WMREDI Policy Briefing – STEM Assets in the West Midlands Innovation Landscape: STEAMhouse

In this policy briefing, Juliane Schwarz discusses the STEAMhouse, a Birmingham City University (BCU) asset, exploring its contribution to improving economic performance and social inequality in our region. Special thanks to Professor Joanna Birch, Director of Innovation, Enterprise and Employability at Birmingham City University, and STEAMhouse staff for their contributions. What are the benefits of … Continue reading “WMREDI Policy Briefing – STEM Assets in the West Midlands Innovation Landscape: STEAMhouse”

City-REDI/WMREDI Round Up – June 2023

Media engagements City-REDI featured in WIREDGOV public sector alerting service “UKRI invests in policy innovation partnerships for local growth”. City-REDI featured in the West Wales Chronicle about the LPIP Hub. Rebecca Riley discusses levelling up in Scotland in Holyrood magazine. Simon Collinson and Charlotte Hoole wrote a commentary piece for the Academy of Social Sciences … Continue reading “City-REDI/WMREDI Round Up – June 2023”

Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Place-Based Development: The Role of Creative Freelancers.

On 1st June 2023, City-REDI held a hybrid seminar with Nick Henry from Coventry University about Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Place-Based Development. For some decades the harnessing of culture and creativity has been cast as a local and regional development option – such as through regeneration, quarters, classes and clusters. In, around and beyond these … Continue reading “Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Place-Based Development: The Role of Creative Freelancers.”

WMREDI Policy Briefing: Pride In Place

Pride in place is one of four overarching objectives in the Levelling Up White Paper as well as the least detailed of its twelve missions. This policy briefing by Rebecca Riley and Des McNulty explores this objective from the perspective of the role universities could play. The underlying argument of the pride in place mission … Continue reading “WMREDI Policy Briefing: Pride In Place”

The Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub – Building Confidence, Capability and Capacity in Place

The 1st of June saw the launch of the Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) Hub, a new project aiming to build confidence, capability and capacity for places. Rebecca Riley, who leads the LPIP Hub, discusses its mission. Find out more about the LPIP Hub. The LPIP programme will fund a network of Local Policy Innovation … Continue reading “The Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub – Building Confidence, Capability and Capacity in Place”

The Impact of Economic Events on Ethnic Minority-Led Business in Birmingham

Neelam Afzal discusses the importance of ethnic minority-led businesses for the economy of Birmingham and the UK, but how these businesses are often detached from mainstream business support and struggle disproportionally when accessing finance.  This blog post was produced for inclusion in the Birmingham Economic Review for 2022.  The annual Birmingham Economic Review is produced … Continue reading “The Impact of Economic Events on Ethnic Minority-Led Business in Birmingham”

Confessions of an Early Career Evaluator of the Year (Aged 27 and Three Quarters)

Johannes Read discusses his career so far and how it has changed in ways he didn’t think were possible, allowing him to create impact and change to become an Evaluator. This article was originally published in the Evaluator. Find out more about our Evaluation Lab. I came into this profession two years ago not knowing … Continue reading “Confessions of an Early Career Evaluator of the Year (Aged 27 and Three Quarters)”

West Midlands Economic Impact Monitor – 12th May 2023

Latest results suggest business conditions continue to remain challenging, but estimates show small signs of positive improvement for some measures; examples include a stable proportion of businesses reporting they were able to get materials, goods and services from within the UK, and more businesses reported having fewer concerns for their business. Both the Institute of Chartered … Continue reading “West Midlands Economic Impact Monitor – 12th May 2023”

How England’s Devolution Catch-22 Stands in the Way of Balanced Growth

Charlotte Hoole, Jack Newman and Simon Collinson discuss their recent paper that shows a lack of decentralisation is limiting the capacity and capability of local institutions to devise and implement growth and development strategies important for locally-driven ‘levelling-up’ in England. In recent years, the UK has experienced increased economic and social inequalities. Of particular concern … Continue reading “How England’s Devolution Catch-22 Stands in the Way of Balanced Growth”

Screen Skills, Shortages and Silicon Spa

Dr James Davies and Dr Matt Lyons discuss how we can solve the creative skills shortage in the West Midlands. This blog and research is part of a project for the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre. The phenomenon of skills shortages in the creative industries is well-known in the academic literature and policy debates. … Continue reading “Screen Skills, Shortages and Silicon Spa”