Revisiting Geography of University Knowledge Exchange, Innovation and Local Economic Impact – towards a place-based policy perspective?

Abstract

There is a rapidly growing policy interest across the UK on the ability of regions to fulfil their economic potential and growth. Universities have a significant role to play in helping to deliver national and sub-national policy ambitions in this area, including through their knowledge exchange (KE) activities. The last decades have witnessed a growing body of literature internationally revealing heterogeneous nature of the KE activities involving different partners as part of the university-industry-government collaborative relationships. Nevertheless, our knowledge on the geographical dimension of KE activities and its link to economic growth remains patchy.

The alignment between regional/local context, university strategy and specific actions is often difficult to coordinate. The location of the universities may influence behaviours, resources, networks, culture, and competences that stimulate innovative and entrepreneurial activities. The governance structure of local and regional economic development shapes KE activities between universities, industry and the local public sector actors, which has been evolving over time. Universities are also constrained due to their “loosely coupled” internal structures.

This paper is an ongoing policy/commissioned work attempting to respond to the following questions:

• What are the latest developments in (industrial) policies and strategic approaches in the UK aimed at driving regional economic growth and how do universities typically feature within them?

The paper draws on review of literature on university third mission and KE activities, followed by assessment of existing datasets (e.g. HEBCIS/HESA, GtR). In light of the recent focus on place-based policy approaches, issues related to data collection on university KE activities, gaps in metrics/incentives in the short/medium/long term would be discussed along with potential future research avenues.

Biography

Fumi Kitagawa joined City-REDI, University of Birmingham in April 2023, as Professor/Chair in Regional Economic Development. Prior to that, she worked at Universities of Edinburgh and Manchester. 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).