Postdoctoral Fellowship - Rural Business Knowledge Exchange and Innovation: The Contribution of Rural Enterprise Hubs

创新已经成为促进经济增长的核心概念，定义为引入新产品或改进的过程，这些产品或过程可能具有破坏性和开拓性，也可能与较慢的增量变化有关。现在人们认识到，创新具有一定的地理特征，一些地区在创新方面表现出色，而另一些地区则表现不佳。旧金山周围的硅谷被广泛认为是世界上最具创新力的地方之一，是特斯拉、eBay和苹果等“独角兽”公司的所在地。迄今为止，农村地区在很大程度上被排除在创新思维之外，学者和政策制定者都将注意力集中在城市地区，将其作为创新的理想场所。我的博士论文提出了来自文献和我自己的实证调查的证据，表明农村地区在区域创新“系统”中仍然可以发挥作用。为了实现创新，企业发展和开发新服务/产品需要基础设施。科学园区、孵化器、弹射器和集群等建筑都是在城市环境中创建和研究的，但很少在农村。在英格兰的农村地区，企业中心是通过农村增长网络（RGN）资助的，在五个试点地区提供急需的工作空间。这些中心提供物理设施，如办公室/车间空间、会议室、热桌制设施、可靠和快速的宽带（对偏远地区至关重要）和公共厨房，以及更多的无形服务，如网络机会、培训讲习班/研讨会和其他获取知识的手段。该奖学金的目的是确保研究结果能够传播给更广泛的受众，以实现更大的社会利益，特别是对农村地区的未来。在奖学金期间，将接触到各种不同的受众。首先，将在高排名期刊上发表三篇论文，针对学术界。其次，两份政策和实践笔记将有助于政策制定者在创新思维中了解农村地区的未来。第三，将编写一个“最佳实践工具包”，并考虑到集线器管理器。这些报告和结果将通过一系列知识交流活动进行传播，如互动研讨会和演讲、参加学术会议以及与行业领先的农村企业中心提供商建立令人兴奋的新伙伴关系。此外，奖学金将确保我自己的专业发展，帮助扩大我的专业网络，获得新的定量分析技能，开始新的合作和撰写新的资助提案。

Innovation has become a central concept in promoting economic growth, defined as the introduction of a new product or improved process which can be disruptive and trail blazing or associated with slower and incremental changes. It is now recognised that innovation has certain geographic characteristics, with some regions appearing to excel in producing innovations, whilst others underperformed. Silicon Valley, the region surrounding San Francisco, is widely heralded as the one of the most innovative places in the world, home to 'Unicorn' companies such as Tesla, eBay and Apple. To date, rural areas have largely been excluded from innovation thinking, with scholars and policymakers alike instead focusing attention on urban areas as the ideal sites of innovation. My PhD presented evidence from the literature and my own empirical enquiry to suggest that rural areas still have a role to play in regional innovation 'system'. For innovation to occur, infrastructure is required for businesses to grow and develop new services/products. Buildings such as science parks, incubators, catapults and clusters have all been created and researched in a multitude of urban contexts, but rarely in rural. In the case of rural areas of England, enterprise hubs were funded through Rural Growth Networks (RGN) to provide much needed workspaces in five pilot areas. These hubs provide physical facilities such as office/workshop spaces, meeting rooms, hot-desking facilities, reliable and fast broadband (critical for remote areas) and communal kitchens as well as more intangible services such as networking opportunities, training workshops/seminars and other means of acquiring knowledge. The intention of this fellowship is to ensure the findings of the research reach a wider audience for greater societal good - particularly for the future of rural areas. A range of different audiences will be reached during the fellowship. Firstly, three papers will be published in high ranking journals, aimed at the academic sector. Secondly, two Policy and Practice Notes will help inform policy makers on the future of rural areas in innovation thinking. Thirdly, a 'best practice toolkit' will be written with hub managers in mind. These reports and results will be disseminated through a range of knowledge exchange activities such as interactive workshops and presentations, attending academic conferences and beginning an exciting new partnership with an industry-leading provider of rural enterprise hubs. Additionally, the fellowship will ensure my own professional development by helping to expand my professional networks, acquiring new skills in quantitative analysis, start new collaborations and writing new funding proposals.