SURF Research Centre

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SURFResearch Centre

• The Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional
  Futures, University of Salford
• NWDA Regional Intelligence Unit, 21st April 2008
  
• http//www.surf.salford.ac.uk

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SURF

• Interdisciplinary research centre between
  academic and policy worlds
• Wide ranging expertise in
• urban and regional governance and policy
• the role of science, technology and innovation in
  economic development
• Range of clients
• Relevant work
• Comparative regional science policy in Europe
• Science Cities
• Universities and knowledge-based urban
  development
• Critical Infrastructures and urban ecological
  security
• Role of intermediaries in energy production and
  consumption
• Business and the knowledge-based region
• Evaluation of innovation eco-systems
• The Big Issue The Missing Middle
• How does investment in science, knowledge and
  technology translate into economic and social
  advantage for cities and regions?

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The Global Context

• Knowledge economy glocalisation changing
  state intervention
• Excellence and global aspirations meet relevance
  and local practices
• Places positioned differently to adapt to these
  challenges
• National contexts, regional capacities, urban
  capabilities
• Tendency to chase the global, but context matters

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The UK Context

• Recognised that science is central to economic
  and social development
• Policy is beginning to see regions/cities, whilst
  sub-national policy is beginning to see science
• Knowledge and place defined in terms of outputs
• Frameworks for and in action conception and
  execution of policy

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The Regional Picture

• Development of Science and Industry Councils
• Innovation as underpinning principle for economic
  development
• Science Cities as planks in RDA policy
• Developments in the devolved territories
• Scottish Intermediate Technology Institutes,
  Edinburgh City Vision
• Welsh Knowledge Exploitation Fund

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Regional Aims and Aspirations

• Re-imagining of territorial identities
• Economic growth through harnessing STI - and
  Knowledge
• Re-positioning in relation to national politics
  and economic hierarchies
• Key questions what knowledges, what processes
  and how harnessed?

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What Knowledges?

• Organisational knowledge moving from information
  to intelligence
• Place-based knowledge developing urban knowledge
  arenas
• Shared cross-sectoral knowledge harnessing
  knowledge from public (universities, PSREs, FE,
  NHS etc) and the private sector

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What Processes?Modes of Knowledge Production

• Emerging Mode
• Problems are defined and set jointly by
  stakeholders
• Knowledge is co-produced with continuous and
  interactive relationships between producers and
  funders and users
• Knowledge is communicated and it is recognised
  also to be tacit, embedded and embodied
• There are varied mechanisms for knowledge
  transfer which include presentations, seminars,
  placements, job-sharing, workshops, multi-media
  etc
• Knowledge is also stored by also retrieved
  according to intelligence that is then
  incorporated into organisational cultures and
  practices
• Knowledge transfer is active, fluid and dynamic

• Traditional Mode
• Knowledge is driven by individual and
  professional interests
• Knowledge is produced by academics and then
  transferred in a linear process to users
• Knowledge tends to be codified
• Dominant methods of knowledge transfer tends to
  include report writing, articles, etc
• Knowledge provides information to funders and
  users that can be stored, retrieved and referred
  to
• Knowledge transfer is passive, contained and
  static

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Harnessing Knowledge -Understanding the 'Missing
Middle
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An Active Intermediary

• Map existing work in different institutions in
  terms of types of research and involvement of
  different personnel.
• Act as a bridge between organisations,
  identifying gaps and strengths.
• Act as a broker and advisor deploying the
  personnel from different organisation who
  understand the desired outcomes, but also the
  contexts in which personnel work.
• Take the need for staff mobility seriously in
  order to provide the necessary human resource for
  success. That means understanding and even
  challenging particular institutional incentives
  and career structures.
• Translate and disseminate the results of work
  according to the needs of different groups.
• Provide a resource for identifying research
  funding opportunities and submissions and add
  value by making connections between different
  funding streams.
• Bring together otherwise disparate groups to work
  collaboratively for collective benefit within new
  partnerships by understanding the ways in which
  existing organisations work.
• Act, in partnership, as a resource for people in
  their daily practices and distinguish between
  information and knowledge do not bombard people
  with information.
• Deploy intelligence to advise stakeholder
  organisations on policy and strategic directions
  to take best advantage of new and developing
  innovations.

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Implications for Policy-Makers

• Importance of the intertwining of different
  priorities
• Addressing new conceptual and organisational
  challenges
• Importance of developing contextually sensitive
  practices and programmes rather than imposed
  solutions
• Active translation into similar and different
  contexts
• Knowledge, innovation and new institutional
  arrangements for local translation
• Across scales, through sites, with social
  interests, private and public
• Developing a systemic transition

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Your Feedback

• In groups with the people each side of you
  (please introduce yourselves if you are not known
  to each other already) please discuss the
  following
• Where do you principally get the intelligence you
  need to perform your role?
• Do you participate in regional forums that
  actively foster learning and share experiences?
• What key messages for regional policy-makers do
  you have that would a) enhance the role of
  intelligence for practice in the region and b)how
  would this be delivered effectively?
• Please take 20 minutes to discuss among you and
  nominate one person to feedback the results of
  your discussions.