Events – presenting work/speaking engagements
- On the 12th January, Professor Raquel Ortega-Argiles contributed as a panellist to the event organised by Connected Places Catapult Event on Innovation Procurement to boost regions in Post-Covid recovery.
- On the 22nd January, Dr Chloe Billing held the second West Midlands Space Leadership Group Meeting. The meeting was attended by the UK Space Agency, Universities, the WMCA and space-based firms from around the West Midlands.
- On the 26th January, City-REDI and the Industrial Strategy Council held a joint launch event for a research paper “What does it take to “level up” places? Evidence from international experience, co-authored by Dr Abigail Taylor.
- On the 27th January, Professor John Goddard was a speaker at an OECD event called “Can Higher Education Institutions support transformational innovation in their own ecosystems?”.
- On the 28th January, Rebecca Riley presented to the Civic Universities Network on consultation and evidence gathering and working with policy stakeholders.
- On the 29th January, Rebecca Riley will be presenting to CEDOS members on the Green Book changes and the establishment of the User Group nationally.
Media engagements
- A paper authored by Prof Raquel Ortega-Argilés and colleagues called “UK interregional inequality in a historical and international comparative context” was featured in an article in the FT called “Post-Brexit UK will need all its growth engines firing”.
Reports / publications released
- Professor Anne Green and Raquel Ortega-Argiles have contributed to the recently released book on Productivity and the Pandemic edited by the Productivity Insights Network.
Local and Central Government
- The Colmore BID and City-REDI launched a call for evidence as part of the Future Business District study, which aims to inform our response to long term recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and offer policy directions on best practice for central business districts across the UK.
Awards/ Funding
- Professor Raquel Ortega-Argiles will be leading a project with Connected Places Catapult in a project title Connected Productive Places looking at the importance of connectivity for regional productivity.
- Three projects at City-REDI have received UKRI QR funding and are being undertaken between January and March 2021:
- Megatrends and West Midlands cities – Professor Anne Green
- Birmingham Community Heat Taskforce Roadmap for Transition: Developing Civic Policy and Delivery Scenarios to Inform Central Government Investment. This is a cross-college (EPS-CoSS) application, led by Martin Freer (Birmingham Energy Institute Director) and Emily Prestwood (Birmingham Energy Institute Development Manager) (Co-Investigator); and Sara Hassan (Research Fellow – City-REDI) (Co-Investigator)
- Research to support the development of the West Midlands Space cluster. This is a cross-college (EPS-CoSS) application, led by Kai Bongs (Director of Innovation – College for Engineering and Physical Sciences) (Co-Investigator); Chloe Billing (Research Fellow – City-REDI) (Co-Investigator); and Tariq Ali (Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor – Strategic Partnerships) (Co-Investigator).
Look ahead to the coming months…
- City-REDI / WM REDI will be running a series of Workshops called “Megatrends and Cities – Understanding the Future” throughout February.
- Professor Raquel Ortega-Argiles will be presenting at the external seminar series of the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore on the 3rd of February 2021 on the contribution of automation and globalisation to shape the local labour market.
- On the 16th March, City-REDI and DevoConnect are holding a P&C Roundtable with Prof Richard Jones – Levelling Up R&D Funding: The key role of universities to places, rebalancing the economy and the recovery.
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