July 2020 highlights

News & announcements

2019/20 Issue Two of the YU Newsletter is now out!

See what we've been up to at YU since the start of the year!

First Civic Agreement launched!

Nottingham’s two universities, together with the City and County’s Local Authorities, hospitals and Local Enterprise Partnership, have today launched the Universities for Nottingham Civic Agreement – the first of its kind in the country.

UKRI published HEIF policies and priorities 2020-21 to 2024-25

This publication sets out the policies and priorities for HEIF for the funding period 2020-21 to 2024-25 and requests HEIF Accountability Statements for institutions in receipt of Higher Education Innovation Funding from Research England.

Research England has published overall budgets

For higher education provider (HEP) research and knowledge exchange funding for the year 2020-21, with an uplift for Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) and an increase in National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) adding to Quality-related Research (QR) funding for 2020-21.

Speech

Chief Secretary to the Treasury delivers his first speech in the role to thinktank Onward

Steve Barclay brands Treasury as ‘the new radicals’ in government, creating a faster and smarter culture.

Reports

Innovation Manifesto: Place Matters - Innovation & Growth in the UK

Over 30 leaders from across UK local and civic government, universities and research institutions have signed a new manifesto to boost the nation’s regional innovation potential.

The signatories - which include Lord Jim O’Neill, Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, Andy Street, Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram - have pledged their support for a range of commitments designed at increasing productivity through innovation, levelling-up the UK economy and supporting its COVID bounce-back.

The manifesto follows the publication of a new report: Place matters, Innovation & Growth in the UK produced for Bruntwood SciTech, a 50:50 joint venture between Bruntwood and Legal & General, into the current state of the UK’s innovation infrastructure.

Read the press release here.

National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR): National Institute Economic Review August 2020

Watch the Online Press Conference (28 July 2020)

Access volume 253 of the National Institute Economic Review here, including:

• THE UK ECONOMY: Forecast summary

• Prospects for the UK Economy

• The Prospects for Regional Disparities in the UK in Times of Brexit and Covid-19

Social Mobility Commission: Internal migration and social mobility - moving out to move on

The report finds that people from more privileged backgrounds are far more likely to move to prosperous areas with greater opportunities than those from less privileged backgrounds.

It sets out some policy suggestions including that:

• universities and colleges should work together to ensure local areas have a coherent and flexible offer for school leavers;

• local authorities and employers should work together to identify and correct any mismatch between local skills and local needs;

• digital infrastructure and skills, transport connections and good quality affordable housing should be prioritised by local leaders to attract new people;

• councils should work with metro mayors and community groups to strengthen cultural identity in every local community.

North West Business Leadership Team: Finance and Innovation Report Essential Enablers to Drive Future Business Growth

"This report was commissioned with the aim of making an important contribution to the future of the North West economy before the onset of Covid-19 with its unprecedented challenges and uncertainties for our health, businesses, livelihoods and futures. There has been a huge collective effort to grapple with the immediate effects of the crisis and as we begin to navigate the path to economic recovery, a clear view of what will constitute a ‘new normal’ is still, slowly, emerging."

Data

UKRI published latest funding data for competitive funding and new resources to explore research and innovation output data. At YU we'll be looking into this in more detail and producing a regional comparison, check back if you'd like to find out more!

Projects

NESTA: A Mission-oriented approach to the UK skills system

The UK skills system is complex and uncertain, and cannot be fixed by single policy solutions. Could adopting a mission-oriented approach that coordinates efforts across government and other sectors help? Visit the FutureFit project page – a major training intervention focused on upskilling and reskilling workers and doing innovative, robust research about what works.

NESTA: Paving the way for better career journeys

Millions of workers are facing uncertain futures due to the rise of new technology and the ongoing impact of COVID-19. To help these people find fulfilling work in a changing labour market, we need granular data combined with local insight.

Blogs

HEPI: 'Why regional networks in higher education are more important than ever' by Diana Beech

"England’s higher education sector is no stranger to Government challenge. Over the past five years, in particular, it has almost become commonplace for Government ministers to take higher education institutions to task over issues they feel are undermining the sector’s integrity: take senior executive pay, for example, grade inflation or poor graduate outcomes."

NESTA: 'We don’t want ‘normal’ – we want better'

Sir Michael Marmot talks to Nesta about how inequalities laid us open to COVID-19, why we ask the wrong questions about public health, and why 'normal ain’t good enough.'

ARUP: 'Let’s change the Green Book, whilst not throwing the baby out with the bathwater' by Robin Miller-Stott

"On Thursday 16 July, Arup hosted a virtual roundtable with senior policy makers from across the North to discuss levelling up the UK economy to support local objectives and how to progressively revise HM Treasury’s Green Book. The Chancellor has made a commitment to reform the Green Book, but what could and should this reform look like?"

Manchester Policy Blogs: 'How resilient were UK regions to the 2008 financial crisis? Recovery policies for COVID-19 crisis'

Dr Marianne Sensier, Professor Fiona Devine and Dr Elvira Uyarra have conducted research comparing the economic resilience of UK sub-regions in recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. In this blog, they map the resilience across the UK in recovery from the financial crisis and suggest policies for increasing resilience for recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

Related blog: 'Levelling up regional resilience'

HM Treasury launched the CSR

The government has formally launched the Comprehensive Spending Review. Guidance can be found here on how to submit representations by 24 September.

WYCA Draft Recovery plans have been published

Read the draft economic and transport recovery plans

• Economic Recovery Plan (Draft)

• Transport Recovery Plan (Draft)

Change is needed to unlock the full potential of colleges– for people, productivity and place."

Related blog: HEPI - 'Colleges are critical to the civic agenda too' by By Lord Bob Kerslake

National Audit Office- Review of the Town Deals selection process

Blogs

LSE - 'Firms closer to universities tend to have better management practices'

The effect seems to be driven by universities raising the supply of skilled workers and hence reducing their cost, write Andy Feng and Anna Valero

Forum for a New Economy - 'Toward a New Fiscal Constitution'

Mariana Mazzucato and Robert Skidelsky call for a new and mission-oriented fiscal constitution. They advocate for new indicators and the implementation of Job Guarantee Programmes.

Proceedings from Place-Based Economic Recovery Network (PERN) webinar series:

1. The future role of towns and cities

2. Clean and green recovery which also tackles the climate emergency

3. Start-up and entrepreneurial innovation led recovery

4. Resilient supply chains

HM GOV: UK points-based immigration system: further details statement

This statement provides further details on the government's plans for a new UK points-based immigration system.

Public Health

Bradford City Council Joint Strategic Needs Assessment: Mental wellbeing

The JSNA comprises overarching information on the health and wellbeing needs of people in Bradford District, as well as a number of more detailed needs assessments on specific issues and population groups. Its purpose is to provide an assessment of needs to inform priorities for planning and commissioning, with the aim of improving health and wellbeing, and reducing inequalities.

Blogs

YU Guest blog: 'RDAs: Back to the Future?' by Kevin Richardson, Local Academy

"It is almost a decade since the then coalition government announced it would abolish 9 Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in England and replace them with what turned out to be 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). But the political and economic debates, which underpinned that decision, are as relevant today as they were ten years ago."

SIFTED: 'Our big university challenge - University startup ecosystems could help speed up our recovery from the pandemic' by Ana Bakshi

"In the wake of the pandemic, mass unemployment looks inevitable: corporations are now facing decisions that could make many of their middle-tier staff — literally millions of jobs — redundant. Every single action in response to pandemic recovery is time sensitive. If we don’t invest in venture growth and reskilling at scale now, we will lose the opportunity to create a whole new wave of jobs, and we won’t have the talent we need to fill these roles."

WonkHE: 'Graduate outcomes: wellbeing' by David Kernohan

What do we know about the wellbeing of graduates? David Kernohan compares new data from Graduate Outcomes with national figures from ONS.

Webinars

WonkHE: Black Lives Matter – Recording and resources from our event on 8 July 2020

On 8 July 2020 WonkHE held an event on tackling racism in higher education. Here you can watch it in full and download the accompanying resources.

Productivity Insights Network (PIN): The future of innovation in a post-Covid world (5 June 2020)

"The coronavirus pandemic has affected many of the factors shaping the R&D and innovation landscape. Innovative businesses, including early stage companies, face running out of cash due to a lack of external finance or funding, and R&D projects have hit the buffers due to operational restrictions. In the longer-term, contracting markets, uncertainty and financial constraints pose risks to R&D and innovation activity, and the nature and speed with which it may recover."

OECD - Employment Outlook 2020: Facing the jobs crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered one of the worst jobs crises since the Great Depression. There is a real danger that the crisis will increase poverty and widen inequalities, with the impact felt for years to come. Countries now need to do everything they can to stop this jobs crisis from turning into a social crisis. Reconstructing a better and more resilient labour market is an essential investment in the future and in future generations.

Papers

'Regional inequality in Europe: Evidence, theory and policy implications' by Simona Iammarino, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Michael Storper

"Regional economic divergence has become a threat to economic progress, social cohesion, and political stability in Europe. Market processes and policies that are supposed to spread prosperity and opportunity are no longer sufficiently effective. This column argues that a different approach to economic development is required – one that would strengthen Europe’s strongest regions, but with new methods and instruments to unleash the economic potential of weaker cities and regions. The approach should be adaptable to the specific characteristics, structures, and challenges faced by different groups of cities and regions."

SOTA Review No 43: July 2020 - 'Forms of self-employment: What do we know about the gig economy'

"Self-employment takes a range of forms spanning business ownership, dependent contracting activity and freelancing. The term ‘gig economy’ is used increasingly to describe a range of freelancing activity in sectors such as construction, IT, transport services, and culture and media. Although definitions vary, there is general agreement that the growth in gig-working has been encouraged by the development of internet platforms such as Uber and Deliveroo, and the opportunity to adopt business models which support workforce ‘flexibilization’."

Briefings

House of Commons Library briefing- Coronavirus: Financial impact on higher education

"Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic there have been concerns about the financial impact on universities. Much of this has focussed on the potential loss of international students, but there could also be losses in income from lower home student numbers, a drop in research work and less revenue from accommodation, catering and conferencing. What are the size of these impacts and what has the Government done to support the sector?"

Further HE related HoC Library briefing papers can be found here.

NHS Confederation - NHS Reset: The role of health and care in the economy: a five-point plan for every system

This briefing highlights five steps local NHS and social care organisations can take to play a leading role in place-based economic and social recovery and reset. It forms part of out NHS Reset campaign, which has a strand dedicated to economic and social recovery.

Interview

'We don’t want ‘normal’ – we want better' by Nesta

Michael Marmot, Director of the Institute of Health Equity Epidemiology at University College London talks to Nesta about how inequalities laid us open to COVID-19, why we ask the wrong questions about public health, and why 'normal ain’t good enough.'

Article

'Why it’s time to ditch the 50 per cent target for universities' by Chris Skidmore

"It is almost 21 years since the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, announced to rapturous applause at the Labour Party Conference in 1999 that he would set a target of 50 per cent of young people to go to university."

'How will the economic effects of coronavirus vary across areas of the UK?' by Andrew Aitken and Henry Overman in the Economic Observatory

"There are significant differences in economic performance and wellbeing between and within areas of the UK. The health and economic crisis caused by Covid-19 is likely to exacerbate these existing inequalities. The economic crisis caused by Covid-19 is likely to exacerbate existing inequalities and challenge the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda. Predicting exactly how areas will be affected is difficult, but disadvantaged households and the areas in which they live are likely to be hardest hit. "

Blog

'How COVID-19 is exposing unresolved issues about how England is governed' by Professor Michael Kenny and Jack Sheldon

"As debate over the decision-making and capability of the British government during the coronavirus pandemic has grown in intensity, a searching question about whether people in England have been especially poorly served by the institutions that govern them has started to gain traction. While the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have managed the public health response within their own borders – and they too have at times been subjected to criticism – policy in the largest part of the UK has been run directly from Whitehall."

Webinar

'The Missing £4 Billion - Making R&D work for the whole UK' by Nesta

Please find a recording of the webinar 'The Missing £4 billion: Making R&D work for the whole UK' which took place on 2 June 2020 here. Find the transcript for the webinar here.

NESTA Tool: Design the future Location of UK public R&D investment

This tool visualises the current distribution of R&D spending around the country, showing where the winners and losers are and the state of those local economies. The UK government wants to make big increases to R&D spending and hopes businesses will spend more too. This will boost the country’s longstanding low productivity and play an important role in recovery after COVID-19.

How and where should this new money be spent? The Design the Future tool lets you experiment with different priorities, and shows you the effect this could have on places across the country.

NHS Programme: Bradford District & Craven - People First, Digital First

Creative Industries PEC: The importance of a UK-wide recovery plan for the creative industries & The Changing Spatial Distribution of Employment in Creative Industry Clusters in England 1991-2008

New research shows that following the global financial crisis in 2008 we saw an accelerated trend towards a greater concentration of creative businesses in London. This should warn us against repeating mistakes in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis and should encourage the government to step in to protect progress made in investing in creative clusters outside of London.

Analysis

• Leeds City Region Covid-19 monitoring dashboards: 12 June - 3 July & more detailed fortnightly report (3 July)

Blogs & articles

The Guardian / Civic University Network: ‘We can make a difference’: why Sheffield Hallam University is embracing its civic duty

"With 35,000 students and staff, Sheffield Hallam is at the centre of an extensive regional network. So how is it using its key position to boost the local economy and aid social development?"

HEPI: 'The regional way forward for R&D' by Tom Calver & Malcolm Press

"The recent Nesta paper from Tom Forth and Richard Jones is an excellent and accessible summary of the regional imbalances in Research & Development (R&D) funding. Their analysis of the situation should capture the imagination of the whole R&D community. The recommendations that research funders should be doing more to address regional imbalances could and should be followed now, and their suggestion of devolved research monies is sensible. We have always struggled to square quality with geography, but by focusing on regional strengths and priorities, this need not be the case."

WonkeHE: 'It's time for academic-policy engagement to truly take off' by Sarah Chaytor, Andy Westwood

"We know that science has helped to shape policy during the Covid-19 pandemic and that the role of scientific advisers, as well as formal committees and systems, are engaged in day to day policymaking perhaps like never before. As we begin to leave lockdown we know that this expertise will remain vital and that it must continue to inform decisions and policy design."

WonkHE: 'It’s good to be king: this year’s LEO' by David Kernohan

"What’s the point of LEO in 2020? Longitudinal Educational Outcomes data was always of questionable use to prospective students and policymakers. It makes for some corking headline findings – cynically, the main point of the release – but median values and a large time lag mean we need to be careful."