Across Europe there is a fundamental failure to agree on the value of research. Classifying academic and government perspectives on impact is a step towards settling the debate

The questions of defining ‘impact’ and confirming the value of academic research are hot topics for the higher education community not only in the UK, but around the world. Paul Benneworth, project leader at HERAVALUE, here discusses three communities with interests in impact – governments looking for impact, researchers investigating impact, and academics who deliver the impact – and argues for a better understanding of the interaction between them

England’s regional campaigners need a new message, not just new platforms to advocate elected regional assemblies

There is a renewed debate for devolving power to English regions and instituting elected regional assemblies. While there are certainly undeniable justifications for doing so, public support spells doom for any new referenda on the matter. Paul Benneworth maintains that pro-devolution campaigners need to think outside the box and find ways to stimulate political mobilisation if they are to be successful

Book review: Music festivals and regional development inAustralia

Throughout the world, the number of festivals has grown exponentially in the last two decades as people celebrate local and regional cultures, but perhaps more importantly as local councils and other groups seek to use festivals to promote tourism and to stimulate rural development. This book discusses broad issues affecting music festivals globally, especially in the context of rural revitalisation, drawing on research which traces the overall growth of festivals of various kinds. Paul Benneworth commends the authors for making their landmark contribution in an open, accessible, and ultimately intellectually satisfying way

"No longer the sparkling new idea" : anchoring university entrepreneurship programmes in academic, entrepreneurial and regional policy networks

This paper is concerned with what makes a good university entrepreneurship programme (UEP), in particular with which features are necessary to allow UEPs to thrive within university settings. The paper begins from the paradox that UEPs are part of university’s extended development periphery, and always risk being eliminated because they do not deliver core university outputs, teaching and research. The paper seeks to understand under what conditions UEPs can thrive, using a case study of one UEP, the Temporary Entrepreneurs Scheme (the TOP programme) of the University of Twente in the Netherlands, which has recently celebrated its silver jubilee, and offers a good example of a UEP which has evolved to continue to meet stakeholder needs. The paper identifies three main stakeholder groups whose needs UEPs must meet, university management, regional economic policy makes, and enterprising entrepreneurs. The paper identifies how UEPs can respond to those three groups needs, and concludes by setting out the ways in which UEPs can meet those needs, providing the basis for a more nuanced understanding of what constitutes a good UEP