James Simmie is the Professor of Innovation and Urban Competitiveness at Oxford Brookes University. His work is focused on the relationships between innovation and urban regions. He worked on the ESRC Cities: Competitiveness and Cohesion programme analysing the reasons for the innovative performance of some of Europe's most successful cities. Some of the results of this research are published as (2001) Innovative Cities, London, Spon.

Subsequent work includes research with ECOTEC on a DTI funded study concerned with the development of clusters and research with the European Institute for Urban Affairs on an ODPM funded project analysing the reasons for the relatively poor competitive performance of the English core cities when compared with many of their European counterparts. The results of this work are published as Parkinson, M., Hutchins, M., Simmie, J. M., Clark, G. and Verdonk, H. (2004) Competitive European Cities: Where do the Core Cities Stand? London, ODPM. This was followed by more detailed work on the reasons behind the relatively weak economic performance of some of the UK’s largest cities. This was published as Realising the Full Economic Potential of London and the Core Cities (2004) Manchester and London, Greater London Authority.

James Simmie is currently completing a major study of English cities for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. This includes a detailed analysis of the competitiveness of English cities for the State of the Cities Report. The summary of this work was published as Parkinson, M. et al (2006) The State of English Cities Vols 1 and 2, London, ODPM.

Email: jsimmie@brookes.ac.uk

W: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/be/planning/staff/simmie/

Last updated:26/06/2006