We carry out research on economic themes of enterprise and innovation in the West Midlands.
Understanding the way that these key processes work in driving economic change is challenging. This task involves close collaboration with policy makers, academics, public and third sectors, as well as businesses.
Our work aims to assess the scale of the challenge facing the West Midlands and inform policy makers where they can best target their efforts. Our work is steered by the Innovation and Technology Council and the Enterprise Board.
Recent and ongoing projects include:
Enterprise dashboard
Published 15th December 2009
We've developed an Enterprise Dashboard, highlighting key business enterprise statistics for the West Midlands in a form that's easy to understand.
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Innovation dashboard
Published 11th December 2009
We developed an innovation dashboard to measure the region's innovation performance. The dashboard covers a range of measures of innovation performance, including inputs to, links through, and outputs from various innovation processes.
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First steps in measuring regional innovation
Published 11th December 2009
We've completed the report of first steps in measuring regional innovation (pdf, 1.72mb), which proposes an approach to the on-going monitoring of innovation activity in the West Midlands. It includes an analysis of the scale and performance of the industrial sectors which correspond to the West Midlands clusters and themes of the West Midlands Innovation Technology Council.
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Benchmarking start-up business activity
Published 11th December 2009
Our report Benchmarking start-up business activity (pdf, 3.43mb) analyses business start-up activity in the West Midlands, using a wide range of data sources.
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The importance of innovation in changing economy: a state of the region dialogue
Updated 7th August 2009
We've published the first report from our ongoing state of the region dialogue on innovation in the West Midlands. The importance of innovation in a changing economy (pdf, 580kb) includes four independent essays on key themes for regional innovation policy.
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Influence of industrial structure on economic output
Published 30th April 2009
This paper provides a detailed analysis of the extent to which the region’s industrial structure influences the performance gap between the West Midlands economy and the national economy.
Download the paper » (pdf, 824kb)
Published 15th December 2009
Enterprise indicators dashboard (pdf, 221kb)
Published 11th February 2010
Explanatory paper (pdf, 162kb)
Business demography supplement (pdf, 120kb)
Published 11th December 2009
Innovation dashboard (pdf, 882kb)
How the innovation dashboard was developed (pdf, 1.1mb)
First steps in measuring regional innovation: baseline sector analysis and the innovation dashboard (pdf, 1.72mb)
Benchmarking start-up business activity (pdf, 3.43mb)
Published 7th August 2009
The importance of innovation in a changing economy: a State of the Region thematic report (pdf, 580kb)
Published 30th April 2009
Influence of industrial structure on economic output (pdf, 824kb)
Published 31st March 2009
E-business adoption in the West Midlands 2008: full report (pdf, 750kb)
E-business adoption in the West Midlands 2008: executive summary (pdf, 35kb)
Published 12 September 2008
Regional submission to NESTA Innovation Index' call for ideas (doc, 69kb)