Innovation and higher education

This chapter examines how spatial relocation of the knowledge economy matters to the future of the city centre. Accompanying the rise of entrepreneurial urban management, there has been a strong focus on notions such as district or campus to foster clustering of anchor institutions and companies to help stimulate business incubation and accelerate innovation. The recent inward movement of such locations from the edge of cities towards the city centre is producing greater integration within the urban environment and strengthening the link between innovation districts and the wider urban renewal agenda, and smart, sustainable futures. Strategic actors in many of these developments are city universities, and this chapter considers how universities are playing new roles as part of the innovation ecosystem, re-shaping its social character involves large student accommodation developments, transforming city centres into living labs, and acting as co-ordinators in urban governance.