18th May 2023 @ 12-1pm

Seminar Room 2, Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge

Overview and Insights from ongoing studies at City-REDI: Linking STEM Assets and Innovation Intermediaries in Local R&D Ecosystems

with Professor Simon Collinson and Professor Fumi Kitagawa

from the City Region Economic and Development Institute (City-REDI), University of Birmingham

Seminar overview

Disparities in economic performance, social equality and health outcomes across UK regions has created a renewed interest in the spatial geography of growth. UK government policy has shifted from a sole focus on regional productivity, to levelling-up, and on to R&D clusters and stimulating local agglomeration economies. In this talk, with an overview and introduction to the work of the City-Region Economic Development Institute (City-REDI), we will describe an ongoing study examining the activities and local impacts of innovation accelerators / catapults, in particular, focusing on two of the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult centres as drivers of wider innovation capability in regions. In light of the current UK policy landscape and challenges faced by local and national government, we will discuss future research implications, related to university research commercialisation, innovation intermediaries, and the broader R&D /innovation ecosystems with a specific focus on the contribution of universities to different kinds of local and regional growth through innovation.

Time & Date

12-1pm, 18th May 2023

Venue

Seminar Room 2, Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge

Speaker biographies 

Professor Simon Collinson (FAcSS, FRSA, BAM and Chartered ABS Fellow)   Simon is Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (DPVC) for Regional Engagement at the University of Birmingham and the Director of the City-Region Economic Development Institute (City-REDI) and WMREDI at Birmingham Business School, where he was Dean 2012-2016. His current research is on inclusive regional economic growth, R&D commercialization, and the management of productivity and innovation. Alongside peer-reviewed journal outputs in, for example, Research Policy, Regional Studies, JIBS and Organisation Studies his work has featured in the Financial Times, Sunday Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC Radio 4, and the New Statesman.

Professor Fumi Kitagawa   Fumi Kitagawa joined City-REDI in April 2023, as Chair in Regional Economic Development. She has conducted research related to regional innovation and entrepreneurship policies; higher education policy and regional development. She has expertise on the role of universities in innovation and entrepreneurial processes, knowledge exchange and third mission, and governance of local and regional development in different national contexts (e.g. UK, Japan, Sweden). Recent research projects include: future visioning of entrepreneurial ecosystems; forms of PhD students’ entrepreneurship; evaluation of cluster policy and geography of R&D collaboration. Fumi has published in peer-reviewed journals including: Regional Studies, Studies in Higher Education, Technovation, Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society.

For further information

For further information about the seminar, please contact Tomas Ulrichsen at tc267@cam.ac.uk