Think pieces

Levelling up is not a zero-sum game

Dr Peter O’Brien, YU Executive Director In last Sunday’s newspapers, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, confirmed that the government is planning to publish its long-awaited Levelling Up White Paper this week. Whilst other events have pre-occupied the government recently, demand has nevertheless been growing for a clearer direction …

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CAPE Case Study: Richard Whittle, Policy Fellow (January 2022) 

Strengthening academic-policy engagement in West Yorkshire First published in CAPEnews Issue 8, 25 January CAPE is looking to understand how universities can mobilise their research findings and capabilities by working with local and regional authorities in order to enhance evidence-informed policymaking. CAPE’s West Yorkshire Policy Fellow was established in the context of West Yorkshire’s changing political …

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Working together, universities can connect diverse research assets, for the benefit of all

Monika Antal, Executive Manager This blog was first published by JiSC on 21 January 2022 Like many universities across the nation, the 12 members of the Yorkshire Universities (YU) group supported the COVID-19 response, working with the NHS, government, industry and local authorities to act swiftly. From vaccines to treatments, analysing data, and sharing buildings, …

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Introducing YU’s new Policy and Research Officer

Marina Tapley, Policy and Research Officer I joined Yorkshire Universities (YU) in November as the new Policy and Research Officer. After being part of the Executive Team for over a month, I am taking the opportunity to introduce myself, and to reflect on what I have enjoyed getting involved with at YU so far, and …

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YU’s take on the 2021 NCUB State of the Relationship Report

Marina Tapley, Policy and Research Officer On Friday 3 December the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) published their State of the Relationship 2021 report and held an online launch event. This think piece reflects on the report and event, as well as situating them within the context of the relationships between universities and …

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A fair, just and long-lasting recovery for all: Forecasting and nowcasting in West Yorkshire

An increasing concern of national and regional policymaking in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is provision of timely data on real-time economic performance and underlying activities throughout different parts of the nation and regions to give a complete signal about a fair, just, and long-lasting recovery plan for all. This briefing note outlines the economic recovery plan of the West Yorkshire region as a direct response to a request by West Yorkshire Combined Authority. The economic recovery plan has naturally evolved from a necessary immediate response to the COVID-19 pandemic to a broader re-imaging of developing a sustainable, fair and inclusive economy. This evolution brings with it a necessity to reconceptualise the aims and approaches of economic forecasting in West Yorkshire and the measurement of success.

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“Working-class voices” in economic policy – Report 1

The purpose of this report is to look at working-class involvement in local government and regional decision making. It covers whether there is engagement, at what level, and in what depth. It further offers a brief outline of what it means to be defined as working class, given that there are distinctions that set the UK apart from other countries (LSE study, 2021). The report will also look at how policy is determined and how consultation and participation by various actors feed into that process. A short survey of those involved in policymaking feeds into this report as does previous research undertaken for Wakefield District Council around poverty (Jose 2019). A rich vein of local community engagement around existing projects, such as the implementation of local community food shops. Recently the term “community engagement” has come to the fore in local government circles and is driven by a framework of ideas, ideologies, strategies and methods.

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Terms of Reference of the PERN Academic Steering Group

PERN is an academic-led and multi-University model of policy engagement and collaboration, facilitated by Yorkshire Universities. The independent academic steering group of PERN has been established as the prime vehicle through which this model is achieved. The academic steering group was initially informally arranged and developed to meet the urgency of economic recovery.

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Why we need more inward investment to meet our R&D targets

James Ransom, YU Associate

The contribution of business is vital if the UK is to meet its target of R&D investment reaching 2.4 percent of GDP by 2027. International comparisons suggest that this is an ambitious target, that will be difficult to meet: achieving R&D funding goals is the exception rather than the norm. Adão Carvalho assessed how effective R&D intensity policies were across 45 countries, and found that 84 percent missed their targets. For 17 percent of countries, R&D intensity actually decreased over the period of the target.

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Solidarity or spectacle – two paths to levelling up

James Ransom, YU Associate

Politicians are fond of comparing the UK to Germany – usually as a model of how we could do something better. A recent example is Boris Johnson’s speech on levelling up from last month. “I remember going to former East Germany in 1990 just after the wall had gone down”, he said, “and I remember being amazed at how far behind west Germany it then was – a place of strange little cars with two stroke engines and fake coffee”. But then he adds, “to a large extent Germany has succeeded in levelling up where we have not”.

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