Powerful voice

The West Midlands is an important part of the European Union and its economy. The region has a population larger than that of eight EU member states, and approximately half of its exports are within the Single Market.

In order to maximise benefits from EU membership and increase engagement with European activity, Advantage West Midlands, through its European Policy team, has helped to develop the West Midlands Regional European Strategy - PDF - 2mb.

Strategy priorities include engagement with the Single Market and Europe’s research and innovation agenda, tackling climate change and ensuring environmental protection and social cohesion.

The Agency also undertook responsibility for the West Midlands EU Research, Development and Innovation Group, which brought together professionals from universities, business intermediary organisations, research technology organisations and local authorities.

Another Agency imperative has been to bring the benefits of being an EU member to businesses in the region in an accessible way. One example is the European Research and Development Award (ERDA) which has helped regional applicants to prepare successful competitiveness project proposals for the Framework Programme 7 (FP7) - the largest trans-national EU fund for research and development.

The Midlands Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KIC) bid is another example of where Agency involvement and regional leadership has been key to success.The successful €90 million bid brought together a consortium of five top universites, ten major companies and six European regions to tackle climate change. 

Reference Documents

West Midlands Regional European Strategy - PDF - 2mb 

Successful regions are able to understand and articulate the factors that are influencing their economic development.  They use this information to develop, refine, monitor and evaluate strategies and implement policies.

A strong and shared evidence base is also vital in developing common approaches to regional issues and in influencing decision-makers within and outside the region.

Advantage West Midlands has adopted and adhered to this understanding across its economic development activites, with the West Midlands Regional Observatory providing much of the evidence base.

Key areas of work included preparing elements of the evidence base for the West Midlands Economic Strategy, the Regional Spatial Strategy and the Regional Energy Strategy. An annual skills assessment for the Regional Skills Partnership provided information on key issues such as graduate recruitment and retention.

The evidence base played a vital role during the recent recession when the Agency established and led the work of the West Midlands Taskforce. 

The ability to provide timely, high quality data detailing the impact of the recession on the labour market, skills, the cultural sector and vulnerable communities and groups enabled investment and support to be implemented for the benefit of the region and its businesses.

Reference Documents

West Midlands Economic Strategy (WMES) - PDF - 1mb

West Midlands Delivery Framework (July 2010) - PDF - 617kb 

A strong, positive and up-to-date image of the West Midlands has been vital for the region to promote itself successfully on national and international stages.

Advantage West Midlands established the Regional Marketing Board, made up of key regional figures from business and the public sector. It developed the West Midlands Regional Marketing Strategic Framework - PDF - 2mb aimed at ensuring specific audiences understand what the region is and what it has to offer.

High profile campaigns to market the region have included tours of the region for travel writers from the national media,  the “One Region, One Voice” campaign for UK businesses aimed at creating a regional ‘sense of pride’ amongst local businesses, and the ‘Connect’ campaign to attract European businesses to the West Midlands.

Reference Documents

West Midlands Regional Marketing Strategic Framework - PDF - 2mb