Dr. Paul Benneworth

Paul Benneworth graduated in Human Geography from Oxford University in 1995 with a double first, specialising in economic and urban geography.  That same year, he started working as a Research Assistant for Northumbria Police, in the UK and registered for a part-time Ph.D. at the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at the University of Newcastle.  In early 1996, he moved from the police to work at CURDS as a junior research associate, and remained there for thirteen years, completing his Ph.D., achieving a permanent position (‘tenure’) and university lectureship in the school of architecture, planning and landscape.  His research in this period focused on the role of entrepreneurship, innovation and technological change in regional economic development, in particular the influence of universities in less successful regions, the subject of his Ph.D. thesis (completed 2002).   In August 2009, he moved to the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands, as a Senior Research Associate, to extent his interests in the relationships between universities and society.

He has undertaken a wide number of research projects for a range of clients.  He has successfully won research council funding from the UK Economic and Social Research Councils (post-doctoral fellowship, small research grant, standard research grant within the Regional Impact of HEIs programme) and Research Councils UK (Academic Fellowship), as well as from the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) programme, administered by the European Science Foundation.  He has had two research grants from the UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, and has undertaken research and consultancy services for a range of UK bodies, including the Small Business Service, the Department for Farming and Rural Affairs, the Department of the Environment, Transport & Regions, as well as for a range of subnational bodies including regional assemblies, regional university associations and regional assemblies.  He has worked on several occasions with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, including on their Technology and Innovation Programme Cluster Working Group (2000-01), for Education Division on the Regional Impacts of HEIs programme and for Territorial Development and Governance on Regional Innovation Reviews (Piedmonte, North of England) and their Regional Innovation Strategy project.  He has also undertaken a number of small consultancy projects for a diverse range of organisations including the European Centre for the Strategic Management of Universities, the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, and the Science for All working group.