Regional research capacity: what role in levelling up?

This report compares the UK’s policies intended to ‘level up’ the research and innovation capacity of regions with those in Germany after unification as well as in the US. The report concludes that investment has been too small and poorly linked to boosting research capacity.

The report also confirms there is exceptional regional economic imbalance in the UK. Yet despite disparities in the scale of UK regional research activity, the average academic research performance of the regions is similar. For example, the ‘golden triangle’ around London does not deliver research that is on average much more highly rated than that achieved in other regions.