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ECONOMICClient
Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA)
Location
Lancaster and the North West
Project Lead
Robert Fleming
robertfleming@innercitysolutions.co.uk
0151 707 8000
Background
Lancaster University has an impressive track record in its “third stream” activities – i.e. those activities which aim to bring Universities, businesses and communities together. Reflecting this and the University’s world renowned departments of Computing, Communication Systems and Management, two new knowledge transfer hubs were established in 2004.
InfoLab21 houses two academic departments and the new Knowledge Business Centre (KBC), which includes the Business Development Department, twenty business suites with facilities for incubation, and also ICT Focus, the University’s ICT Training Department. The KBC aims to create an innovation hub, enabling the University to strengthen its links with business and enterprise through an umbrella of industry training and technology transfer activities. The University was awarded £10 million by the NWDA (out of a total of over £30 million) for the programme.
The Lancaster Leadership Centre (LLC) is a new extension to the Lancaster University Management School (LUMS). The aim of the LLC project is to increase management capacity in the region through knowledge transfer from the business school to the region’s businesses. This would be achieved through a range of interventions from training and knowledge transfer to seminars and help-line services.
The total cost of the LLC capital project was £9.5 million. £4.5 million of this was provided by the NWDA, in line with priorities identified in the 2006 Regional Economic Strategy (RES).
Role
Inner City Solutions was commissioned in May 2008 by the NWDA to undertake interim evaluations of the impact of NWDA investment in Infolab and the Leadership Centre. The evaluations were to be delivered in the context of the Impact Evaluation Framework (IEF), which sets out the approach to assessing the economic impact of Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) across the UK.
The initial phase of the evaluations involved an extensive desk-based review of programme documentation, secondary sources and monitoring files. Several comparable projects were identified and later used as part of a cost-benefit analysis. An extensive consultation programme followed, which involved in-depth interviews with project officers from the NWDA and Lancaster University, academics, partner organisations such as Business Link and Lancaster Council, and members of advisory and management boards. A series of almost 30 interviews were undertaken with beneficiaries of the InfoLab21 programme, whilst an online survey of over 650 beneficiaries was carried out for the Leadership Centre.
The evaluations assessed:
- The extent to which the programmes met their target outputs, outcomes and objectives in relation to the RES
- The economic impact of the interventions in terms of its GVA and employment contributions to the region
- Performance of the programmes in terms of their economy, efficiency and effectiveness of the programme’s management, delivery and financial arrangements
- The Strategic Added Value (SAV) for the region
Delivery
Final reports are now with the NWDA and Lancaster University. The findings will inform the future delivery and management of the programmes, and will contribute to a wider evaluation of the NWDA’s activities in this regard.
Services
- Programme evaluations
- Stakeholder consultation
- Economic impact assessmets
- Programme management and delivery reviews
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