women's Hospital and to the west is Liverpool Lime Street station. The boundary is marked by Tithebarn Street and Islington to the north, Paddington Village to the east, Upper Parliament Street to the south and Renshaw Street to the west. The quarter incorporates several different areas of the city centre including Islington (sometimes referred to as the Fabric District), the area around London Road, Paddington Village, parts of Canning, the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moore's University campuses.

According to Liverpool's most recent Local Plan, the Knowledge Quarter has been set aside by Liverpool City Council as a special designated area to promote offices, research and laboratory facilities for science, technology, education, medicine and culture based businesses.

The City of Liverpool College is the largest further education college in the Liverpool City Region and is spread across five city centre campuses. Established in 1992, the college provides courses for somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 students every year. The college also provides higher education programmes.

The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts is a world renowned higher education institution that was established in 1996 by Paul McCartney and Mark Featherstone-Witty. The institution offers university level creative and performing arts training to an international community of performers, creatives, technicians, filmmakers and business people. The main LIPA building is housed in the former Liverpool Institute High School for Boys.

Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) is one of the largest universities in the UK and is home to over 25,000 students from more than 100 countries. LJMU was founded in 1825 as Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts, over the next century it merged with various other colleges to become Liverpool Polytechnic and in 1992 was granted university status as one of the United Kingdom's many 'new universities'. It took its name from Liverpool entrepreneur and philanthropist, Sir John Moores. The university is arranged over two city centre campuses (City Campus and Mount Pleasant Campus) and is divided in to five faculties covering arts, professional and social studies; health; science; engineering and technology; business and law. The Mount Pleasant Campus is situated within the Knowledge Quarter. Mass regeneration of LJMU has occurred since the start of the 21st century, amongst some of the university's newest properties are the Avril and Aldham Robarts libraries, Tom Reilly Building, the John Lennon Art and Design Building, the Clarence Street Building and the Student Life and Sports Building at Copperas Hill.

The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine is one of the world’s most important centres in treating malaria and other insect-borne diseases. It was founded in 1898 as the first such school of its kind in the world and today hosts the largest concentration of medical entomologists in the UK. The school has made many contributions to tropical medicine, most notably the identification of the vector for malaria by Ronald Ross (who eventually went on the win a Nobel Prize for his discovery). The University of Liverpool and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have also combined expertise to create the Centre of Excellence in Infectious Diseases Research (CEIDR) to improve global healthcare and medical technologies. Research at the CEIDR is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Liverpool Science Park, between Mount Pleasant and Brownlow Hill, was established in 2006 and is home to over 60 science, technology and knowledge-based businesses. The park provides offices and laboratories across three buildings. Some of the businesses include LJMU’s Astrophysics Research Institute; the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences; the Innovation Agency; the National Measurement Laboratory and the Manufacturing Technology Centre’s northern England base.

The Liverpool Women's Hospital was built in 1995 after The Liverpool Maternity Hospital, The Women's Hospital and Mill Road Hospital merged to become the Liverpool Obstetrics and Gynaecology Unit ten years earlier. Liverpool Women's is one of only two such hospitals in the United Kingdom, as well as being the largest hospital in Europe devoted entirely to women's health. Maternity services, gynaecology, gynaecologic oncology, neonatology, reproductive medicine and genetics services are all available at the hospital, which is located in the very south-eastern corner of the Knowledge Quarter.