In a new series of Blogs, we hear from new City-REDI Associate Ian Taylor.
Ian Taylor is a consultant and academic who is interested in collaboration and addressing some of the UK’s major challenges.
As an academic and consultant, I have held Fellowships at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, the University of Manchester’s Alliance Business School and I am an Affiliate of the University of Glasgow’s School of Social & Political Sciences. I have been fortunate to have done some interesting, and varied, things in my career. I consider myself equally lucky to have found a community of academics, especially the City-REDI team, who embrace a practical approach to solving problems.
My Background
I spent a decade working in commercial and technical management roles in an engineering consultancy company, which was an invaluable education in how businesses work. I maintained my academic pursuits and I was interested to understand how social outcomes can be achieved by different sectors working with the private sector. By 2020 I had transitioned to working on research at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, which offered me the chance to work with some very impressive academics and to author practitioner-facing publications on cross-sector collaboration and place-based development. Two of my early works at Oxford that spurred fantastic engagements were ‘The Collaboration Playbook, a leaders guide to cross-sector collaboration’, and the ‘Place Taskforce Report: Partnerships in Place’. Both examined how cross-sector efforts could address the UK’s profound regional inequality problem.
Since my time at Oxford, I have been affiliated with a number of major universities; researching, advising and communicating on how different sectors can work together to achieve better social outcomes.
City-REDI
I like to think of my unconventional career background as something that brings value to the work I engage in. I have always been interested in academic explorations of the world around me, but want to be practical to help achieve impact. It is nice to be an Associate of City-REDI, where there is an appreciation of a mixed approach to challenges that encompasses rigorous academic pursuits and the dynamism of engagement.
The prospect of being a City-REDI Associate was a welcome opportunity, and not just because the University is impressive or that as an Aston Villa fan it gave me another excuse to visit the city. Having already met and worked with some of the amazing team members at City-REDI, I knew they were a great team to collaborate with. I had been loosely affiliated with the University of Birmingham’s department of Strategy & International Business for a year or so beforehand, but the City-REDI Associate status brings more purpose to the relationship.
Agenda
In terms of the things that I want to accomplish during my stint as an Associate, a key one is to learn more from the rest of the City-REDI team and help them amplify the message that the regional inequality problem in the UK is a serious one that calls for some key actions. More generally I am eager to build further relationships with the community of practitioners and academics around City-REDI who are working on these fundamental challenges.
A specific project I am working on as a City-REDI Associate is an ESRC funded project looking at Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption in the defence industry. The defence industry is not only an increasingly important aspect of the national and global security today, but it is also a key component of the UK national and regional economy. Many jobs in the regions of the UK rely on defence manufacturing, but the disruptive winds of change brought by AI could damage this important source of employment. Understanding AI adoption offers insights on ways to manage it in order to achieve enhanced productivity and prevent job losses. Working with The Productivity Institute headquartered at the University of Manchester, Professor Anne Green and I are investigating the factors that moderate AI adoption in this important industry and some of the options for Government to exert a positive influence.
Future Ambitions
City-REDI Associate status has been a valuable experience so far, and I am keen to keep the relationship with the team at University of Birmingham going when it is finished. I am working on a new research project with members of the City-REDI team, examining regional economic development and high skilled labour under working from home conditions.
In the future I hope to keep collaborating with the team, finding ways to achieve impact on important social and economic challenges, whist embracing sometime unconventional means.
This blog was written by Ian Taylor , a City-REDI Associate.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are those of the author and not necessarily those of City-REDI or the University of Birmingham.