Supporting Regions towards Net-Zero Journeys

The research provides evidence on the diverse approaches and models of dynamic relationships between universities and places in their journeys towards net-zero. Universities can be engines of societal transformation of their regions and can play an important role as anchor institutions, by addressing societal challenges and providing mission-oriented solutions to the local as well as global problems. Universities can help build skills and re-skill workforce for the future. With the help of universities and other tertiary education institutions, local communities can generate innovative visions about the future of places and their transition paths.

Background

Universities can be engines of societal transformation of their regions and can play an important role as anchor institutions, by addressing societal challenges and providing mission-oriented solutions to the local as well as global problems. Universities can help build skills and re-skill workforce for the future. With the help of universities and other tertiary education institutions, local communities can generate innovative visions about the future of places and their transition paths.

The research will propose new and multi-dimensional frameworks to understand the relationships between universities and their places by adopting and integrating a set of research lenses - multi-scale governance, place leadership and data-driven innovation. While exploratory in nature, this research aims to provide a distinctive and novel contribution, which will lead to policy and user impacts. To enable impacts from the research, the project actively engages with key partners internationally as the users and co-creators of knowledge for transformative innovation.

This project is supported by the Regional Studies Association (RSA)’s RSA Fellowship Grant.

Contact:

Fumi Kitagawa - f.kitagawa.1@bham.ac.uk

The Objectives

The project aims to investigate dynamic relationships between universities and places throughout their journeys to net-zero solutions.

The following three objective would help unpack this complex issue set in diverse institutional and spatial landscape:

To examine the alignment of strategies between the city-regions and universities towards net-zero solutions by localising the SDG frameworks
To understand forms of organisational infrastructure, governance and leadership, which are effective in specific local contexts
To identify innovative use of big data and analytics help universities and city-regions work together both locally and internationally.

The Team

Project is led by Prof. Fumi Kitagawa (City-REDI) supported under the RSA Fellowship Grant.

Hannes Read (City-REDI) with his expertise on civic impact of universities has designed part of the project, linking insights from National Civic Impact Accelerator (NCIA) projects. See his recent work “Civic Universities: Powerhouses of economic and social impact”

In 2024, in collaboration with Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action (BISCA), City-REDI hosted two undergraduate students at University of Birmingham, Amal Umar (BSc Global Environmental Change and Sustainability) and Semmer Singh (BSc Economics and Politics) as interns as part of University of Birmingham Summer Sustainability Internship. We worked closely with the University’s Decarbonisation & Sustainability Manager, Jim Sharman, with whom we are very grateful for his guidance and support.

The Outputs

Events:

The project outcome was presented at the Regional Studies Association Winter conference, Driving Regions Forward: Transitioning to Brighter Regional Futures

Blogs:

Powering Net-Zero: How Universities and Regions Can Transform Together, Amal Umar (BSc Global Environmental Change & Sustainability), March 2025.

Reports:

Understanding Funding instruments and possibilities for District Heat Considerations at University of Birmingham, Semmer Singh (BSc Economics and Politics), September 2024