On Thursday 25 February the Centre for International Manufacturing took part in the launch of Leeds University's Cities themed Design and Production Group.

The group’s focus is to develop research agendas in some of the following areas:

• Redistributed manufacturing
• Challenges/risks of sustainable local production ecosystems
• Empowering routes out of austerity
• Mini-factories, decentralised networks and retail/service optimisation

Some of the presentations on the day included:

• Samuel Fasso Wamba - NEOMA Business School
• Patrick Hennelly - Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge
• Frank Ashton - Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership
• Mukesh Kumar - Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge
• Andrew Filarowski - Society of Dyers and Colourists
• Gary Graham and Chee Wong - Leeds University Business School
• Patrick Alcantara - Business Continuity Institute

Output from the event will include a report from the workshop discussions.