The Services and Enterprise Research Unit (SERU) is at the forefront of cutting edge innovative research into the industries, occupations and activities associated with services and enterprise. Since the establishment of services research in 1993 at the University of Birmingham, under the guise of the Service Sector Research Unit, SERU has played a leading international role in setting the research and policy agenda in the world of services and enterprise.
SERU has an established international reputation for:
- Exploring the contribution made by service activities to regional, national and international economic and enterprise development.
- Advancing knowledge and understanding of the role played by services industries and enterprise functions in shaping new economic geographies.
- Raising awareness of the wider implications for society of the move to service dominated economies.
SERU undertakes:
- Blue-skies agenda setting research that informs academic and policy debate
- Evaluation studies of existing private and public sector policies (E.g. Professional Services in the West Midlands, a study prepared by SERU on behalf of Advantage West Midlands and Birmingham Forward)
- a sub-sectoral and sub-regional analysis of the skills needs of business and professional service (BPS) firms in the West Midlands, funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and the European Social Fund
- Mapping exercises and exploratory studies for a range of private and public sector clients
- Consultancy on all aspects of service and enterprise work, activities and functions
- Organising Conferences/Workshops
- a Working Papers series in Services and Enterprise (WPSE) and Working Papers in Services, Space, Society (WPSSS)