Midlands Alliances

Spurred by an "over-coffee" conversation about links between Midlands Universities, I discovered that a research and innovation partnership called "Midlands Innovation" brings together eight Midlands universities:

Their mission statement is to "drive cutting-edge research, innovation and skills development that will grow the high-tech, high skilled economy of the Midlands" by building "global hubs of research and innovation excellence", "exploiting the unique strengths and building on the rich history of collaboration of eight leading Universities across the Midlands: Aston, Birmingham, Cranfield, Keele, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham and Warwick." 

They point out that the "Midlands is at the heart of the UK, with a population of more than 11 million, creating £222 billion Gross Value Added – more than 14% of the total for the UK. It is also a high-export economy, with exports worth more than any other region in the UK – £49 billion annually, 17% of the UK total.  The region is at the heart of UK manufacturing and advanced engineering, accounting for 20% of UK manufacturing output through world leading business and industry like Alstom, Bombardier, Jaguar Land Rover, JCB, National Grid, Rolls-Royce, Tarmac and Toyota UK."  Midlands Innovation is tapping into "the Midlands Engine for Growth, the Government's ais to raise the long-term growth rate of the region, create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and add £34 billion to its economy by 2030."

A component of this is the Midlands Physics Alliance:  "a coordinated research group and joint Graduate School with the critical mass to compete with the top US and EU Universities.  The Alliance was established in 2007, with £5 million from the Engineering and Physics Sciences Research Council to invest in new, pioneering groups on cold atom physics. At its core, the Alliance consists of the Universities of Birmingham, Nottingham and Warwick. The Universities of Leicester and Loughborough are also represented on the Graduate School Steering Committee."

I hadn't been aware of any of these Midlands groupings, but it makes a huge amount of sense in an era of dwindling resources and diminished UK influence in the global arena.  The Midlands has a really strong technology base and the immense advantage of lower cost-of-living than the South of England - I think it's time that people heard more about these alliances!