City-REDI/WMREDI Round Up – November 2023 – January 2024

Events – presenting work / speaking engagements

• • 15 November 2023, Dr Matt Lyons hosted a special session “Development & application of multi-regional input-output tables” at the North American meetings of the Regional Science Association.
  • 7 December, George Bramley presented at the West Midlands Health Technology Innovation Accelerator Innovators and Partners Assembly to introduce City-REDI’s role in the programme to over 120 delegates.
  • 13 December, Professor Rebecca Riley was a member of a panel discussion on the future of the economy for the Midlands Engine Quarterly Economic review.
  • 12 January 2024, Professor Rebecca Riley was a mentor for applicants to the ESRC/DLUHC Levelling-up call, £1.4m to look at projects in response to the Levelling Up Advisory Council challenges.
  • 18 January, the LPIP Hub board took place, with Des McNulty as chair, looking at the progress of the Hub activities and upcoming launch of the programme in Westminster.
  • 19 January, Professor Anne Green, Professor Fumi Kitagawa and Professor Rebecca Riley attended the strategy meeting for the Consortium for Research in Innovative and Strategic Public Procurement (CRISPP) to look at the next round of collaborative work with Connected Places Catapult and the University of Manchester.
  • 29 January, Professor Rebecca Riley attended the first Y-PERN board as an advisory member (Research England Funded project).
  • 29 January, Dr Charlotte Hoole presented at a workshop at the University of Bath. The workshop was called ‘Levelling up or down? Addressing Regional inequalities in the UK’. The event explored the issues in the Special Issue of Contemporary Social Science on Levelling Up.
  • 31 January, Professor Donald Houston spoke at the annual UK In a Changing Europe economics conference on the inequality challenge facing the UK economy at an event in Westminster.
  • 1 February, Professor Rebecca Riley chaired the Treasury Green Book Network steering group. 

  Reports / publications released

  • Dr Matt Lyons presented a new report that City-REDI was commissioned to write for the Midlands Engine – Megatrends in the Midlands. The report, co-authored by Professor Anne Green, Dr Charlotte Hoole and Alice Pugh, was presented to several organisations across the Midlands including the Midlands Engine Board, the West Midlands Combined Authority insights meeting and the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce Board.
  • Professor Rebecca Riley contributed to a new report from UPEN – The UPEN Impact Report for 2023.
  • Dr Chloe Billing, Professor John Bryson, and Dr Tasos Kitsos published a new research paper in Industry and Innovation that examines how legitimacy building enables the emergence of new industries. The paper is called “Industrial path development in the UK space sector: processes of legitimacy building in the establishment of Space 2.0”.
  • Professor Fumi Kitagawa and colleagues have edited a new book called “Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Cities and Regions: Emergence, Evolution and Future”.
  • Dr Jack Newman, Dr Ananya Mukherjee and Dr Charlotte Hoole published a new research paper in the Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning. The paper is called “Constraints and enablers of regional environmental policy: governance challenges in England and Wales”.
  • Professor Donald Houston authored a chapter in The State of the UK Economy 2024 report for UK in a Changing Europe.
  • Professor Donald Houston wrote a blog for UK in a Changing Europe – What is behind the UK’s labour shortage?.
  • A City-REDI blog was featured in an article in Comment Central. The article called “Economic hardships should not stifle innovation” linked to a blog by City-REDI intern, Gina Coe, on the Øresund Bridge, where investment in infrastructure had helped to reduce regional inequality.