Andy Burnham has promised the “biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen.” No 10 North is open in Manchester. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act is creating strategic authorities with new powers. And universities are being told, explicitly, that they belong “at the heart of local economies.”
But here’s the question nobody is asking: if universities are to be the anchor institutions that devolution needs, do we actually understand how they do this work, and whether the civic institution models they’ve built are fit for what comes next?
That’s the gap the Civic 6 Framework is designed to fill.
Six models, not one
Published this September by the LPIP Hub, the Civic 6 Framework is the product of comparative analysis across ten major UK university-based institutes, including City-REDI, the Heseltine Institute, Insights North East, Y-PERN, Policy@Manchester, and the Bennett School of Public Policy. The report examines how these institutes actually operate: their missions, funding structures, governance, outputs, and impact strategies.
What emerged is not a single “civic university” model but six distinct approaches:
- Civic-Embedded Regional Development Institutes — deeply integrated with regional governance, focused on economic modelling and inclusive growth.
- Civic Engagement and Public Policy Institutes — co-producing policy with communities and public services, oriented toward social equity.
- Networked Regional Policy Collaboratives — multi-university partnerships coordinating regional engagement through fellowships, labs, and shared platforms.
- Performance of Single Policy Issue Institutes — research-intensive centres addressing a specific national policy challenge.
- Interdisciplinary Public Policy Think Tanks — high-level institutes integrating diverse disciplines to address complex societal challenges.
- Translational Policy Communication Platforms — university-wide initiatives translating academic research into accessible formats for policymakers.
These are not theoretical categories. They describe real, operating business models with different staffing profiles, income streams, governance arrangements, and risks. And most institutes don’t sit neatly in one box; the report finds that hybrid models are increasingly common, with institutes blending features from multiple types to remain resilient and responsive.
Why this matters now
Burnham’s devolution agenda asks universities to do more, not less. Combined authorities need data, evidence, and analytical capacity. Place-based business cases need local knowledge. Skills commissioning needs to reflect spatial labour market realities. Industrial clusters need long-term research partnerships. All of this is work that university-based civic institutes already do, but do differently, depending on their model.
The Civic 6 Framework evaluated each model against ten critical success factors for places, drawn from City-REDI and CIPFA’s international comparative research. These include shared political will, long-term investment, local knowledge, robust monitoring and evaluation, and adaptability. The finding? Institutes that support these success factors deliver more impactful regional engagement. But not every model is equally strong on every factor. A data-rich regional development institute may excel at monitoring and evaluation but struggle with community co-production. A networked collaborative may build broad partnerships but lack the deep local embeddedness that devolution demands.
Understanding these trade-offs is not academic navel-gazing. It is essential strategic planning for a devolved environment where universities will be expected to justify their civic contribution with evidence, not just aspiration.
The funding cliff-edge
The report also sounds a clear warning. Short-term funding cycles remain a significant barrier to sustained civic engagement. Many of the programmes currently supporting place-based university work, including the LPIP programme itself, face a funding cliff-edge in 2026. A dependence on unstable, project-based funding undermines continuity, capacity building, and the long-term partnerships that devolution requires. Equally, being completely reliant on the university to support these institutions is unsustainable and doesn’t build the partnerships needed. The report highlights no single funding source should represent more than 40 per cent of an institute’s operating budget.
If Burnham’s government is serious about universities as anchor institutions, then the infrastructure that enables that social sciences-based role, the data tools, the modelling capability, the policy fellows, the community engagement structures- needs sustained investment, not another three-year grant cycle.
A tool, not a prescription
The Civic 6 Framework is deliberately not prescriptive. No single model is superior; effectiveness depends on context. The framework is a diagnostic tool, a way for universities to map where they are, identify gaps, benchmark against peers, and make strategic choices about where to invest. It includes practical guidance for institutions starting from scratch, as well as recommendations for funders and policymakers on how to support a more coherent civic ecosystem.
The report also reviews the four LPIP pilots, Yorkshire (YPIP), Rural Wales, EPIC Futures Northern Ireland, and Forth H2O, showing how even within a single programme, local conditions generate different business models. This diversity is a strength, not a problem, but only if it is understood and supported strategically.
What next?
Devolution is not a moment; it is a process. The universities that thrive in a devolved environment will be those that understand their own civic model, can articulate its value locally, and can adapt as the policy landscape shifts. The Civic 6 Framework offers the structured lens to do exactly that.
Read the full report, explore the diagnostic tools, and join the conversation on how universities can maximise their civic impact in a devolved UK.
This blog was written by Rebecca Riley, Professor for Enterprise, Engagement and Impact, City-REDI, University of Birmingham and Director of the LPIP Hub.
Find out more about the Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are those of the author and not necessarily those of City-REDI or the University of Birmingham.
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