Connecting Universities to Regional Growth

At this busy time of year, many of us associated with the Regional Studies Association will be looking forward to taking a break over the Christmas and New Year period. The RSA blog will be taking a few days off, but before the blog squad clear off, we thought we'd bring a recent EU document to your attention (in case you missed it). On the European Commission's Regional Policy Pages, there was recently a news release about connecting universities to regional growth. One more click from that page takes you to the PDF, entitled 'Connecting Universities to Regional Growth: A Practical Guide' (image below).

You're too busy to read this, perhaps. But it is important so worth pointing out a couple of things...

The subtitle inside says the following, by way of explaining what the document is for: "A guide to help improve the contribution of universities to regional development, with a view to strengthening economic, social and territorial cohesion, in a sustainable way".

Who prepared the document? Well, Regional Studies Association members will be familiar with the author - Professor John Goddard of CURDS fame, at Newcastle University. 

What does it say? A lot of important messages but the main one emerging here at a fundamental level is that universities are very important for regional development. The document has seven main sections, as follows:

• 1 UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES IN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• 2 ENHANCING REGIONAL INNOVATION THROUGH RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
• 3 PROMOTING ENTERPRISE, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH
• 4 CONTRIBUTING TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL HUMAN CAPITAL AND SKILLS
• 5 IMPROVING SOCIAL EQUALITY THROUGH COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND ‘PLACEMAKING'
• 6 BARRIERS, CHALLENGES AND ENABLERS TO EFFECTIVE ENGAGEMENT OF UNIVERSITIES IN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• 7 PROCESSES AND PRACTICAL MECHANISMS TO BUILD CAPACITY AND INCENTIVES FOR UNIVERSITIES AND REGIONS TO WORK TOGETHER

Followed by a final section, entitled:

• THE WAY FORWARD: UNIVERSITIES AND SMART, SUSTAINABLE AND INCLUSIVE REGIONAL GROWTH

In the Annexes, you'll also find some specific case studies, including Karlstad University in Värmland (Sweden), University Rovira i Virgili in Taragona (Spain) and Krakow University in the Malopolska region (Poland).

That's all for now, we wish everyone associated with the RSA a very happy Christmas and New Year!

Excitement builds for the RSA's Global Conference in Beijing!

Today's blog post comes direct to us from the RSA's own Conference and Office Administrator, Jimmy Ancheta Jr, who recently travelled to Beijing to make sure everything is on track to welcome members to Beijing, China for the RSA's Global Conference from the 24th - 27th of June 2012! ... Over to you Jimmy!

Hello, fellow RSA members my name is Jimmy Ancheta Jr and I'm the Conference and Administration Officer at the RSA. I recently travelled to Beijing in preparation for the inaugural Regional Studies Association’s Global Conference 2012. Here are a just a few highlights from my trip.

Day 1 Monday 14 November 2011

I left England on Sunday afternoon and, after a delayed flight from London Gatwick, I finally landed at Beijing International Airport on Monday evening.

Beijing International Airport

After checking into the hotel I decided to take an evening walk to take in a few sights. My hotel was a convenient 10 minute walk to the Olympic Park Green, home of the National Olympic Stadium (Birds Nest) and the Aquatic Center (Water Cube) during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

National Olympic Stadium

Aquatic Center

Day 2 Tuesday 15 November 2011

Today was a very exciting day for the conference as I had the opportunity to meet with Professor Weidong Liu and his colleague, Zhouying Song of the Chinese Academy of Science, the host institution for the Global Conference 2012. We were able to visit the conference venue, Building No. 9 of the Beijing Conference Center.

The lobby of Building No.9 at the Beijing Conference Center

The lobby of Building No.9 at the Beijing Conference Center

Building No. 9 features two catered facilities where breakfast and lunch services will be held during the conference. Across the conference center in Building No. 5 is a grand ballroom which will be used as the location for the conference’s gala dinner.

Building No. 9's catered facilities

Building No. 5's grand ballroom

The conference sessions will be held above the lobby of Building No. 9. We were able to view two of the twelve meeting spaces that have been booked to hold sessions in the morning and afternoon.

Meeting space

Guest accommodation

Above the conference facilities, Building No. 9 also houses guest accommodation. Accommodation will be available at a discounted rate for delegates. The room includes high quality amenities, a work space and in room internet access. Delegates will also be able to benefit from coaches that will run to and from the conference center and the local metro station providing convenient transport services to the centre of Beijing.

Day 3 Wednesday 16 November 2011

Today I was able to experience the two excursion tours planned for the 2012 Global Conference. The first visit was to the Beijing Economic-technological Development Zone (BDA).

Beijing Economic-technological Development Zone

The area covers over 1,050 square kilometres and is host to over 65 Fortune 500 companies specialising in pharmaceuticals, information technology, mechanics, electronic and new materials. The area was designed to bring new business projects and employment opportunities to Beijing to promote growth. Delegates on the tour will be able to see firsthand the different zones and development progress happening at the BDA.

Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone

The second option for the excursion tour will be to the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone (ZDG). The ZDG houses numerous amounts of high-technological firms, R&D centers and educational resources, fuelling the surge of economic development in Beijing. Delegates will be able to tour the grounds of the software park and view the current innovative projects occurring on site.

Both tours will run as optional activities on Wednesday 27th June 2012 and depart in the morning. Tours include return coach fair and lunch at a local restaurant.

Wangfujing market

During the evening I had the opportunity to explore the Wangfujing market. The area is one of Beijing’s largest shopping areas featuring a variety of shops and dinining opportunities. I opted to visit the open-air night market. The market is known as a great street for souvenier and bargain shopping, but also for exprencing traditonal Chinese dishes and unique and exotic delicaises if you’re feeling adventurous. 

Day 4 Thursday 17 November 2011

On my last full day in Beijing, despite the rainy weather, I ventured out to see a few sights.

National flag which faces the Tiananmen gate, leading to the Forbidden City

Great Hall of the People

My first stop was Tiananmen Square, named after the Tiananmen gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace). The square is the center of many focal and important buildings such as the Great Hall of the People, Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum, and the National flag which faces the Tiananmen gate, leading to the Forbidden City.

The Outer Court

Hall for Preserving Harmony

The Imperial Garden

Continuing on from Tiananmen square I crossed the street to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City served as the official residence and ceremonial grounds for the Imperial family and now is preserved as a self guided museum covering 178 acres of land. The Outer Court was used as a ceremonial grounds and public gatherings, featuring a stairway that leads to the Hall for Preserving Harmony. Attached to the Inner Court the Imperial Garden features traditional Chinese landscape and temples that were used for meditation and to promote harmony and peaceful teaching. The Forbidden City also features rare collections of ceramics, paintings, jade and crafts, as well as documents that belonged to former emperors of China.

Day 5 Friday 18 November 2011
After four incredible and productive days in Beijing I am heading back to England. I wanted to first, thank Professor Weidong Liu and all of his colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Science for their kind hospitality throughout my visit. We were able to accomplish a lot of work in the planning of what is shaping up to be an exciting inaugural Global Conference.

Remember to mark your diaries for the Regional Studies Association Global Conference in Beijing, China on the 24th-27th June 2012. For information regarding the call for papers and registration please visit the conference website.

We look forward to welcoming you all to Beijing in 2012!

Sally Hardy - 25 Years at the Regional Studies Association!

As you can see from the image above, today's post is a little different! Today's post celebrates Sally Hardy's 25th anniversary as the Chief Executive of the Regional Studies Association. This is a truly remarkable achievement - not least because Sally is still smiling, still driving the RSA forward and still full of enthusiasm. The RSA now has more members than ever before, operates in more countries than ever before and is in rude financial health - truly a wonderful achievement - and Sally has been at the helm for it all!

Casting our minds back now, what else was happening in 1986? Well, some Regional Studies Association members were not even born and others were not yet members! 

In the first issue of Regional Studies that year, Rodney Erickson and Paul Syms had a paper on the effects of enterprise zones on local property markets (déjà vu?), Brian Robson wrote about research issues in the changing urban and regional system, Ann Markusen wrote about steel sites in the United States, and Meric Gertler looked at the regional dynamics of investment in Canada. Much has changed in the academic world since then, and the journal has grown considerably (indeed, we now have two journals and are about to launch a third) but the RSA remains at the forefront of the field in terms of publishing, research activity and networks.

Also, we now have a blog!

Further afield, in 1986 Spain and Portugal joined the European Community, the Greater London Council was abolished, the Chernobyl disaster happened, Argentina won the FIFA World Cup, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated, and Britain and France announced firm plans to begin construction of the Channel Tunnel. 

What will the next 25 years bring? We don't know, but we expect that Sally might just have passed on the baton by then. Or perhaps not! Either way, we want to say congratulations to Sally on the occasion of her 25th Anniversary as Chief Executive of the RSA!