By Richard Johnstone | 30 April 2014
City councils have been urged to provide more support to collaborations between local universities and firms that could boost economic growth.
In an analysis of how universities and firms are working together, the think-tank Centre for Cities said collaboration was increasing, in part due to changes in government funding.
However, the arrangements will need ‘bespoke’ support from both central and local government to ensure they provide an economic boost, the centre said.
Among examples of closer working between universities and companies highlighted by the centre was the creation of the N8 network of Northern universities investing in a supercomputer for both universities and firms to use.
Another group, known as Interface, is linking businesses and universities across Scotland together to match niche business needs with academic expertise.
Such agreements could boost many of the country’s weaker economies, the Delivering change: Supporting links between universities and high-growth firms in cities said.
For example, in the six largest cities where the N8 universities are based, only York has an employment rate higher than the national average.
Another initiative, by Teesside University, to focus on digital innovation has helped create hundreds of jobs in new companies in a relatively weak economic area – Middlesbrough ranks 59out of 64 cities for employment, according to Centre for Cities research.
Universities’ focus on collaboration with business is in part due to changes in the way the Higher Education Funding Council for England supports such work by, the report, which was undertaken with Santander, concluded.
However, the individual initiatives need local support to ensure they are effective in the long term, which may be different across the country.
In Teesside, for example, that may mean increasing the available long-term funding for the specific DigitalCity Innovation project, while for the N8 cities an expansion of partnerships across a wider range of firms is needed to increase the breadth of the network.
Centre for Cities chief executive Alexandra Jones said: ‘Many of our universities have been innovators in creating effective collaborations with businesses within their cities and beyond.
‘Supporting these existing networks to keep doing what they are doing will be important to encourage better, balanced, growth across the country. They can help to create high quality, sustainable jobs, in some of the places that face some of the biggest economic challenges.’
