The UK is one of the most regionally unbalanced economies in the industrialised world. In addition, there are stark socioeconomic divergences within regions, which have grown over the last 50 years. Gaps also exist in political power between national, regional and local government: the UK possesses one of the most centralised systems of governance of any liberal democratic state.

Together, these issues have increased the need for greater engagement between public policy and the academic evidence base at a regional level. As the Director of Insights North East (INE) – a collaboration between universities, local authorities and the National Health Service (NHS) to improve the translation of research into actionable policy options in North East England – I have seen these issues converge to drive new approaches to policymaking.

Reflecting on my visit to Sydney to exchange valuable insights with Australian counterparts, I outline the political and policy context that has driven the creation of INE and share our approach to bridging the gap between research and policymaking.

The UK’s politics of regional inequality

In the aftermath of Brexit, there has been increasing attention on regional inequality. Politicians from all major parties have developed a broad consensus on redressing this imbalance, resulting in a series of new terms entering our political discourse: Theresa May embraced the concept of “inclusive growth”, then Boris Johnson had “levelling up”, and now the new Labour government has committed to deliver deeper devolution.

The reality is that regional inequality is a longstanding problem, with de-industrialisation tipping the scales throughout the twentieth century, compounded by globalisation and London’s longstanding economic dominance. The Institute for Fiscal Studies defines a left-behind area as: “characterised by broad economic underperformance, which manifests itself in low pay and employment, leading to lower living standards in that area”. In England’s North East, this is keenly felt. For example, the region has one of the highest child poverty rates in the country: 89 per cent of its parliamentary constituencies have at least one in four children growing up in poverty.

De-centralisation: momentum building

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Commission on the UK’s Future argued that “the continuing over-concentration of power in Westminster and Whitehall is undermining our ability to deliver growth and prosperity for the whole country”.

A consensus is growing for increased de-centralisation – but there is a complicated patchwork of existing arrangements to unpick. Andy Pike and John Tommaney have aptly described the gradual nudging towards devolution in North East England as a “long and winding road”. This is an experience mirrored across England following the devolution of powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the 1990s.

Momentum is building with recent elections bringing the number of elected regional mayors to twelve. Devolution currently covers 48 per cent of England’s population, 54 per cent of its economic output and 26 per cent of the land area. In the North East, devolved powers include transport, housing and skills and there is a commitment in the Devolution Deal to work on a Radical Prevention Fund. INE is supporting its development.

Research impact and policy engagement

Less prominent, but also building over this period, has been the research impact agenda in the UK’s universities. The Research Excellence Framework (REF) first included impact in 2008 and it has been increasingly incentivised since then. Aligned to this, greater resources have been directed towards academic policy engagement. For example, of the 283 case studies submitted to the UK’s last Research Excellence Framework, 62 per cent detailed impact on policy. Meanwhile, the Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN) has almost doubled its membership in the last two years.

This has been supported by Research Council funding opportunities seeking to support place-based impact, including developing Local Policy Innovation Partnerships (LPIPs). The Research England Development (RED) Fund has also provided significant support, including for INE.

Insights North East: a demand led approach connecting regional policymakers to evidence

This context has shaped the development of INE. We were established in 2022, following a successful funding bid to Research England for £2.8 million over three years.

INE has been set up as a demonstrator to explore approaches to academic-policy engagement. The purpose of INE is to support evidence-based policymaking in the North East in order to improve lives, opportunities and sustainability in the long-term.

A core driver has been the recognition that regional universities have attracted a significant amount of research investment – but that the impact of this within our local place is often limited. To rectify this, INE has two core objectives:

• To facilitate policymaker access to the research and knowledge base by producing actionable insights.
• To build capability and capacity to support greater cross-system working and a new policy and research ecosystem built for the long-term.

We have developed a policy demand led approach, which means that our starting point is to build relationships with key regional policy and decision-makers to understand their challenges and seek to identify where the evidence and expertise in universities can connect.

We have a deep understanding of the challenges that local partners face, not just in terms of policy issues but also in terms of the fragmented, low resource, low capacity and perma-crisis environment they have been operating in, especially over the past decade. For example, local government has experienced 46 per cent cuts in central government funding over the past decade in real terms, reducing their research and evidence generation capacity.

Recognising this reality and the many intransigent challenges that the North East faces, we have developed a three-phase response offer:

• Rapid response is designed to be policy demand led, tuning into short-term opportunities for funding or to develop new interventions. This largely pulls on existing research to deliver quickly.
• Our deep dive projects place more emphasis on co-creation, working to balance out policy pragmatism and academic rigour to deliver actionable, evidence-based insights. Included within this is a program of fellowships providing funding for placements between universities and local institutions.
• The long-term change offer is the opportunity to step back from delivery and consider where there are deep-seated, underlying drivers for the region’s outcomes that require a different approach. This is where we see the most opportunity to identify game-changing interventions: where regional policy and decisionmakers can have agency and shared endeavour at place level, rather than responding to national policy dictates.

Sharing experiences and looking ahead

INE has been developing our approach over the past two years and, with an embedded “action learning” researcher on the team, there is a significant emphasis on learning and iterating as we go – from our own experience but also from others. In visiting the James Martin Institute for Public Policy, I shared lessons and build linkages between our two very similar initiatives, albeit on opposite sides of the world.

My visit came at a critical time for INE as we look forward to our next phase of development that will take us beyond the initial investment from Research England to build a regional collaboration that can sustain this capability over the longer term. Devolution is acting as a catalyst within the region due to the investment and new powers it will deliver. There is also a palpable new energy as partners from across the system consider how to use this impetus to tackle the region’s challenges and build new opportunities for its people.

Liz Shutt is Director of Insights North East (INE), based in the North East of England. INE works with regional policymakers to make a positive and long-term impact by connecting them to evidence and actionable insights. It is a collaboration between universities in the North East, the NHS, and local authorities and is also working with community and third sector groups. INE is working to support the development of devolution in the region, with a newly elected Mayor, and high ambitions across a broad range of policymakers to tackle the systemic, complex and deep-seated challenges that are affecting outcomes for citizens.

Liz visited Sydney in August 2024 as a guest of JMI to share her experiences and insights with Australian policymakers and researchers.

Image credit: Andrey Popov from Getty Images