Supporting Regions towards Net-Zero Journeys: Alignment of Strategies and Transformation between Universities and their Places
Supported by the FeRSA Grant, this project aims to investigate dynamic relationships between universities and places throughout their journeys to net-zero solutions. Universities can be engines of societal transformation of their regions. They 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 provides evidence on the diverse approaches and models of dynamic relationships between the places and universities in their journeys towards net-zero. It 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.
“I am delighted to receive the RSA Fellowship Grant to carry out this new project. I will start this project with my personal reflection – I became an RSA member when I was a PhD student many years ago, when I was studying the roles of higher education institutions in regional innovation processes in England. Many years later, it is intriguing to revisit the role of universities in their regions now – as we face global societal challenges and new net-zero imperatives. I am grateful to the RSA for the grant – enabling me to conduct this new study. I also want to say big thanks to the RSA for having helped my professional development so far. This project would provide me with an exciting opportunity to engage with the RSA communities internationally.”
Principal Investigator: Fumi Kitagawa
Professor Fumi Kitagawa holds Chair in Regional Economic Development at City Region Economic and Development Institute (City–REDI), Birmingham, Business School, University of Birmingham in the UK. She has conducted research related to regional innovation, entrepreneurship policies, and higher education policy and regional development, across a variety of local, regional, national and international contexts. She has expertise on the role of universities in innovation and entrepreneurial processes.