Advantage West Midlands
Advantage West Midlands is the Regional Development Agency for the West Midlands and produces information resources relating to many different activities and they worked with us to identify resources of benefit to the region and provide access to them through the resource catalogue.
Birmingham Strategic Partnership (BSP) Information Sharing Group
The BSP Information Sharing Group mapping project submitted information resources relevant to BSP activities that are available to, or accessed by, members of the Information Sharing Group.
Black Country Observatory
We worked with our colleagues at the Black Country Observatory to increase our coverage of their information sources with a particular focus on geospatial resources.
Cultural Research and Intelligence
The Cultural Research and Intelligence Group (CRAIG) conducted two mapping projects with six regional cultural agencies (Audiences Central, Museums, Libraries and Archives, Sport England, English Heritage, Arts Council West Midlands and Heart of England Tourism).
The aim of these projects was to identify research and intelligence resources relating to culture in the West Midlands and to make these available to the wider cultural sector through the Regional Resource Catalogue.
A project to map resources relating to equality and diversity in the cultural sector has also been completed. Over 400 resources were identified and submitted to the catalogue.
Economy and Labour Force Topic Group
The Economy and Labour Force Topic Group targeted the broad topic of skills, with particular focus on management and leadership, entrepreneurship, graduate retention and the knowledge economy. The aim was to provide intelligence resources around themes such as 'the gap between supply of training and what organisations actually need' and 'the gap between skills needs and availability'.
The group has also identified resources relating to the impact of migrant workers on the West Midlands. This builds on published research on the subject that was commissioned by the Observatory and undertaken by Topic Group chair, Anne Green, of Warwick University's Insititute for Employment Research.
Environment and Natural Resources Topic Group
The Environment and Natural Resources Topic Group identified a detailed list of resources, primarily covering regional species and habitat data. Administrative support was provided by the Countryside Agency. Over 30 resources were submitted to the Resource Catalogue.
Geographic Information Topic Group
The Geographic Information Topic Group's mapping project aims to map out definitive boundary sets for a number of geospatial datasets in the West Midlands, with the intention of facilitating more effective sharing of these datasets within the region.
Regional Assembly and West Midlands Local Government Association (WMLGA)
The Regional Assembly and WMLGA are influential organisations who co-ordinate much of the work around regional planning and strategy in the West Midlands. This mapping project covered strategies, policies and consultations.
Lichfield District Council
Using an illustrative 'bookcase' model, Lichfield District Council has a forward-thinking approach to managing strategy and policy documents at all levels from regional down to local.
This project mapped out the hierarchical structure of this information and to make this available to the region as an example of good practice.
Sustainability
This pilot project identified, mapped and disseminated data and intelligence resources from across the region relating to sustainability and created an integrated regional view of sustainability activity and resources.
West Midlands Business and Professional Services Cluster (BPSC)
The Executive Group of the BPSC and the Observatory initiated a project focusing on five themes corresponding to the critical business areas of the BPSC:
- Business Growth
- Skills
- Innovative Culture
- Connectivity and Collaboration
- Marketing
West Midlands Chambers of Commerce
The Chambers' mapping project improved the quality and effectiveness of Chambers-related research and increased awareness of this information throughout the region.
The project was co-ordinated by the Observatory together with Executive Director of The West Midlands Confederation of Chambers of Commerce, Richard Bindless.