City-REDI

City-REDI is a leading evidence-based and policy-focused academic research institute, focusing on finding solutions to people and place-based inclusive economic, social and environmental development.

Based at the University of Birmingham, our mission is to work in partnership with people and places to facilitate local, regional and responsible growth for the benefit of all.

Our work focuses on the following research areas:

  • Ideas – the generation of new ideas and innovation as essential for creative, successful, and resilient regions.
  • People – creating successful places through successful people.
  • Infrastructure – including green and blue, digital, energy, transport and housing as essential components of place-based growth and prosperity.
  • Business – businesses as the drivers of employment and skills to drive wealth locally.
  • Places – focused on places, institutions and how key policies come together and interact in positive ways.

We run a major research council funded project:

The Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) Hub

The Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) Hub seeks to address nationwide issues through local partnership and place.

By working with local LPIPs, the Hub aims understand and solve local challenges around the UK through innovative and effective service-driven approach to place-based policy making and public service delivery. The LPIP Hub is designed to lead to a step-change in the quality and impact of the evidence created by universities and their local place partners.

The Hub has received £3.6 million in funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Innovate UK. It is a national consortium, led by the University of Birmingham, convening stakeholders across the research and policy ecosystem.


Latest reports

Place-based business case and economic appraisal: Capacity and capability

This report from UK think tank City-REDI provides a detailed picture of how appraisal is undertaken across different places and organisations.  Business Cases and Economic Appraisals in UK Strategic Authorities, by Alice Pugh, is a report produced for the Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) Hub. It examines the capacity and capability of officers working in...

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WMHTIA evaluation report

This report from UK think tank City-REDI supplements the West Midlands Health Tech Innovation Accelerator (WMHTIA) Pathfinder Report. This report supplements the West Midlands Health Tech Innovation Accelerator (WMHTIA) Pathfinder Report and provides updated information on enterprises engaged and supported over three years of the programme, new initiatives supported towards the end of year 2...

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Local innovations, shared lessons: Unpacking HDRC community engagement and partnership working in London

This report from UK think tank City-REDI unpacks HDRC community engagement and partnership working in London. A new report by Sophie Cloutterbuck for the Local Policy Innovation Partnership, based at City-REDI, University of Birmingham, examines how six London boroughs are using Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRCs) to strengthen community engagement, build research capacity, and improve...

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The Civic 6 Framework: The evolution of university institutes in response to place, policy and growth

This report from UK think tank City-REDI offers a lens through which to understand the landscape of university-based civic and policy engagement in the UK. A new report by Professor Bec Riley introduces a new typology for understanding how UK universities organise and deliver civic, policy and place-based engagement. Drawing on case studies from across...

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Spotlight good practice in Net Zero business support

This report from UK think tank City-REDI highlights effective practices for supporting businesses and accelerating system-wide sustainability transitions. This policy brief synthesises research on Net Zero business support within the UK Catapult Network and highlights effective practices for supporting businesses and accelerating system-wide sustainability transitions. The findings emphasise the importance of combining enterprise-level support with...

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Local labour market buoyancy holds the key to solving the UK’s NEET ‘crisis’

This report from UK think tank City-REDI examines the geographic inequalities in young people who are not in employment, education or training across the UK. This report argues that the UK's rising NEET rate is not just a youth skills or health issue, but a geographical and economic one, with large differences between local areas...

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Green and pleasant land? Rural resilience in the Welsh Marches

This report from UK think tank City-REDI explores the economic and environmental challenges facing one of the UK's most distinctive rural regions. In his new report for the LPIP Hub, Professor Calvin Jones explores the economic, demographic and environmental challenges facing one of the UK's most distinctive rural regions. The report highlights an ageing population,...

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Place capacity and institutional thickness: Leadership, agency and the governance of English devolution

This report from UK think tank City-REDI explores why some English city-regions turn devolved powers into effective strategy while others struggle to get off the ground. This report examines how institutional capacity, leadership and governance shape the success of devolution and place-based development in England. The report revisits the concept of institutional thickness, arguing that...

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Development corporations

This report from UK think tank City-REDI calls for a stronger evidence base to identify which models, powers and financing approaches work best in different circumstances. This report provides a timely stocktake of how development corporations have been used across the UK, the emerging pipeline of new proposals, and the conditions likely to determine their...

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Fiscal devolution and place investment: Will it unlock growth everywhere and redistribute prosperity?

This report from UK think tank City-REDI argues that fiscal devolution works when it is designed as 'capability devolution' and fails when it is merely risk transfer. The Chancellor's Growth Plan commits to 'unlocking growth in every part of Britain' and Andy Burnham has highlighted the same direction of travel in his speech on 29th...

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Addressing local economic disparities: Learning from policy failure

This report from UK think tank City-REDI examines why the UK remains one of the most interregionally unequal countries in the industrialised world. This report examines why, after more than four decades of national policy, the UK remains one of the most interregionally unequal countries in the industrialised world. Drawing on the academic discipline of...

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Evaluation of career coaching for young people at risk of being NEET

This report from UK think tank City-REDI evaluates career coaching for young people at risk of being NEET. PfPP2 provided career coaching and mentoring, group career readiness sessions and employer engagement for 102 young people identified at risk of becoming NEET(not in education, employment or training) in Year 10 in five East Birmingham secondary schools....

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Communities in their places evidence review

This report from UK think tank City-REDI finds that successful interventions require long-term investment, community-led participation and supportive national frameworks. The LPIP Hub 'Communities in their Places' evidence review shows that while communities are central to addressing local economic, social and environmental challenges, their ability to do so varies widely depending on policy frameworks, resources...

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Towards a place-based qualitative data observatory

This report from UK think tank City-REDI responds to Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) Hub work on data devolution, transparency, and place productivity. Building on this existing research, it argues that current UK data infrastructures do not yet accommodate the heterogeneous forms of qualitative data on which local, regional and national policymakers increasingly rely. To...

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Outside-In: The role of social entrepreneurs in public sector transformation

This report from UK think tank City-REDI explores the role of social entrepreneurs as 'outside-in' actors in public sector transformation. This policy paper explores the role of social entrepreneurs as “outside-in” actors in public sector transformation. It argues that, in a period of profound institutional transition, public systems need to learn not only from within...

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