The Place to Be?

How social sciences are helping improve places in the UK

Campaign for Social Science, Author

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2021
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781529791341
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This Academy of Social Sciences report shows how UK social sciences are making powerful practical contributions to improving places – cities, regions, counties or countries – in the UK.  It includes 24 case studies highlighting how university-based social scientists are helping with place-based 'levelling up'. It covers many different social science disciplines in all parts of the UK working on projects from the purely local to those that tackle issues that occur across the UK but that affect different areas or regions differently.  The examples are not about broader social science research or policy prescriptions but practical efforts to work with private sector businesses, local authorities and local health and education bodies and others to improve area-based disadvantage in the UK.

1 The Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence (GOFCoE)

Regional Focus: Scotland

Disciplines: Finance, Business Studies, Economics,

Accounting, Computational Social Science

Major Partners: University of Edinburgh and Data Driven Innovation (part of the Edinburgh & SE Scotland City Regional Deal)

Major Funders: UKRI's Strength in Places Fund

What is it?

The Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence (GOFCoE) is an independent non-profit organisation whose mission is to improve people's lives by securely and ethically harnessing Open Finance and other data. Open financial data – such as that gathered from banking or financial technology (fintech) apps that track consumer habits, behaviours and choices – can provide invaluable insights. Rather than limiting such data to financial institutions for their own purposes, GOFCoE uses them to help customers to improve their credit, small businesses to improve their financial strategies, and government to improve a wide array of policies, including how to tackle poverty and financial inclusion. All this depends on maintaining privacy while using the data for public good.

GOFCoE's purpose is to foster innovation, provide opportunities for research, and develop talent in this new field. It helps businesses, universities, public bodies and charities to share data safely, both by providing a secure infrastructure with the help of the supercomputing centre at the University of Edinburgh, and by working to create ethical standards for Open Finance. Its key objectives are to catalyse financial data collaboration to enable research and innovation, scale-up industry adoption of Open Finance, lower development costs, conduct data-driven research, and work with regulators to establish ethical standards and best practice for how such data can be stored, analysed and shared.

What Role does Social Science Play?

GOFCoE relies on the expertise of academics and practitioners from a number of social science disciplines. These include finance, accounting, economics, business studies and the computational social sciences. It also works in partnership with STEM data science and information technology.

Increasing social science capacity for this kind of work is also an important part of GOFCoE's mission. Education and training are therefore a major focus, along with a focus on data ethics and privacy protections, for financial data in particular. Partnerships with the University of Edinburgh and other Scottish and UK universities are a crucial part of GOFCoE's mission to educate.

What Partners are Involved?

The idea for such a centre first came in a 2018 paper by Gavin Littlejohn, Chairman of the global Financial Data and Technology Association (FDATA), headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. From there, the FDATA partnered with Fintech Scotland and the University of Edinburgh to apply for seed-corn funding for a Global Centre of Excellence in Open Banking. After demonstrating potential for success, the partners were awarded funding from UKRI's Strength in Places fund to create GOFCoE. The funding bid was made with the help of the Data-Driven Innovation team at the University of Edinburgh, which is part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City regional deal.

Although it is an independent non-profit, GOFCoE was created with the University of Edinburgh. Physically, it sits within in the University of Edinburgh's Futures Institute (EFI), its secure data infrastructure is housed in the University of Edinburgh's EPCC supercomputing centre, and it is able to draw on the expertise of the University's social science and STEM academic experts.

Levelling-up Impact

GOFCoE will play a central role in central Scotland's fintech corridor, helping to bring about collaborations that can lead to exciting innovations for society – from the individual saver or borrower to the public and private sectors more widely.

The February 2021 Kalifa Review of UK Fintech recognised the momentum of the Fintech Scotland cluster, which included growing expertise in open finance, payments, regulatory innovation and ‘fintech for good’. The report also specifically mentioned GOFCoE as an example of innovation and excellence.

To improve outcomes in the region and beyond, GOFCoE is working with the EPPC to create a Financial Data Safe Haven. This will allow subsets of data to be linked and made available within a strict framework to academic researchers, policy makers, regulators, financial institutions and companies that use technology to improve the delivery of financial services while preserving individual privacy. Access to the data is subject to ethical and privacy review and information security controls. Insights from the Safe Haven will help policy makers and public bodies to understand the impacts of their decisions.

Indeed, this is already happening. Their work is credited with helping the UK Government to study financial behaviour during the coronavirus pandemic.

2 Ageing in Newcastle

Regional Focus: North-East England

Disciplines: Human Geography, Demography, Psychology, Social Policy, Sociology, Planning, Business and Management, Political Science, and more

Major Partners: Newcastle University, Invest Newcastle, the UK's National Innovation Centre for Ageing; Department for International Trade, UKRI, North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), NHS

Major Funders: Strength in Places Fund, UK Government High Potential Opportunities (HPO) programme

What is it?

Newcastle is emerging as a national and global hub for research and innovation into ageing and longevity. For years Newcastle University has been recognised as a leading centre of collaborative research in ageing, drawing on a network of over 500 researchers across many disciplines. Its work now encompasses several different streams of research, one of which focuses on translational research and applied innovation, delivered through the National Innovation Centre Ageing (NICA) at the University.

NICA was established in 2017 with £40 million funding from the UK Government and Newcastle University. NICA has created an interdisciplinary innovation eco-system, including design, computer science, engineering, health and social sciences, and data and business studies. The aim is to help private and public bodies to develop, build, test and market new products and services designed to make lives easier and better as people age. This includes projects on issues ranging from designing homes and consumer products to rethinking transport and mobility.

NICAs aims to add ‘intelligence’ to ageing and longevity. Working together with its sister organisation VOICE® (an international citizen's network), it brings together data of all sorts, including ‘big data’, to inform its work. NICA aims to help older people but also to improve business and society in the context of ageing societies.

What Role does Social Science Play?

Understanding ageing and how to improve the lives of older people needs the social sciences to work hand in hand with the health and life sciences. The Newcastle Institute for Ageing, for example, draws on research and practical expertise from a variety of social and STEM sciences. Expertise among social science staff members of NICA includes those with backgrounds in human geography, psychology, social policy, sociology, planning, business and management, and political science.

For example, NICA is helping to test human interaction and user acceptance of the Gita® robot that can help the elderly by following them and carrying up to 23 kg of cargo for them. Gita® is designed to help mitigate loneliness and isolation, boost healthy behaviour by encouraging more walking, and foster more independent and sustainable living. Another recent project undertaken in partnership with Newcastle University, the Design Network North and Butters Innovation involved the co-design of the ‘vitality bench’. This is intended for multi-generational use, with handles to assist sitting and rising, and a design that is easy to keep clean and safe. Urban planners and social scientists were involved in its design and development.

The National Innovation Centre for Ageing is in the privileged position of bringing together academics from a variety of areas – social sciences, medical sciences and humanities – alongside the public. The work we are doing on ageing and longevity is where technology, business models, societal inclusion, ethical principles and sustainability meet, with amazing opportunities to help design the future of our society.

(Professor Nic Palmarini, Director of NICA)

What Partners are Involved?

NICA is hosted by the Newcastle University and has an array of partners in the public and private sector. International and national partners include the World Bank, Ageing Asia, Innovate UK, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, The Design Age Institute, and the International Longevity Centre UK. Local partners include Newcastle City Council and Northumbria University. It also works with local STEM-based organisations like the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre, which in turn partners with NHS and local government to address ageing.

Levelling-up Impact

The North East LEP Industrial Strategy recognises its local assets on the issue of ageing and the need to respond to an ageing population in its own industrial strategy – specifically mentioning the Newcastle Institute for Ageing and NICA.

More recently, Invest Newcastle's ‘hub’ for Healthy Ageing in North-East England was selected by the UK Department for International Trade (DIT) as part of the High Potential Opportunities programme it co-ordinates. This designation will help support inward investment by showcasing the North East's healthy ageing assets to investors in more than 177 cities around the world via the DIT's global network.

3 GMAP Analytics Ltd -Spatial Modelling & Retail Network Research

Regional Focus: West Yorkshire

Disciplines: Geography, Demography Social Computational Analysis

Major Funders: Various commercial partners

What is it?

GMAP is a global leader in geographic modelling, demographic analysis and location planning. It offers data, software and consulting services to the public and private sector to assist in strategic decision making. GMAP has grown out of work started over 30 years ago at the University of Leeds’ School of Geography by Professors Martin Clarke and Alan Wilson, who used spatial modelling techniques to help retailers to improve their location choices. It is now a private company and joined the NEXUS Leeds innovation campus as GMAP Analytics.

The NEXUS Leeds campus is part of a strategy by the University of Leeds to support building a community of technology businesses and innovation in Leeds, enabling them to work with the University where appropriate.

GMAP has worked with some the world's largest organisations in over 60 countries, and is widely recognised as a leader in location i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Preface
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Case Studies
• 1 The Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence (GOFCoE)
• 2 Ageing in Newcastle
• 3 GMAP Analytics Ltd -Spatial Modelling & Retail Network Research
• 4 Strategy for Inward Investment to Birmingham
• 5 The Wales Centre for Public Policy
• 6 The Productivity Institute
• 7 Spatial Design Network Analysis (sDNA)
• 8 The Research Schools Network
• 9 West Midlands Region Economic & Development Institute (WM REDI) – part of City REDI, the City Region Economic & Development Institute
• 10 Tackling Paramilitarism & Criminality in Northern Ireland
• 11 Newcastle City Futures Urban Living Partnership Project
• 12 N8 Policing Research Partnership
• 13 Growing Kent & Medway (GK&M)
• 14 Fuel & Transport Poverty in the UK's Energy Transition (FAIR)
• 15 Lifeguide: Online Support for Positive Health Behaviour Change
• 16 Geographic & Social Mobility of Higher Education Students in the UK
• 17 Manchester, The Centripetal City
• 18 Smart Data Analytics for Business and Local Government
• 19 The Midlands Innovation Social Science Research Accelerator (MISSRA)
• 20 Help to Grow: Management
• 21 Consumer Data Research Centre
• 22 Essex Catalyst Programme
• 23 LSE Cities Research Centre
• 24 University of Glasgow Top Up Programme