Scottish Rural Communities Policy Review: stage 2 - England case study
A set of four international case studies have been produced as part of Stage 2 of the Scottish Rural Communities Policy Review. This is the England case study. The others are Canada, Finland and Ireland.
7. Newcastle University’s Centre for Rual Economy
The role of knowledge exchange with Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy (CRE), a world leader in rural development research[12], is also noteworthy. The Centre has always worked closely with rural development practitioners, at one time establishing and supporting a Northern Rural Network (Atterton and Thompson, 2010) with funding from the Regional Development Agency from 1999-2010. With research council funding from 2020-25 Newcastle University also leads the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE) which works with stakeholders, from community groups to business support organisations and all levels of government, to find new ways of unlocking potential and supporting thriving rural businesses and communities (Tocco et al. (2025)). See Box 2.
Box 2. National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE) Innovation Pillar
NICRE is progressing a cluster of test-bed innovation projects, co-created with rural businesses, local communities and other stakeholders, including local authorities and civil society. These co-design and trial solutions to locally identified place- or business-based challenges, then share these examples and approaches more widely.
Projects work hand in hand with the existing development efforts of local communities and business organisations. They depend on bringing together university research and expertise, with knowledge from within communities and businesses themselves. As well as in-house research and innovation staff, ‘Innovation Associates’ are funded to work within rural communities and businesses. The embedded Innovation Associates have proved a valuable approach as intermediary agents in developing more meaningful and trusted relationships and networks with rural businesses and communities, as well as catalysing practical innovations on the ground.
The intention is that these innovation projects will provide test-beds for thinking through approaches that have wider relevance and from which learning can be used elsewhere.
Source: Tocco et al. (2025), pages 29-30.
Contact
Email: socialresearch@gov.scot