THIS is the new £25.5m facility designed to cement the city’s reputation as a sports science centre of excellence.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was today due to formally unveil the “world class” Tom Reilly Building – Liverpool John Moores University’s (LJMU) new home for 8,000 sports science and psychology students.

The building takes the name of Tom Reilly, the first ever professor of sports science in the UK,who died last year. The “father of the science of football” is credited for helping LJMU in 1975 become the first university to recognise sport as a science.

Exclusive images show some of the cutting edge features of the new building in Byrom Street which houses the school of sports and exercise sciences, and the school of natural sciences and psychology offers what the university term “some of the best facilities in the world”.

Those using the 70,000 sq ft facilities will study a range of subjects including psychology and forensic science, animal behaviour and science and football.

These facilities include “appetite laboratories” which have kitchens and cameras to remotely analyse eating behaviours and disorders.

It is also the base for psychology testing laboratories which include lie detectors, eye-tracking equipment and one-way mirrors used in police line-ups.

Other hi-tech provision includes a special driving simulator able to analyse causes of road rage as well as the effects alcohol, caffeine, sleep deprivation, mobile phone usage and age can have on drivers’ abilities.

Other eye-catching additions include a sleep lab known as a chronobiology laboratory.