Universities have a special role, some would say a unique role, in their cities and regions in meeting a diverse set of needs, and, in doing so, contributing to the economic and social development of those cities and regions. No other organisation in the region has quite such a scale and diversity of engagements and impacts. This book examines the nature of some of these impacts for a set of European universities in their regional contexts.
The book is the result of a European Union funded Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Network on the Role of Universities in Innovation and Regional Development (RUNIN). The network ran from 2016 to 2020 and supported 14 early-career researchers who undertook their doctoral training in the network. It builds on collaboration with the European Consortium for Innovative Universities (ECIU).
The case studies show the wide array of roles which universities can take in their regions. Even though the universities share the same ambition and, as members of the ECIU, have similar profiles, the regional and national contexts in which they find themselves have implications for the types of activities which they do, the effects of these activities, and the way in which they are received both at the university and in the surrounding region.