Firms and Industrial Demography

The broader research agenda for WMREDI is to understand the relative impact of various interventions and investments for regional economic growth, sustainability and the reduction of social inequality in the West Midlands and the UK.

Projects in this research theme investigate the overall portfolio of firms, sector mix in the region, Industrial collaboration/partnerships including university-Industry collaborations, Regional embeddedness of firms, local value chain and supply chain configurations, SMEs, scale-ups, self-employment and social enterprise as components of regional economy and their important in local industrial strategies, smart specialisation and business support and collaboration initiatives.

GBSLEP Secondment

The purpose of this secondment is to oversee and support the development of research, intelligence and evaluation activity within GBSLEP.

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Productivity in the West Midlands

Led by Melisa Wickham and Rebecca Riley, this project aims to shed greater understanding of labour productivity in the West Midlands government office region and the areas within it.

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Industrial specialisation structure, firm demographic patterns and regional growth

Led by Deniz Sevinc, this project examines industrial specialisation structure and firm demographic patterns in the West Midlands.

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Business Support in the West Midlands

Led by George Bramley, this project aims to provide a better understanding of the role universities play in the provision of business support and more detailed understanding of the scale and scope of business support at the West Midlands regional level.

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University-Industry Relationship and Spillovers Effects

Led by Juliane Schwarz, this project takes a mix-methods approach to extend our understanding on university-industry collaborations and university knowledge commercialisation pathways building on existing research in the subject.

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Business Digital Twin

Led by Josh Swan, this project will establish a digital twin of the business ecosystem to enable business insights to be captured.

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