WMREDI Publications

Bridging the West Midlands’ Digital Skills Gap: A Roadmap Towards a Digital Skills Innovation District
June 2024, Anne Green, Abigail Taylor, Vickie Pargetter, James Sharp, Leila Seyedagha-Calderón

Find out more about the project.

Influencing local employment support: reflections from two Mayoral Combined Authority Innovation Pilots

December 2022, Policy Briefing - Anne Green, Sue Jarvis, Abigail Taylor and Belinda Tyrrell 

This policy briefing wtih the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place, University of Lverpool reflects on the lessons of two local employment support pilots, in the West Midlands and Liverpool City Region, it explores how collaborative working across different tiers of government, and between the public, private and voluntary sectors, can deliver locally sensitive solutions to worklessness.

Find out more about our work on skills and local labour markets

Virtual Internships - The Context

Student Virtual Internship Toolkit

Staff Virtual Internship Toolkit

Businesses Virtual Internship Toolkit

July 2022 - Johannes Read, Connor McFadden, Elizabeth Williams

This project developed a toolkit for schools and colleges at the University of Birmingham to highlight ‘what works’ when conducting virtual internships with internal and external partners.

The toolkit evidenced ‘what works’ from the experiences of conducting virtual internships (conducted in a ‘working from home’ style, rather than face-to-face) from students, staff, university department, external partners, and their impact on place.

Find out more about this work - What works: Conducting impactful virtual internships as a civic university

Local Skills Report Supporting Evidence 

May 2022 - Produced by Professor Anne Green with contributions from Alex Smith. 

This paper was produced for the WMCA’s Skills Advisory Panel and Jobs and Skills Delivery Board. It should be used inform thinking around education, skills and employment policy and programmes in the region, specifically the adult education budget and inform the update of the 2021/22 Local Skills Report.

Find out more about this work - West Midlands Local Skills Report Evidence Base 

Graduate Pathways: Identifying Patterns of Regional Retention and Attraction

January 2022 - Kostas Kollydas and Anne Green

This report utilises Graduate Outcomes Survey data for the academic year 2018/19 to shed light on retention/migration patterns of recent graduate workers across the UK regions. 

Find out more about this work - Graduate Attraction and Retention at Regional Scale.

Regional Brain Drain and Gain in the UK: Regional Patterns of Graduate Retention and Attraction

November 2021 - André Carrascal-Incera, Anne Green, Kostas Kollydas, Alex Smith & Abigail Taylor. 

New workers with higher education qualifications can improve and level up a region’s skills base and contribute significantly to regional economic and productivity growth. This WMREDI report draws on Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data for the academic years 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2018/19 to explore graduate mobility patterns across the UK regions. 

Find out more about this work - Graduate Attraction and Retention at Regional Scale.

Priorities for up-skilling and re-skilling: what role can and should universities play? - Full report 

Priorities for up-skilling and re-skilling: what role can and should universities play? - Policy briefing

May 2021 - Dr Abigail Taylor, Professor Anne Green and Dr Sara Hassan

This report and policy briefing summarises findings from a research project examining the role of universities in skills and regional economic development. It identifies key short and medium-term priorities for the up-skilling and re-skilling of school leavers, graduates and existing employees in the West Midlands. It analyses the current and potential future role of universities within this.

It is based on analysis of 22 interviews conducted in winter and spring 2020/2021 with universities and selected colleges in each Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) area in the West Midlands Combined Authority area (WMCA), as well as their partner organisations. It contrasts experiences across the various universities.

Find out more about this work - Universities, Skills and Regional Economic Strategies

West Midlands Local Skills Plan - Evidence Report
December 2020 - Alex Smith 

This evidence base aims to understand in detail how the supply of skills in the West Midlands Region matches up to current and future demands. This analysis will support the West Midlands Skills Advisory Panel, which is intended to provide valuable insight to the Government's Skills and Productivity Board.

Find out more about this work - Understanding and Addressing Skills Impacts and Needs

Productivity in the West Midlands
Melissa Wickham, January 2023

The report is written by Melisa Wickham and is in collaboration with the West Midlands Combined Authority.

This report focuses on bringing together readily available ONS data to better understand the labour productivity gap in the West Midlands.

This report focuses on labour productivity – which measures how much output is produced per unit of labour input. There are varying measures of labour input, determined by data availability. Ideally, the measure should reflect what goes into the production process – it should be based on actual hours worked and quality-adjusted (for skills, education, experience levels etc.). Readily available estimates are often not produced to this ideal. The labour productivity data used herein are not quality adjusted and use a mix of hours and more simple measures of per worker or per filled job. In reality, using hours or workers as the productivity denominator often makes little difference to the growth in productivity observed or the relative productivity picture across the UK.

Find out more about this work - Productivity in the West Midlands. 

Clean Growth Case Study: Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) and Tyseley Energy Park
July 2022, Policy briefing - Juliane Schwarz

The aim of this case study is to understand the value and function of public funding by the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) into clean growth initiatives, such as Tyseley Energy Park (TEP), and how this supports clean growth in the West Midlands to become a net zero carbon economy by 2041. This case study report describes the background of TEP and its development, its significance for energy innovation and clean growth, the impact of public funding by the GBSLEP and lessons from the case of GBSLEP funding at TEP for clean growth.

Find out more about this work - Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership Secondment

Directory of University Business Support Interventions
April 2022, George Bramley, Samatha Lithgow, Juliane Schwarz and Freya Williams

This directory was developed to provide an overview of business support interventions in the West Midlands where a university is the primary or a significant partner in the delivery of support. It was developed over 2021 and provides a snapshot of publicly funded business support.It includes schemes that have been funded in the last rounds of the European Regional Development Fund and other sources where information is publicly available.

The directory was created to:

• Provide an overview of activity (scale and scope)
• Provide a sampling frame to investigate the impact of university-based support for business.

Given the changing funding environment, it does not provide a definitive list of current programmes rather it provides a record of support that is or has been recently available at the time it was prepared.

Find out more about this work - Business Support in the West Midlands. 

University-Industry Relationships Facilitated: The Case of Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Hub
July 2022 - Freya Williams, Juliane Schwarz, Alice Pugh

The aim of this case study is to understand:
• business support offered by universities
• how this is facilitated by a partner organisation (Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) Growth Hub)
• what kind of support is drawn upon by GBSLEP Growth Hub.

This aims to demonstrate how close links between regional economic development bodies and anchorinstitutions, such as universities, help to support businesses in the GBSLEP area.

Find out more about this work - Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership Secondment

Labour Market Disconnect: High Level of Unemployment in the Region and a Record Number of Vacancies for Jobs and Apprenticeships

December 2021, Policy briefing  -  Juliane Schwarz, Alice Pugh, Henrietta Breukelaar, Anne Green, George Bramley. 

Nationally and internationally, there is a disconnect between high levels of unemployment and a record numbers of vacancies for both jobs and apprenticeships. The current disconnect is based on the number and types of jobs on offer on the one hand, and the available workforce on the other hand. This current labour market unbalance is expected to ease over the next 12 to 24 months, although it is not expected to disappear altogether for some time. Whilst this problem isn’t unique to the UK, it is likely that Brexit has exacerbated some of the problems. There is a need to understand the disconnect in the labour market between high levels of unemployment and a record numbers of vacancies for both jobs and apprenticeships. Reasons for this are not always clear; rather they are complex and interrelated. This report seeks to set out to highlight issues observed and discussed by various stakeholders. In putting together this report we encountered challenges around the availability of data and the nature of the evidence base. As a result, some issues identified are based on insights from a range of sources.

Find out more about this work - Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership Secondment

STEM assets in the West Midlands innovation landscape: STEAMhouse
July 2023, Dr Juliane Schwarz

This policy briefing looks at the STEAMhouse, a Birmingham City University (BCU) asset, exploring its contribution to improving economic performance and social inequality in our region.

Find out more about this work - Universities' STEM Assets: Commercial & Non-Commercial Pathways & Aggregate Impacts. 

Smart Energy – An Energy System for the 21^st Century

November 2022

This report was co-authored by the Midlands Engine partnership, Siemens and the University of Birmingham. It calls for the accelerated digitisation of regional energy systems to usher in significant domestic energy savings, job creation, and support for the continued rollout of cheap, clean energy sources.

Find out more about this work - Midlands Smart Energy: Review and Future Possibilities. 

STEM Assets in the West Midlands innovation landscape: Tysley Energy Park
April 2022, Simon Collinson, Robert Lyram, Chloe Billings

This policy briefing looks at the Tyseley Energy Park, University of Birmingham and explore the extent to which it is being leveraged to improve economic performance and social inequality in our region.

Find out more about this work - Universities' STEM Assets: Commercial & Non-Commercial Pathways & Aggregate Impacts. 

STEM assets in the West Midlands innovation landscape: Warwick Manufacturing Group

February 2022, Simon Collinson, Robert Lyram, Chloe Billings

This policy briefing outlines the publicly available information about Warwick Manufacturing Group’s (WMG) capabilities and impact, as well as identifying any gaps. This basic scoping work was conducted via internet searches and has a particular focus on what is known about WMG’s governance structure, size, scale, facilities, employment, funding structures, turnover, and growth.

Find out more about this work - Universities' STEM Assets: Commercial & Non-Commercial Pathways & Aggregate Impacts. 

STEM assets in the West Midlands innovation landscape: Manufacturing Technology Centre

January 2022 - Robert Lynam, Dr Chloe Billing and Professor Simon Collinson

This policy briefing looks at the Manufacturing Technology Centreand explore the extent to which it is being leveraged to improve economic performance and social inequality in our region.

Find out more about this work - Universities' STEM Assets: Commercial & Non-Commercial Pathways & Aggregate Impacts. 

Public Research & Development investment into the West Midlands (data sets)

June 2021 - Simon Collinson and Kelvin Humphreys

This presentation provides a series of figures and data tables mapping R&D funding across UK regions, taking the West Midlands as an illustrative case study. The key sections are:

1. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) purpose and remit and regional patterns of research funding
2. UKRI Funding Distribution across West Midlands Regional Universities
3. Innovate UK and Research England Funding by Region, University and Sector
4. UKRI Funding: Regional Collaborations
5. Private Sector R&D Funding in the West Midlands

Find out more about this work - Universities' STEM Assets: Commercial & Non-Commercial Pathways & Aggregate Impacts

Advanced Ceramics Sector - An Industry of the Future: Sector Profile for the Midlands (UK) – 2021

March 2021 - Ben Brittain, George Bramley, Anne Green, Chloe BIlling and Rebecca Riley. 

This report was compiled by City-REDI and builds on an industrial consultation completed by themselves and SQW in 2020, which revealed that no other UK region has the equivalent mass of advanced ceramics specialist suppliers, end users and researchers.

The report, for the Midlands Industrial Ceramics Group, highlights the global opportunities presented in the rapidly growing industry, the 28-page document sets out the fundamental importance of advanced ceramics to the performance of high-tech sectors worldwide.

It also gives an insight into the wealth of knowledge and key strengths already in place across the Midlands, and how the region is uniquely placed to tap into the significant growth opportunities globally.

Find out more about this work - Evaluation of Midlands Advanced Ceramics for Industry 4.0. 

Informing Development of the UK Place-based R&D Strategy: Research England/UKRI and WMREDI expert evidence forum - Full report

Short report

Appendix

November 2020 - Simon Collinson and Chloe Billing

The West Midlands Regional Economic Development Institute (WMREDI) at the University of Birmingham hosted a closed-forum for Research England (UKRI) to examine the evidence base for a place-based R&D strategy.

The following questions guided discussions:

• What evidence is available (or is needed) to show that different kinds of regional impact result from different kinds of R&D investments / interventions?
• What should the research and innovation system – universities, businesses, research organisation and other intermediaries - do more of to support economic growth in their region?
• How can we ensure different parts of the UK have the mix of interventions they need to enable R&D-led growth?
• What are the major critical dependencies for R&D policy levers at the national and the local level? Is there evidence to show which different levers, incentives, mechanisms and critical dependencies make a difference to scale of impact and/or outcomes?
• What does UKRI, government and local leadership need to do to ensure research and innovation can play a powerful role in levelling up the country?

These reports provide a summary of this work.

Contributors providing briefings incorporated into this paper:

• Professor Riccardo Crescenzi (LSE)
• Dr. Kieron Flanagan (Manchester)
• Professor Helen Lawton Smith (Birkbeck)
• Professor Maria Savona (Sussex)
• Dr. Elvira Uyarra (Manchester)
• Dr Anna Valero (LSE)
• Professor Slavo Radosevic (UCL)

Other Discussants:

• Professor Paul Nightingale (Sussex)
• Professor Andres Rodriguez-Pose (LSE)Other academic participants
• Professor Richard Harris (Durham)
• Professor Neil Lee (LSE) Professor Kevin Morgan (Cardiff)
• Raquel Ortega-Argilles (City-REDI, Birmingham)
• (Chantale Tippett (for Juan Mateos-Garcia -Nesta))
• (Antonio Andreoni (IIPP))

 

Economic Recovery Post COVID-19: The MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme (REAP)

September 2020 - Policy briefing - Dr Chloe Billing on behalf of the West Midlands MIT-REAP team

Thispolicy biriefing discusses the development and analysis of a set of indicators to assess the capability to support Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the West Midlands region.

Economic resilience to shocks: implications for labour markets

February 2021 - Economic Resilience Discussion Document, prepared by Dr Tasos Kitsos

The term economic resilience has become popular during the 2008 crisis and has remained at the forefront of research and policymaking since. The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic makes resilience more relevant than ever, with all relevant stakeholders looking for ways to shield local economies and accelerate recovery.

The WMREDI project ‘Economic resilience to shocks: implications for labour markets‘ aims to contribute to uncovering the determinants of local economic resilience and assist places to recover faster.

As the first step in this effort, a document has been compiled to bring together the evidence base around local economic resilience. In it, we discuss the concept and measurement of economic resilience as well as the evidence on resilience determining factors. We group these into five interconnected realms:

- Industrial ecosystems covering characteristics such as the specialisation and dynamism of local economies
- Place characteristics representing path dependency and physical geography
- Individual characteristics such as qualifications and demographics
- Institutional infrastructure attributes such as the fitness of national and local institutional set-ups
- Decision-making covers matters of agency and leadership.

This document is expected to be a live resource that will be updated regularly. As a result, we welcome feedback on all aspects as well as resources to be added to the review. After all, achieving resilience requires a concerted effort across multiple scales and fields.

Find out more about this work - Economic Resilience to Shocks: Implications for Labour Markets. 

Social Prescribing for Young People in the West Midlands: The Potential Impact on Employment and the Economy: Final Report and Evaluation Framework 

Evaluation Framework and Executive Summary

November 2023, Dr Joanne Mills, Professor Laura Caulifield, Dr Rachel Hopley, Emma Latham. 

Social prescribing aims to help people access local, non-clinical services and activities provided by voluntary and community organisations to support their social, emotional, and practical needs. Interest in, and delivery of, social prescribing for young people across the UK is growing.

Research undertaken as part of a 15-month collaboration between the Institute of Community Research and Development (ICRD) at the University of Wolverhampton and the West Midlands Regional Economic Development Institute (WMREDI) sought to examine the need for and benefits of, social prescribing provision for young people in the West Midlands and its economic and employability impact.

These reports are a result of extensive research and collaboration, and sheds light on the burgeoning interest in social prescribing, particularly in its application to young people across the United Kingdom.

Find out more about this work - Social Prescribing for Young People in the West Midlands: The Potential Impact on Employment and the Economy. 

Summary Recommendations Report, Social Prescribing for Young People in the West Midlands: The Potential Impact on Employment and the Economy

August 2023, Dr Joanne Mills, Professor Laura Caulfield and Emma Latham. 

Social prescribing aims to help people access local, non-clinical services and activities provided by voluntary and community organisations to support their social, emotional, and practical needs. Interest in, and delivery of, social prescribing for young people across the UK is growing.

Research undertaken as part of a 15-month collaboration between the Institute of Community Research and Development (ICRD) at the University of Wolverhampton and the West Midlands Regional Economic Development Institute (WMREDI) sought to examine the need for and benefits of, social prescribing provision for young people in the West Midlands and its economic and employability impact.

This report provides a summary of a survey of social prescribing referrers, practitioners, and professionals, to gather first-hand accounts of how and why such services can make an impact on youth employment, and on the region’s economy.

Find out more about this work - Social Prescribing for Young People in the West Midlands: The Potential Impact on Employment and the Economy. 

Research Digest: Social Prescribing for Young People in the West Midlands: The Potential Impact on Employment and the Economy

January 2023, Dr Joanne Mills, Francesca Hutchin and Dr Rachel Hopley. 

Social prescribing aims to help people access local, non-clinical services and activities provided by voluntary and community organisations to support their social, emotional, and practical needs. Interest in, and delivery of, social prescribing for young people across the UK is growing.

Research undertaken as part of a 15-month collaboration between the Institute of Community Research and Development (ICRD) at the University of Wolverhampton and the West Midlands Regional Economic Development Institute (WMREDI) sought to examine the need for and benefits of, social prescribing provision for young people in the West Midlands and its economic and employability impact.

This research digest forms part of an exploratory research project into social prescribing provision for young people in the West Midlands and its economic, and employability impact.

Find out more about this work - Social Prescribing for Young People in the West Midlands: The Potential Impact on Employment and the Economy. 

Equality Act 2020 Effects on Incomes of Ethnic Minoritiesquality Act 2010

August 2022 - Maryna Ramcharan. 

To reduce inequalities in the workplace and protect people from discrimination, the government issued The Equality Act 2010 which states that discrimination or unfair treatment based on certain personal characteristics such as race, age, sex, and others is against the law in almost all cases

This report looks at the Equality Act 2010 and how the incomes of ethnic minorities changed when the legislation came into force.

Key findings included:

• Women earned less than men by 21.2%, and people with a degree earned 18.09% more than people without a degree on average, given the same amount of education, ethnicity, gender and occupation.
• The net monthly income of an average person of an ethnic minority before the Equality Act 2010 was introduced (specifically, in 2009-2010) was 7.07% lower than the incomes of people of any other ethnicity.
• Graduate labour market statistics show that 66% of working-age graduates were in high-skilled employment, compared with 78.4% of postgraduates and 24.5% of non-graduates. The median salary for working-age graduates was £35,000 in 2020. This was £9,500 more than non-graduates (£25,500) but £7,000 less than postgraduates (£42,000).

The estimates of this analysis should be treated with caution as being accompanied by low accuracy and broad confidence intervals being caused by high variability of self-reported data.

Find out more about this work - Income Inequality, Policies and Inclusive Growth. 

Which Parliamentary Constituency will most likely face homelessness rise?

January 2022, Dr Maryna Ramcharan. 

A data dashboard predictiing which constituencies in the West Midlands will likely face a reise in homelessness. 

Find out more about this work - Income Inequality, Policies and Inclusive Growth. 

Income Inequality, Policies and Inclusive Growth

November 2021 - Maryna Ramcharan

The UK has a very high level of income inequality compared to other countries. Income inequality is entrenched across genders, ages, ethnicities, and regions, being accumulated during individuals’ lifetimes and inherited by the next generation. Income inequality lies in the heart of many current problems and policies which society is focused on e.g., gender disparities, inclusive growth, social mobility, inequality in opportunities, and has complex relationships and strong associations with many other issues like health inequalities, poverty and unemployment.

This report examines income inequality in the UK at a regional level with a particular focus on West Midlands. This includes analysis of main metrics of income inequality at the regional level, distribution of income across population percentiles in the West Midlands and initial approaches to understanding the drivers behind income inequality. The main metrics of income inequality throughout the report are calculated using annual gross income at the individual level.

Find out more about this work - Income Inequality, Policies and Inclusive Growth. 

Embedding Local Community Engagement in University ‎Strategy Development: Reflections From Universities in Birmingham

February 2021, Policy Briefing - Madga Cepeda-Zorrilla, Abigail Taylor, Sara Hassa and Anne Green. 

This policy briefing builds on work undertaken by WMREDI in conjunction with the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) as part of a project commissioned by Birmingham City Council (BCC).

Given the focus of WMREDI on better understanding and supporting the role of universities and how community engagement can help them with their mission, we undertook a desk-review of the strategies of the five Universities in Birmingham (Aston University, Birmingham City University, Newman University, The University of Birmingham and University College Birmingham) and explored the extent to which engagement is communicated and conducted as part of strategy development.

Find out more about this work - Engaging Citizens in Strategy and Policy for the Future of the Region. 

Insights into Birmingham City Council’s Spending Power, Revenue Funding and Spending between 2010-11 and 2019-2020 

November 2022, Alice Pugh, Abigail Taylor, Charlotte Tomlinson and Rebecca Riley. 

This report aims to answer these questions:

• Where does Birmingham City Council's (BCC) income come from and how has this changed over time?
• What services does BCC spend its income on, and why and how has this changed over time?
• What budgetary challenges has BCC faced when trying to set a budget and how does this impact decision making? 

It examines and analyses changes in BCC’s income and expenditure over the decade between 2010/11 and 2019/20. It reviews and evaluates budgets and financial plans between 2010/11 and 2019/20, alongside reviewing evidence and analysis from supporting research from the National Audit Office (NAO). The report focuses on trends relating to the revenue funding for and expenditure on services that local authorities have to provide.

Find out more about this work - Insights into Birmingham City Council's Revenue Funding and Spending

Covid-19 recovery planning, partnership working and the role of universities in city-regions

October 2021 - Charlotte Hoole, Abigail Taylor, Hannes Read and Anne Green

This report presents findings from research examining how partnership working has developed during the pandemic and the role of universities in recovery planning. The objectives are to:

• Investigate what has worked well in Covid-19 recovery planning in recovery groups operating in the West
• Midlands Combined Authority area and the North East LA71 area
• Identify aspects of recovery partnership working in these regions, which have worked less well
• Analyse the role of universities in city-regional recovery planning

Investigate what can be learned from Covid-19 regional recovery planning for informing the format and focus of existing and future partnerships focused on economic and social recovery from the pandemic.
It is based on 30 interviews conducted in summer and autumn 2021 with stakeholders in the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) area and the North East LA7 area with a high-level of engagement in Covid-19 recovery planning and broader local and regional policy and governance activities.

These regions were chosen due to their complex contrasting governance structures. The West Midlands has one Combined Authority (CA) and three Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas whilst the North East LA7 area includes two Combined Authorities.

Find out more about this work - Enabling Consensus Building in City-Regions. 

Delivering Levelling Up: Don’t turn on the taps without fixing the pipes

September 2021 - Local Institutions, Productivity, Sustainability and Inclusivity Trade-offs (LIPSIT) Project Team

This second major report from the LIPSIT project draws together a wide range of evidence collected during our two-year investigation. The report mobilises the project’s findings on regional institutions and regional economies in order to assess the potential for delivering ‘levelling up’ in the UK. It argues that if the UK government attempts to deliver levelling up without fixing the problems in subnational governance, it would be analogous to turning on the taps without fixing the pipes, and watching vast resources leak away in a highly inefficient system.

Find out more about this work - Local Institutions, Productivity, Sustainability and Inclusivity Trade-offs (LIPSIT)

Achieving Levelling-Up: The Structures and Processes Needed

November 2020 - LIPSIT Project Team

Levelling-up’ is one of this Government’s flagship ambitions. This report, Achieving Levelling-Up, focuses on the structures and processes needed to achieve it, finding that there is zero chance of achieving it without significant changes to the current system at a national and local level.

The report, conducted as part of the LIPSIT (Local Institutions, Productivity, Sustainability and Inclusivity Trade-offs) project by Demos and the Universities of Birmingham, Cardiff, Surrey and Warwick, identifies a number of problems with the current system for managing local economic policy, and suggests a new framework in which levelling-up should be possible.

Find out more about this work - Local Institutions, Productivity, Sustainability and Inclusivity Trade-offs (LIPSIT)

Universities and Region Forum: What role do Universities have in Levelling Up?

August 2022 - Briefing paper by Des McNulty (On behalf of Mike Boxall, John Goddard, Anne Green, Chris Millward and Rebecca Riley). 

This briefing highlights some of the findings to come out of the Universities and Region Forum set up in 2022. The forum brought together researchers with policymakers and practitioners in order to understand Levelling Up and respond to the challenges it presented.

Find out more about this work - Mobilising the Power of Universities in Levelling Up: Scoping a UK Policy Forum. 

Prosperity, Inclusivity and Sustainability across UK Regions

April 2020 - Policy briefing - Charlotte Hoole and Simon Collinson

This policy briefing reports on a study to assess economic growth, inclusivity and sustainability across UK regions in terms of both current performance (in 2018) and change in performance (between 2013 and 2018). It is part of a larger, on-going (ESRC-funded) project on ‘Local Institutions, Productivity, Sustainability and Inclusivity Trade-offs’ (LIPSIT).

We developed a regional typology from proxy measures of economic prosperity, inclusivity and sustainability. These key indicators, plus a description of the method we adopted can be found in the Technical Annex.

Engaging universities in ‘Pride in Place’ and levelling up

June 2024, article by Rebecca Riley, Anne Green and Des McNulty

Universities and Region Forum: Universities, Pride in Place and Levelling Up

May 2023, policy briefing - Rebecca Riley and Des McNulty

The analysis and recommendations in this briefing – which come from discussion at a workshop held in February 2023 by the Universities and Regions Forum at the University of Birmingham - are intended to clarify what is needed to take forward the delivery of levelling up commitments. They build on previous City-REDI / WMREDI research, as well as participants’ insights from working for and providing advice to local and central government in England and the national governments in Wales and Scotland. The authors are very grateful to the speakers and the participants1 for their inputs to the workshop and accept full responsibility for any errors of interpretation or fact.

Mobilising the Power of Universities in Levelling Up: Scoping a UK Policy Forum. 

 

How can Universities, Colleges and Employers Deliver the Skills for Local Productivity, Innovation and Prosperity?

December 2022, policy briefing - Anne Green, Chris Millward and Abigail Taylor

This policy briefing reflects on discussions during the Universities and Regions Forum skills seminar organised by City-REDI / WMREDI. It outlines fundamental challenges which need to be addressed to improve skills systems in England. 

Mobilising the Power of Universities in Levelling Up: Scoping a UK Policy Forum. 

Universities and Regions Forum: What role do Universities have in Levelling Up?

August 2022 - Briefing paper by Des McNulty (On behalf of Mike Boxall, John Goddard, Anne Green, Chris Millward and Rebecca Riley). 

This briefing highlights some of the findings to come out of the Universities and Region Forum set up in 2022. The forum brought together researchers with policymakers and practitioners in order to understand Levelling Up and respond to the challenges it presented.

Mobilising the Power of Universities in Levelling Up: Scoping a UK Policy Forum. 

Investing in infrastructure – enabling fairer growth

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and City-REDI / WMREDI, March 2022. 

This report supplements our earlier publication Investing in regional equality, which examined a range of initiatives undertaken in four cities around the world. We extend this learning by considering six projects focused on infrastructure – from rural broadband access in Italy and Lithuania, to a bridge linking Sweden and Denmark. All these projects have had some significant impacts on their respective regions, showcasing how different, often innovative, approaches to infrastructure development can yield positive benefits to local communities and a broad range of stakeholders. However, some of the projects did not achieve all their aims or proceeded more slowly than planned.

Find out more about this work - Levelling Up.

Investing in regional equality – lessons from four cities

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and City-REDI / WMREDI, February 2022.

Reducing inequalities lies at the heart of resolving some of the world’s most pressing challenges, from eradicating poverty, to tackling climate change, to creating real sustainable economic growth. Inequality prevents nations from improving health, education and human rights outcomes. Ultimately, countries and their regions can’t grow or move forward if they are leaving people behind. But reducing inequalities requires transformative and sustained change.

To inform this debate we selected four city-regions from across the world to investigate the different approaches used to reduce inequalities. Our case studies, Fukuoka (Japan), Leipzig (Germany), Cleveland (USA) and Nantes (France), have all had success in overcoming significant social and economic inequalities in recent years. We assess the various governance, policy and funding factors that have allowed them to grow out of inequality and what lessons can be learned from their experiences as well as their remaining
challenges.

Investing in regional equality – lessons from four cities: Metrics and a framework for designing effective policies

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and City-REDI / WMREDI, February 2022. 

A supplementary report Metrics and a framework for designing effective policies contains guidance on selecting metrics for monitoring and evaluation purposes.

Find out more about this work - Levelling Up.

Levelling Up. What is it and can it work?

January 2022 - Centre for Inequality and Levelling Up (CEILUP) at the University of West London

Chapter contribution from Abigail Taylor called "How can the UK learn from international experience to level up? Drawing on research from the Industrial Strategy Council". 

This contribution summarises findings from research published by the Industrial Strategy Council in early 2021 examining international examples of effective place-based interventions that have led to levelling up. It then builds on the findings of the report to provide insights into current debates regarding the direction of levelling up policy in the UK.

Find out more about this work - Levelling Up.

Devolution and Governance Structures in the UK: Lessons from Evidence

May 2021 - Regan A., Quinn M., Romaniuk A., Sampson S., Stratton T., Brittain B. and Taylor A.  

This report produced by the Industrial Strategy Council in collaboration with WMREDI aims contribute to the debate on devolution by identifying principles which will support and facilitate successful future devolution particularly at the sub-regional level. To do this:

• The literature was reviewed to understand the benefits from devolution as well as the limitations to successful implementation of devolution.
• The history of devolution in the UK was set out to shed light on why, despite a long history of attempts at devolution, the UK remains an unequal county both within and between regions.
• A range of primary evidence was gathered from stakeholders who engage with or work in sub-national governance across the UK, to understand what works, and what needs to change, regarding sub-national devolution.

Based on the array of evidence gathered the information was synthesised in order to draw sensible lessons from it. Building on the OECD model for decentralisation, which covers fiscal, political and administrative, a fourth pillar covering ‘people and place’ was added. This research and evidence was then translated into a devolution framework. The framework was designed to provide a structure and a set of principles that can survive changes of government and ensure that this process does not have to be repeated. The devolution framework contains two parts policy principles and guiding principles. The policy principles are tangible, actionable recommendations. Good devolution policy will meet all the criteria set out under each of the pillars in this policy framework. The guiding principles are a set of behaviours which should be embodied by those who work with, or in sub-national governance structures. The recommendations identified under each of the four pillars are as follows:

• Political: increase the number of elected leadership positions; transfer powers across a wide range of policy areas (not whole policy areas, only subsets of policy); ensure there are checks and balances particularly over finances and reporting on outcomes
• Administrative: ensure structures and institutions have clear jurisdiction with own agenda to eliminate duplication; inbuilt review mechanisms to ensure power is transferred on the basis of delivering outcomes.  
• Fiscal: Long-term certainty of funding for all agreed responsibilities based on an updated and improved Barnett style formula; additional funding available through competitive bidding. This bidding process would need to be more streamlined, less prescriptive and removal of ring-fenced funding; possibility of local tax raising powers over time.
• People and Place: Transparency - public access to information should form part of the formal review mechanism; where necessary boundaries should be redefined to align to policy areas and to ensure economic functionality.  

Find out more about this work - Levelling Up.

Mapping the architecture of economic development policy and strategy across the Midlands Engine pan-region
May 2021 - Nottingham Trent University, IREP, Green, A., Rositter, W. , Taylor, A., Hoole, C., Riley, R., Karagounis, K. and Pugh, A.

The Midlands has a complex institutional architecture at local and sub‐regional levels, involving statutory and non‐statutory organisations and partnerships. We undertake an audit of extant local and sub‐regional economic development strategies and plans. Our research (an audit of Local Enterprise Partnership [LEP] and local authority [LA] strategies, a literature review and intelligence

gathering amongst local stakeholders with responsibilities for economic development) focused on the content of strategies and the nature of targets presented in them. It concluded that there is a varied picture at local and sub‐regional levels as to whether strategies include targets and the nature of those targets, so presenting considerable challenges for the aggregation of targets across areas.

Find out more about this work - Levelling Up.

What does it take to “level up” places? Evidence from international experience

January 2021 - Dr Abigail Taylor, Skye Sampson and Anna Romaniuk. 

Levelling up places takes investment, time and leadership, but our research clearly shows it is possible.

This report considers international examples of effective place-based interventions that have led to “levelling up” and explores what can be learnt from how they design and implement place-based policies. Four international case study areas (Estonia, San Antonio, Greater Lille, and the Ruhr region) were selected based on their success in levelling up local economies and to provide a range of experience across different governance contexts.

This research identifies six “foundations” for levelling up. They are cross-cutting themes that underpin local economic growth in all case study areas: Scale and longevity of investments, Collaboration, Attractive Place to Live, Universities and Innovation, Transport and digital infrastructure, and Skills and future sectors.

Find out more about this work - Levelling Up.

Geographical scales and functions: The case of the Midlands Engine

October 2019 - Anne Green and Will Rossiter 

A report prepared for the Midlands Engine Independent Economic Review. This paper addresses the question: What functions or activities does it make sense to discharge at a pan-regional level? It addresses this question from the specific perspective of the Midlands Engine.

Find out more about this work - Levelling Up.

Evaluation of Partnerships for People and Place: Birmingham Project

July 2024 - George Bramley, Anne Green, Maryna Ramcharan, Megan Whitehouse, James Sutton, Lloyd Hopkins, Deborah Youdell

This evaluative assessment has been undertaken by City-REDI and the School of Education based at the University of Birmingham. It aims to capture learning and early impacts of the activities supported by Partnerships for People and Place (PfPP) funding in East Birmingham to improve young people’s access to relevant and meaningful careers information, advice, and guidance. This report supplements the national evaluation of the PfPP programme completed by IPOS-Mori commissioned by Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). PfPP supports place-based partnerships to:

• Trial new ways of working across local and central government and deliver innovative, locally led solutions to key challenges that communities face.
• Look at whether improved government structures, more flexible funding models and greater collaboration across the public sector could be effective in addressing specific issues in local areas.

Find out more on the Evaluation of Partnerships for People and Place: Birmingham Project project page.

Early Assessment of the Digital Innovators Ideator Evaluation

October 2023 - Alice Pugh 

An early assessment of the Digital Innovators Ideator for the now defunct Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership.

The Ideator builds on the demand-led approach to Innovation programmes on the Innovation Birmingham Campus by linking it with a programme of activities developed by Digital Innovators (DI) for young people. Helping to build essential soft skills sought by employers by deploying the students’ digital skills through structured work experience opportunities in the form of innovation challenge. The project draws on Digital Innovators’ expertise in providing specialist support in upskilling young people aged 14 – 24. Including, vocational learning for young people at risk of leaving education or those whose employment status has been affected by the pandemic, to access employment based on their unique strengths and competencies.

The Ideator is delivered through a collaboration with employers based on the Innovation Birmingham Campus as well as corporates from the wider West Midlands area. The employers identify specific business issues that DI develops into innovation challenges which provide the basis of DI’s “learning by doing” approach where young people can build skills in a practical way by working on problem solving projects which generate ideas around potential solutions for businesses. This creates synergies with business support services that Bruntwood provides for its tenants on the innovation campus. It also provides another means of offering meaningful experience opportunities for young people businesses would like to attract as employees and contributes to achieving corporate social responsibility goals.

Each Ideator project is staffed by a combination of learners (“digital apprentices”), experienced designers, developers, and project managers as well as seasoned industry professionals from Digital Innovators own staff as well as those from local businesses. Facilitating the collaboration between young people in the region and employers through live work projects to produce tangible business improvements. This combination of learning by doing and specialist training enables young people to develop their employability, by developing key essential soft skills and exposing them to professional workplace and work.

To maximise wider economic benefits the Ideator has targeted young people considered to be at risk of becoming NEET, who would benefit from practical meaningful learning that allows use their existing digital skills within an innovation environment. This provides positive reinforcement in that have product or process for the sponsoring business as well as developing their soft skills as part of working in a team. It should be noted however, that these students were not currently NEET, only at risk of becoming NEET following the completion of their college careers.

Find out more about the Evaluation Lab. 

Connecting Communities: Process Evaluation: Final Report

George Bramley, Abigail Taylor and Anne Green - November 2022

An evalution of the Connecting Communities voluntary employment support programme funded by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and procured and overseen by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).

Find out more about this project - Evaluation of Connecting Communities. 

Evaluation of No_Code Pilot

November 2022 - George Bramley, Alice Pugh and Hannes Read

The No_Code project is a programme of activities funded by the Community Renewal Fund (CRF) led by Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP (GBSLEP).

This report is an evaluation of the No_Code pilot.

Find out more about this work - Evaluation of No_Code Project

Evaluation of West Midlands Cultural and Creative Social Enterprise Pilot Programme

September 2022 - Hannes Read and George Bramley 

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) established the Cultural Leadership Board (CLB) in 2019 as a cultural sector specific advisory board, providing recommendations to the WMCA in relation to the cultural sector. The Board’s aim is to place culture at the heart of sustainable growth in the region, enhancing quality of life for its diverse communities. In response to the pandemic the CLB developed the proposal for the Cultural and Creative Social Enterprise Pilot to address challenges faced by smaller, diverse-led organisations operating hyper-locally within their communities.

Central to the proposal was the provision of business development grants to support these enterprises in becoming more efficient, resilient, and successful, and contributing to building thriving communities in the West Midlands for people to live and work in.

WMCA secured funding for the pilot through a collaboration of interested stakeholders including Black Country LEP, GBSLEP and Arts Council England.

Find out more about the Evaluation Lab. 

Connecting Communities Case Study

Pivot and Prosper Case Study

Student Knowledge Exchange Case Study

September 2022 - George Bramley

A series of case studies looking at evaluation work undertaken by WMREDI. 

Find out more about the Evaluation Lab. 

Early Assessment of West Midlands Innovation Programme (WMIP)

July 2022 - George Bramley, Alice Pugh, Hannes Reed, Annum Rafique, Carolin Ioramashvili, Kelvin Humphreys and Anne Green. 

Find out more about this work - Early Assessment of West Midlands Innovation Programme (WMIP). 

Student Knowledge Exchange Impact Toolkit - Summary Guide

May 2022 - Johannes Read, Colin Rigby, Terry Dray, John Goddard, George Bramley, Anne Green, Sue Welland, Julia Molyneux, Matt Edwards

Knowledge Exchange Impact on Place Toolkit

May 2022 - Excel Document, Johannes Read

The Student Knowledge Exchange Impact Toolkit helps enterprise educators and higher education institutions evaluate the impacts of student knowledge exchange. The toolkit takes learnings from the ‘Student Engagement in Knowledge Exchange’ programme, funded by the Office for Students. The findings outline the different approaches for evaluating impacts, such as pre- and post-event surveys, reflective logs, and quantitative data collection. The toolkit identifies the “stepping stones” to move from monitoring and towards evaluation, and evaluate the impacts of student knowledge exchange. The audience of the toolkit is for higher education institutions and policymakers looking to evaluate the impacts of student knowledge exchange for four different groups: the impacts for students, higher education institutions, businesses and internship opportunity providers, and place.

Embedding Enterprise Education

May 2022 - Helen Hook, Careers Network, University of Birmingham

This toolkit provides 5 steps to support academics, educators or Enterprise Educators, to embed enterprise, entrepreneurship, and employability into the curriculum. Each section of the toolkit will provide information, guidance, suggestions and quick-wins to support embedding Enterprise Education into modules.

Find out more about this work - Student Knowledge Exchange Impact Tool. 

Rapid Review of Evaluations and Evaluative Studies of Cultural and Heritage Sector Activity in the West Midlands

February 2022 - Joanna Mills

This review of West Midlands-focussed cultural and heritage sector evaluations by City Regional Economic and Development Institute (City-REDI) was completed in December 2021 to establish a baseline of best practice and recommendations for the sector as a whole and draws on a range of open access publicly available documents.

Find out more about the Evaluation Lab. 

Knowledge Exchange Funding: Novel Evaluation Methodologies. Phase Two. Final Report

October 2021 - George Bramley

A report commissioned by Research England by SQW and supported by City-REDI examining the potential for the use of novel theory-based approaches as part of the overall evaluation of the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF).

Find out more about the Evaluation Lab. 

Compendium of Evaluation and Appraisal Resources

September 2021 - George Bramley and Kelvin Humphreys

The purpose of this document is to pull together as a resource for commissioners and practitioners, a summary of available toolkits and guidance in evaluation and appraisal. The intention is to update this on annual basis including checking web links. If you have any suggestions for tools and guidance that you think are missing please do not hesitate to contact us so that we can incorporate them into the next version.
When using individual tools and guidelines we asked that you reference them in your reports and this compendium.

Find out more about the Evaluation Lab. 

Evaluation of the GBSLEP Pivot and Prosper Grant Fund Programme

June 2021 - George Bramley, Alice Pugh and Juliane Schwartz

The Pivot & Prosper grant fund programme was aimed at helping businesses recover quickly from the COVID-19 crisis. It provided a grant for businesses that could evidence a clear plan for new ways of working, build resilience, increase employment and lead to growth in productivity and improved sustainability. 120 enquiries were received for the fund resulting in 74 full applications. 50 projects were funded with a total grant of £1,778,766 which was matched £1,410,461 in additional funding (44 percent which was more than 25 percent matching required). 2 businesses did not take up their offer.

This final report is based on analysis of project documents and a small number of interviews with stakeholders. This report aims to pull out key learning from the implementation of the pilot to inform the development of a scaled provision along similar lines in the region.

Find out more about the Evaluation Lab. 

Knowledge Exchange funding: A review of novel evaluation methodologies. Final report

November 2019 - George Bramley

In 2019 Research England commissioned SQW, supported by City-REDI, to undertake a study examining the potential theory-based approaches that Research England could implement as part of the next overall evaluation of the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF). Such theory-based approaches had not previously been implemented systematically or at a national level in a UK knowledge exchange (KE) context and were therefore considered novel.

The aim was to consider potential approach/approaches that can complement quantitative evidence on the outcomes and impacts HEIF funding is generating (i.e. the ‘what’), with systematic and robust evidence on the mechanisms by which HEIF-funded activities lead to these outcomes/impacts (i.e. the ‘how’).

Find out more about the Evaluation Lab.