You can find more information about applying for the next round of membership here.

The DoES Liverpool Boost Membership was launched in December 2021 as a way to give access to the space to more people. Launched as a celebration of our ten year anniversary we offer a six month “permanent desk” membership and a six month workshop membership free of charge, through a lottery application. These memberships are offered every three months meaning that at any one time we should have four boost members. This gives a regular opportunity for people to apply and means that if you miss out in one cohort, you only have three months to wait for the next one. Having a six month membership gives you a good runway to make a start on a project or really have a go at setting up a business.

Over the past ten years DoES Liverpool has helped hundreds of people to start a business, to build a project, or simply get a few hours of work done. We do this by providing a combined coworking office and workshop space that lets anyone in the city (and beyond!) connect to the internet; use laser cutters, 3D printers, and lots more workshop equipment; or simply sit at a comfortable desk with a laptop.

Throughout this time we have always tried to make sure that our space is accessible to everyone. Both physically accessible, by ensuring wheelchair and other physical access requirements are considered, but also economically accessible. We have made sure our prices are as cheap as they can be, and have always offered some free access to the space through our Maker Day and Maker Night events, as well as our “first day free if you bring cake” scheme.

The Boost membership is our latest effort to expand this access to more of the people of Liverpool and the nearby regions. This offers someone – who might otherwise struggle to afford a membership of DoES Liverpool – the chance to be in the space, make use of the equipment and become embedded in our community.

What do you get with a DoES Boost membership? All the benefits of a standard membership. A “desk” membership gives an allocated desk for a person to store their belongings and access to meeting rooms, whereas a “workshop” membership only gives access to the space and use of the workshop area with a “clean desk” policy. What they both provide is:

• A storage box in the workshop area to store belongings
• Access to all of the equipment in the space, with free inductions where necessary (with the usual booking and availability constraints)
• Access to our fast internet connection
• 24 hour access

To clarify, the following is not included with membership at DoES Liverpool:

• Materials (e.g. 3D printer filament, plywood or perspex for the laser cutters)
• Mentoring – people in the community will of course be very interested to hear about your projects and may offer their help but we do not employ support staff or technicians.
• Access for all your friends and extended family – we would be happy to meet your friends and understand that sometimes a project might need a helping hand but this offer is for a single individual and needs to be treated as such.

The application process will generally be open to anyone; we hope that those most in need will apply and that those who don’t need free access will not. We may in the future decide to have a focus on a particular group of people that we feel aren’t reflected well enough in the DoES community however generally we will not be judging any applicants as we do understand that a person’s situation might not be as obvious as it appears on the surface. For the avoidance of doubt, existing paying members of DoES Liverpool are welcome to apply for either membership.

Applications for each new cohort should open in February, May, August and November; they will stay open for around a month and then we aim to announce the new members within a few days of closing applications. We look forward to welcoming all of our new members into the space!