From Bronze to Gold: How a Place-Based Approach Can Drive UK Industrial Strategy Excellence

Rebecca Riley, Peter O’Brien and Helen Turner reflect on the Innovation for Growth summit – UKRI. Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) opened the summit with an analogy that, in 1996, Team GB finished 36th in the Olympic medal table a sobering result for a nation with sporting history, tradition … Continue reading “From Bronze to Gold: How a Place-Based Approach Can Drive UK Industrial Strategy Excellence”

What does the 2025 Spending Review mean for Place-Based Economic Development?

One year on from winning the General Election, the Labour Government have outlined its spending review for 2025. Over the course of the Government’s first year, headlines about public finances have focused on tightening budgets. On the one hand, this Spending Review follows in a similar vein. But there are also relatively significant increases in … Continue reading “What does the 2025 Spending Review mean for Place-Based Economic Development?”

The State of Digital Skills and Shortages in the UK: Findings from City-REDI Report on Digital Skills

The UK has seen a dynamic evolution of the demand for digital skills over recent years, with a significant increase in the need for advanced, intermediate, and basic digital competencies across regions and occupations. These changes reflect the rapid digitalisation of workplaces and the growing integration of technologies like artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and automation … Continue reading “The State of Digital Skills and Shortages in the UK: Findings from City-REDI Report on Digital Skills”

Does the Computer say yes to Levelling Up? Will ChatGPT Replace the Policy Wonk?

Rebecca Riley goes head to head with a chatbot to see if it can answer any of the big questions about regional inequality in the UK. ChatGPT is the latest and potentially impressive artificially intelligent chatbot yet. It was released at the beginning of December, and in just five days hit a million users. I narrowly … Continue reading “Does the Computer say yes to Levelling Up? Will ChatGPT Replace the Policy Wonk?”

Data for Good. How Has Data Transformed Today’s Social Sciences?

At the beginning was Big Data, then Machine Learning came and now is the time of AI. Since buzzwords emerge faster than the innovation waves they describe, the conceptualization of digital transformation remains sometimes vague, although it can be considered the result of convergence among advances made in several related information and communication technologies (ICTs). … Continue reading “Data for Good. How Has Data Transformed Today’s Social Sciences?”