ACRE at CURS

Had this email through from Julie Brown at the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at Birmingham Uni:

ACRE is a major, international, 4 year research project funded under the Priority 7 ‘Citizens and Governance in a Knowledge-based Society’ within the EU Sixth Framework Programme. The project brings together partners from 13 leading research centres across Europe, and aims to significantly improve our understanding of the conditions that shape the emergence of a ‘creative knowledge’ economy and of its importance for the enhanced competitiveness of city regions. In addition to providing individual case studies and international comparisons of strategies for regional competitiveness and the role of creativity and knowledge-intensity in this, the research also focuses on several dimensions that have been neglected or underestimated so far. For example, the role of so called ‘soft’ factors (including quality of space, ‘atmosphere’ of the city, range of leisure and cultural facilities, social conditions and tolerance) in attracting the required ‘talent pool’ for creative and knowledge intensive activities.

We are currently undertaking a questionnaire survey of people who have graduated from Universities in Birmingham and who have decided to live and work here after graduating, and also a survey of people who work in creative and knowledge-intensive industries in Birmingham to find out why they chose this city to base themselves. We need people to complete the survey so that we can have an input into the creative city agenda and influence creative industry policy in Birmingham. Paul Cantrill Head of Creative Development at Birmingham City Council is already involved with the project and the results will be fed back directly to him.

There are two questionnaires and they’re both online:

This one is for people working in the creative industries.

This one is for graduates of Birmingham Uni and UCE.

Any questions about this project please contact Julie.