Achieving levelling-up: the structures and processes needed, Charles Seaford and Ben Glover (Demos), Professor Simon Collinson, Dr Charlotte Hoole, Dr Anastasios Kitsos and Dr Diana Gutierrez Posada (University of Birmingham), Dr Helen Tilley and Dr Ananya Mukherjee (University of Cardiff), Professor Nigel Gilbert and Dr Jack Newman (University of Surrey) and Professor Nigel Driffield (University of Warwick), Nov 2020.
On the 5th November, Professor Anne Green was a panel member on the Midlands Evaluation Showcase. Her panel theme was ‘Reflecting Backwards on the challenges created by the pandemic for evaluations that were live as lockdown measures were introduced, the actions taken in response and lessons learnt’. George Bramley chaired a second panel that discussed ‘Reflecting Forwards on the implications of the ongoing pandemic for the evaluation community, and how evaluators are responding to the ongoing challenges and uncertainties’.
On the 9th November, Professor Simon Collinson chaired a session at the annual Chartered ABS 2020 conference on ‘Boosting Local Economic Growth Through Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange’ with panellists Professor Zahir Irani, Deputy-Vice-Chancellor, University of Bradford and Chair, Bradford Council Economic Recovery Board, Dr Joe Marshall, Chief Executive, National Centre for Universities and Business and David Sweeney, Executive Chair, Research England.
On the 10th November, Rebecca Riley presented on a panel at an Open Data Institute event called “Summit 2020 – Data | Futures”. The theme of the panel was data futures. The event had a 1000 attendees from over 72 countries.
On the 12th November, Professor John Goddard gave the introductory speech “Civic Universities: a strategic institutional approach” at a conference on “ ‘Civic Universities’ and ‘Public Engagement’: Inspiring examples from the UK and Sweden” organised by the Swedish networks UniLink and VA Public and & Science.
On the 12th November, Dr Sara Hassan co-organised an event for the ESCR Festival Science with colleagues from Iris showcasing four years of achievements and challenges of the UK Community Sponsorship Scheme (CSS) research.
On the 18th November, the LIPSIT team led by Professor Simon Collinson and Dr Charlotte Hoole together with the Universities of Surrey, Warwick, Cardiff and think tank Demos presented an online panel discussion on the structures and processes needed to level up local economies across the UK.
Local and Central Government
Professor Anne Green has been invited to take part in a Closed briefing for Parliamentarians on ‘Migration, skills and the labour market’ on 20th November.
Awards/ Funding
A City-REDI team led by Chloe Billing have won a grant from the UK Space Agency (UKSA) to develop a West Midlands Space Cluster. The project will be supported by Professor Kai Bongs (Director of Innovation – College for Engineering and Physical Sciences) and Tariq Ali (Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Strategic Partnerships, University of Birmingham, and Vice-Provost for Research & Innovation). City-REDI will work in partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority, Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP and Black Country LEP.
Look ahead to the coming months…
On 2nd December Anne Green and Coventry University colleagues Paul Sissons and Jennifer Ferreira are presenting on ‘Fair work in the foundational economy: prospects and policies for less precarious working lives in cities and regions’ at the Urban Europe, Precarious Futures? conference hosted by Coventry University and European Urban and Regional Studies Journal.
Media engagements