November 2019 highlights
Week 48: 25-29 November 2019
"At a time of great upheaval, uncertainty and division, instead of looking inward this year’s State of the North looks outward – to the country and across the developed world to show how the North fits into a bigger picture. We investigate how divided but interdependent we are as a country, comparing the UK to countries overseas."
See publication and summary here.
sotn-2019-summary.pdfsotn-2019.pdfReport: PEC - Creative Industries Evidence Review 2019/01
PEC-Evidence-synthesis-scoping_Work-Foundation-FINAL.pdfComplex, interrelated and unpredictable: tuning in to the challenges of the 21st Century. This manifesto by the University of Lincoln sets out a series of 10 interrelated grand challenges based on observations from a wide range of influential global thinkers on 21st Century society. This work is not intended to be predictive of the future but instead to illustrate the complex, interrelated and volatile nature of change in our world. Read about the 10 grand challenges and the manifesto here.
J22424_UNIL_21st-Century-Lab_Publication_inners_v8-FINAL.pdfReport: ARUP - Shaping our cities: how digital technology is disrupting global real estate
If technology is the answer, what is the question? What do investors and occupants want from landlords? The climate crisis is provoking investors to look for more sustainable assets and more asset level data will be needed to help them evaluate the sustainable performance of their investments. Changing business models, new technologies and pressures from occupants and investors mean that there are opportunities to use digital technology to deliver better workplaces. This report looks at how the commercial real estate industry is changing and explores how new business models will enable digital technology within buildings to create value.
IPUT-Arup-Shaping-Our-Cities.pdfReport: NEF - Trust in Transition: Climate breakdown and high carbon workers
NEF_trust-in-transition.pdfTHE MUSCATELLI REPORT: Driving Innovation in Scotland – A National Mission
Media_700300_smxx.pdfReport: Increasing Innovation-driven Entrepreneurship in Scotland: Through Collective Impact
Reflections from Scotland's participation in the MIT REAP Programme.
Please note that this report is from 2014, however with LCR taking part in the same programme at the moment, we thought it would be a valuable reference. Please find report here.
REAP+Report+2014+(1)+(A3117959).pdfThis discussion paper, written by Professor Simon Gaskell and Professor Rebecca Lingwood, concerns the influence of socio-economic background on graduate success.
The paper focuses explicitly on the notion of a 'third phase' of widening opportunity to supplement widening access and the optimisation of academic achievement regardless of socio-economic background.
Listen to the podcast with the authors discussing the paper here here.
widening-opportunity-third-phase.pdfThe public event, ‘How ready are cities for net zero?’, was part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2019. It used emerging research by Professor Andy Gouldson at the University of Leeds to road-test a Climate Readiness Index. A review of the evening along with Andy Gouldson and John Alker's slides can be found here.
Lecture script: Translating university research into commercial value: a glass half full or half empty
Original script of NCUB's Annual Lecture delivered on 19 November 2019 by Mike Rees, former deputy group CEO of Standard Chartered, start-up commercialisation expert and angel investor.
"Ubiquitous, mobile supercomputing. Intelligent robots. Self-driving cars. Neuro-technological brain enhancements. Genetic editing. The evidence of dramatic change is all around us and it’s already happening at exponential speed" – quoting Klaus Schwab from his book The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Read lecture in full here.
Blog & consultation response: Seizing the opportunity to offer more people the chance of success through higher technical education
Greg Wade, Policy Manager at UUK reflects on the DfE consultation on Improving Higher Technical Education in a blog here and you can also read the full UUK consultation response here.
Blog / opinion piece: The skills sector needs to remove its apprenticeship blinkers
"The skills sector is still stuck on seeing apprenticeships as a NEET policy rather than the industrial strategy policy it has become, writes Mandy Crawford-Lee (UVAC), and that’s leading to bad policy."
Week 47: 18 - 22 November 2019
Regions in Industrial Transition: Policies for People and Places
Draft_policy_highlights_RIT_FINAL.pdfInclusive Growth in Greater Manchester 2020 and beyond: Taking Stock and Looking Forward
Please see executive summary here.
FINAL full report Inclusive Growth 2020 and beyond.pdfThis discussion paper, written by Professor Simon Gaskell and Professor Rebecca Lingwood, concerns the influence of socio-economic background on graduate success.
widening-opportunity-third-phase.pdfFuture-Ready Skills Commission Executive Summary 2019.pdfWYCA 2019 Labour Market Report and LCR presentation
LMA presentation 2019.pdflabour-market-report-2019.pdfInside Government: 10th Annual Innovation Research Conference 2019
Please see presentations from the this event in the this google folder. Let us know if you got any issues accessing these.
Westminster Insight: Graduate employability conference presentations
All slides can be accessed here. Let us know if you got any issues accessing these.
The Climate Commission is led by EAUC, Guild UK, UUK and AoC was launched on Wednesday 13 November with over 50 Principals and Vice Chancellors meeting in the Council forum to discuss how the leader from universities and colleges will work together along with students in an unprecedented way to tackle the climate crisis.
The focussed debate reached universal agreement that the combined sector needs to be ambitious, move fast and identify a blueprint of actions that can be implemented quickly. FE and HE institutions will be supported by the Council members of Principals and VC’s along with external partners and agencies as required. The blueprint will provide ideas and options that provide instant low cost positive impact alongside medium- and longer-term actions. Read more here. Find out more about the CC here.
Humber Clean Growth Local White Paper
Humber-Clean-Growth-White-Paper.pdfBLOGS this week:
"Students, universities, colleges and employers all want a simplified, connected, flexible tertiary system – but this isn’t news to anyone. The bigger, knotty questions are how do we get there – and why haven’t we got there already?"
Read the full blog here.
"Universities are now competing over a record amount of competitive revenue, making them some of the biggest businesses in the UK. It's the most significant change to the sector's operating context for decades. Are they ready?"
Read the full blog here.
Joint N8 and YU response to the David Sweeney blog on WonkHE: 'How can UKRI stimulate local economies through place-based research funding?'
N8 and YU response to DS WonkHE blog place - web.pdfWeek 46: 11 - 15 November 2019
Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) are inviting those living and working in the region to leave their feedback on the draft priorities for the Local Industrial Strategy. Your opinions will help influence the findings and priorities of the Local Industrial Strategy. To have your say, complete the survey here.
This survey will be open for contributions until Monday 18 November 2019 at 5pm.
Leeds_City_Region_Local_Industrial_Strategy_Our_draft_priorities.pdfDownload and read the briefing note here.
IPPR rd investment challenge.pdfSlides from the recent Office for Students and Research England forum on the open call to ‘fund projects on student engagement in knowledge exchange’ are available here.
The ScaleUp Institute continues to make a real impact on scale ups across the country through their research and education programmes.
This Review highlights the strong progress made, and some of the crucial opportunities and challenges to address moving forward to help businesses unlock their potential and scale-up. Read the review here.
The progress report sets out short summaries of the key themes that have been raised and explored in conversations so far, and presents questions that the Commission are keen to look at in more detail. Find out more and respond to their survey here.
Independent Commission on the College of the Future - Progress Report.pdf"We’re arguing for a bigger, more comprehensive support package, based on devolving up to 25 per cent of the UK’s R&D budget. Money should go directly to cities and regions to support their strengths in research and innovation, kickstarting a new wave of innovation-led growth across the country."
Read the full blog here.
"...the value higher education delivers to students does not equate to its total value to society and there are several ways in which the current policy understanding of value is severely deficient."
This blog is an edited transcript of a speech delivered by Sir Nigel Carrington, Vice-Chancellor at the University of the Arts, London at the PwC / HEPI conference held in October this year - read the full blog here.
Week 45: 4 - 8 November 2019
University and college leaders are being urged to redouble their efforts to tackle climate change by committing to the newly-formed Climate Commission which aims to create a clear, cohesive and consistent response to the government's declared Climate and Environment Emergency.
The Climate Commission for UK Higher and Further Education Leaders will be officially launched on 13 November 2019 at Ravensbourne University London. Over the next 12 months, the Commission will develop a strategic framework and set ambitious targets, including proposals for ensuring progress. Read more here.
The Towns Fund will invest £3.6 billion into over 100 towns, as part of the government’s plan to level up our regions. Read more about it here.
UKRI has published two reports on infrastructure:
The first report, “Opportunities to grow our capability” is a “strategic guide” to future infrastructure needs and opportunities. The second report, “Landscape analysis” provides a detailed picture of UK HE’s current infrastructure, and fills in some previous data gaps.
Research England is making an additional £29.1m of Quality-related Research (QR) funding available to institutions engaged in a range of research activity that supports evidence-based policymaking.
Westminster Business Forum policy conference: Developing the Oxford-MK-Cambridge Arc economy - collaboration, building on the region’s research base and delivering the Local Industrial Strategies publication
Please get in touch if you'd like to receive a transcript of this conference!
Professor Sir Adrian Smith has provided independent advice on the design of future UK funding schemes for international collaboration, innovation and research. In essence:
- Independent report sets out new opportunities to boost international partnerships on research and innovation
- the government will seek to maintain a close relationship with Europe on research and innovation
- continued international collaboration is vital to the UK remaining a global science superpower, tackling the world’s Grand Challenges and attracting and retaining the talent we need.
A new report has been launched, which highlights the critical importance of the Medical Technologies (MedTech) sector to the Midlands economy.
The report focuses upon the nature and scale of the MedTech sector, its contribution to the regional economy, what Midlands businesses need to achieve growth, and barriers faced.
Key findings from the Midlands MedTech Sector Analysis include the following:
- MedTech contributes an estimated £1.6bn in GVA for the region annually.
- It is a driver of high productivity, with GVA per worker standing 40% higher than the Midlands average.
- There are close to 1,000 MedTech businesses operating in the Midlands – the largest number of MedTech companies in any region in the UK.
- Midlands MedTech employs 23,600 people – the second highest UK region for employment
Advance HE has published a new framework to embed enterprise and entrepreneurship in higher education curricula. The framework identifies the skills students may acquire through formal and extra-curricular activity that will support their future careers and is designed to help educators review and adapt pedagogic policy and practice. Read more here.
Over the last ten years, Nesta has been working to uncover, test, develop and spread the best ways of supporting bold ideas. Building on our work with innovation methods, we interviewed 35 thinkers and innovators from around the world to explore what’s coming up next. From technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) changing the way we invent to new ways of organising that foster greater diversity in teams, we identified nine emerging methods for supporting and managing innovation across business, science, civil society and government.
Explore our nine emerging innovation methods and get inspiration for your own ideas.
"A paradox of the contemporary knowledge economy is that it is both dispersed and concentrated. Technologies make it possible to organise activity anywhere on the planet. Yet the most advanced knowledge-based industries cluster together, primarily in small areas of big cities." Read in full here.
Week 44: 28 October - 1 November 2019
A snapshot of statistics relating to universities’ research activity, student employability, and information on international students from the 2017–18 academic year.
higher-education-facts-and-figures-2019.pdfCore Cities UK and Scottish Cities have published major new reports into the proposed Shared Prosperity Fund, which will replace EU Structural Funds once we leave the European Union.
Recommendations Include:
- SPF should use a transparent, needs-based allocation system, linked to the objectives of the Industrial Strategy and reducing economic inequalities between communities.
- SPF budget should not be determined by previous levels of Structural Funds and should be significantly increased. As a minimum, UKSPF should be funded at a level of circa £4bn per annum for seven years, reflecting its importance in delivering UK policy objectives.
- Flexible, Single Pot funding should be provided with as few restrictions as possible. There should be no restrictions on capital/revenue, or prescriptive allocations by theme, and reduced restrictions on eligible activities, for example land remediation.
- Government’s default position should be to devolve management and delivery to sub-regions and Core City Regions with sufficient capacity, with co-delivery used for other areas as a transition to introducing full local delivery.
UK Skills Mismatch 2030 - Research Paper.pdfReport recommendations include:
- Improving transparency around how Apprenticeship Levy money and using apprenticeships to upskill and retrain
- The National Retraining Partnership must expand to include all Government departments with a stake in the labour market, including the Departments for Business (BEIS), Local Government (MHCLG) and the Digital Economy (DCMS)
- The Government’s National Retraining Scheme should consider ways to improve ‘passporting’ of informal, quality training and skills so they can be recognised by future employers
- All employers should offer careers advice to employees throughout their working lives and access to in-work development.
12474_upskilling_and_retraining.pdfThere is a growing political and public consensus on the need for rapid action, at scale, to tackle the climate and environmental crises. And there are an increasing number of advocates for a just transition with debate convening around the need for some kind of Green New Deal for the rest of the UK. Read report in full here.
putting-people-at-the-heart-of-the-green-transition-oct19.pdfHouse of Commons Library Briefing Paper - Local government in England: capital finance
SN05797.pdfONS data release: Human capital estimates in the UK: 2004 to 2018
National estimates of human capital (measure of the “knowledge, skills, competencies and attributes embodied in individuals that facilitate the creation of personal, social and economic well-being”. It plays an important role in productivity and sustainability, and it is one of the main resources that may affect individual well-being) and lifetime earnings for the economically active population in the UK. One of the main points:
- There are now more economically active people with a Master’s or PhD degree, at 4.5 million, than those without any formal academic qualifications, at 3.4 million.
The innovation loans pilot programme is delivered by Innovate UK and this evaluation covers 5 competitions for applications, from November 2017.
The OfS-funded National Collaborative Outreach Programme is having a positive impact, according to an independent evaluation.
"It’s well known that some areas of the UK are poorer than others. These include Wales and northern Britain, which used to be coal-mining areas. Now we have discovered that these regional economic inequalities are in line with regional differences in DNA as well – with people becoming increasingly clustered by certain types of genetics."
New research published in Nature highlighting how entrenched inequalities are between regions:
“Rich and poor areas in Britain are not only divided by wealth, income or access to public services. The differences now extend into the very DNA of people living there. In some ways, this new inequality reaches deeper than before. As a society, we have not yet come to terms with this, or thought seriously enough about how to deal with it. It’s time we start.” Read in full here.