Cities & Universities in the Economic Crisis

In times of economic downturn demand for higher education usually grows. This is usually seen through an increase in applications for educational courses and programmes to drive an individual’s employment potential. URBACT, through a focus on innovation and creativity, is investigating the way in which cities can harness the wider potential of universities and knowledge based institutions in order to drive competitiveness and innovation at a local level.

The Lisbon European Union Spring Council of 2000 set a strategic goal for the European Union to become the most dynamic and competitive knowledge based economy in the world by 2010. This was driven through significant research, policies, and projects on how to stimulate the knowledge economy and importantly the role of universities within the triple helix structures, which define the concept of the transformation process in university-industry government relations. However in a period of economic uncertainty the real questions and debate are now: What is the specific role of universities in a period of downturn? and, How can universities aid longer term recovery?

According to Clive Winters "Universities and city authorities will play a vital role during this period of economic uncertainty". He explains that "to address the challenges we need to review the wider role of universities, their engagement with local communities, their support for skills development training and education; their support for stimulating spin-out and graduate start-up businesses alongside their role in innovation, knowledge transfer and business."

This paper draws on the work of the RUnUP project which is an URBACT project made up of 9 European cities looking for joint, effective and sustainable solutions in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation in urban poles. The project seeks to bring stakeholders from academic, business and public sectors together to boost economic development in small and medium sized cities. Recognising the all-encompassing nature of economic development, RUnUP is inclusive in nature, reaching out to all sectors of the economy to inspire and support entrepreneurship and innovation.


Read more:

• Download WINTERS_-_RunUp_01.pdf (620.78 KB) - PDF
• RUN-UP - URBACT website
• Economic Crisis: Cities' Responses and Resources - URBACT website