Policy Linkages

Defra

The College is working on many of the policy objectives developed by DEFRA and the Government. These include sustainability in terms of the rural economy, food production and farming and in wider environmental issues in rural and urban-fringe settings. The College holds a central role in the development, application and dissemination of novel technologies, and as a focus for rural business advisory support, knowledge exchange and higher skills development. As an independent higher education institution, trusted and respected by rural businesses and communities, the College can be expected to play a critical role in identifying and delivering new approaches to support the rural sector and to help shape, and advise on the impact, of rural regeneration and sustainability policies.

The following projects are examples of the way in which the College has identified and helped support national policy objectives:

• Our work on the Women in Rural Enterprise Programme (WiRE) has helped over 900 rural businesses to date (many involved in farm diversification) by providing a networking and skills development programme. Through Business in the Community (BiTC), WiRE has involved HSBC Bank in its programme, to provide essential funding packages for start-up rural businesses, and other large companies to provide mentoring support for women rural entrepreneurs. The programme is recognised as an exemplar by the DTI, the BiTC Rural Action Programme and the Countryside Agency
• The College's ground-breaking work on the Marches Farm Enterprise Programme established self-learning approaches in business planning, with appropriate on-line resources and associated mentoring support, as the most effective way in which to help rural businesses develop. Further work on IT skills development for rural businesses has been provided by the College through the onBusiness regional initiative
• The College provides rural and agricultural awareness programmes for the Environment Agency, the Health and Safety Executive, Trading Standards officers and a wide range of programmes in food safety and quality, animal health and welfare, rural risk management and innovation in farming and food production to public and private sector clients
• The College is an acknowledged centre for technology transfer and knowledge exchange. Conferences have taken place in areas such as renewable energies and sustainable technologies, food tourism and rural and social enterprise. Research programmes on clean technologies are being developed with Keele University to assist environmental sustainability

DTI/Business Link

The DTI provides a wide range of support for industry and commerce, many aspects of which are covered by the College's activities. There are major areas, however, where the College's specialist provision can be of assistance to DTI objectives and, in turn, those of Business Link and the Small Business Service. These include:

• Support for SMEs
• The work of the DTI's Energy Group (with links to renewable energy provision via DEFRA in support of the Government's Energy White Paper published in February 2003)
• Manufacturing industry support via the Manufacturing Advisory Service
• The Sustainable Technologies Initiative (a joint initiative between the DTI, DEFRA and the Research Councils)

The way in which the College supports rural economic development is unique, in that it provides an active knowledge exchange, backed up by higher level skills development programmes, so that the benefits of research and higher education can be brought to bear on rural economic problems and rural policy development. The College acts as a focus for networks of rural businesses (particularly SMEs and micro-businesses), rural professional practitioners and rural policy developers, and provides an independent forum for rational critical dialogue between these parties. The College is a centre of applied research and knowledge transfer, able to identify and assess practical solutions to problems encountered in rural businesses and environments. The College is also able to point to examples of collaboration with other HEIs in research and teaching (from within and outside the region) that support the application of a wider knowledge base to rural problems.

The College has considerable support from Ministers within the DTI for its work on the Women in Rural Enterprise (WiRE) programme. The Director of WiRE, Izzy Warren-Smith, is one of the 11 DTI/HEFCE sponsored Higher Education Business Fellows. WiRE is actively helping over 1000 rural SMEs through the early stages of business development, and is growing apace into a national organisation vital to the diversification and development of the rural economy. The College, of course, also supports farming businesses, most of which remain small or micro-enterprises that are essential to the fabric of the countryside and other businesses, rural and urban, that rely on the rural landscape and its products. More recent work with the Manufacturing Advisory Service has seen our off-road engineering staff provide consultancy support to 12 engineering SMEs.

Two major conferences are to be held this autumn. The first is on Renewable Energies and their application in the rural environment and the second is on the use of Energy and Fibre Crops in Manufacturing. Both are examples of how the College is working to bridge urban and rural problems by applying its specialist expertise in novel ways.

Environment Agency

A healthy environment is considered a prerequisite for a sustainable economy. Additionally, legislative compliance and the wish to fulfil demonstrable corporate social and environmental responsibility means that environmental accountability is a key part of the College's business and educational strategy.

We put a particular emphasis on waste and water management and the enhancement of conservation within a productive farm system.

This practical experience has given the College a unique insight into rural environmental management and allows us to disseminate good practice. To this end we are;

• Offering training and business support to farm and rural businesses in environmental issues.
• Undertaking research into waste management and the composting of organic matter.
• Developing environmental targets to assist in the monitoring and reporting of Harper Adams' environmental performance, which may act as a benchmark for other organisations.
• Communicating our experience of operating within a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone to the farming community.
• Training Environment Agency staff in agricultural awareness.
• Developing new habitats and extending existing ones within the college estate.

HEFCE

The Strategic Plan 2003-08 for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) highlights a major objective to support Universities and Colleges in making 'a significant and measurable contribution, through knowledge transfer and related activities, to economic development and the strength of communities'. Effective knowledge transfer is expected to 'lead to more jobs, through higher economic activity, a healthier social economy and a better skilled workforce'.

Harper Adams continues to meet the challenges of this developing area of higher education in relation to the rural and regional economies and rural communities. The College's competitive funding allocations through the Higher Education Reach-Out to Business and the Communities (HEROBaC) and Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) programmes have been above average, and the College has consistently exceeded its targets in relation to these programmes. Our work includes the following initiatives:

• The College holds one of only 11 Business Fellowships sponsored by HEFCE and the DTI, held by Izzy Warren-Smith
• The Women in Rural Enterprise (WiRE) programme, created by Izzy, now has over 1600 rural business members engaged in networking, mentoring and skills development programmes. Many of these businesses are 'on-farm but non-farm' diversification enterprises helping to provide employment and keep rural families in the countryside.
• Other business clubs have been established for Food SMEs in the West Midlands region, and the Care and Rural Enterprise (CaRE) project is investigating ways of using rural resources in the healthcare system.
• The College is working closely with rural SMEs and micro-businesses to provide business support and skills development at critical points in business development.
• Networking activities include conferences, seminars, and training events, all geared to promote the exchange of knowledge, as well as the transfer of new ideas from the College's research programme. Novel areas include food safety and quality, renewable energies in rural environments, novel crops and their use in manufacturing processes and providing professional and public services that bridge the urban and rural sectors

Regional Strategy, AWM

Advantage West Midlands has established a Rural Regeneration Zone in the south and west of the region. Harper Adams has been focusing on work in this Zone for more than 7 years, with initiatives such as the Marches Farm Enterprise and WiRE programmes, market town appraisals and business consultancies.

Cluster innovation themes in Food and Drink and Leisure and Tourism have also been established by AWM. The creation by AWM of a Regeneration Centre of Excellence in the West Midlands (see www.regenwm.org) is intended to provide added impetus to economic and social regeneration projects, innovation based on new technologies, skills development and foresight intelligence on future skills needs in the region, the latter in conjunction with the West Midlands Regional Observatory.

The College is ideally placed not only to deal with rural regeneration, but to provide a bridge from rural to relevant urban regeneration issues. Examples of the way in which the College's work supports the objectives of AWM include:

• The appointment of two College academic staff to act as Cluster Innovation Managers for the Food and Drink and Leisure and Tourism economic clusters (a project run in collaboration with the Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies)
• The College's close association through the WiRE programme, with Business in the Community and its Rural Action Programme
• Providing engineering consultancy support, though the Manufacturing Advisory Service, to 12 companies to date, on practical engineering problems and their solutions
• Providing IT support and a business advisory gateway for rural SMEs through the onBusiness initiative
• Providing proof of concept support for a business in renewable energy production (small-scale hydro-electric supplies) as part of the DTI Clear Skies programme
• Working with the Clean Technology group at the University of Keele to develop new technologies for environmental regeneration
• Conferences on novel technologies, including the use of renewable crops in manufacturing processes and the adoption of renewable energies (in conjunction with the DEFRA Central Science Laboratories)
• The work of the College's Business Clubs in supporting rural SMEs. These include the Convalescent and Recuperative Environment programme, aimed at using rural resources to assist urban healthcare provision, and On-farm Composting, which is tackling the problem of dealing with municipal green waste management

Research Perspective

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council (BBSRC), together with DEFRA and the DTI have recently launched the Sustainable Technologies Initiative (STI). The initiative, which will run until April 2005, has 4 broad objectives:

• Maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment
• Social progress which recognises the needs of everyone
• Effective protection of the environment
• Prudent use of natural resources

The STI will aim to get industry, in conjunction with the research base, to develop and adopt new technologies that are more sustainable and which will support sustainable development and competitiveness, as well as decoupling economic growth from adverse environmental impacts.

The College is a centre of applied research that, through the exchange of knowledge, already supports the development and adoption of new technologies in the rural economy in close collaboration with industry. Our dissemination strategy in the immediate future includes major conferences on Renewable Energy sources in the rural environment and the use of Energy and Fibre crops in novel manufacturing processes. The latter conference, to be held on November 5^th 2003, will be run jointly by our Crop and Environment Research Centre (CERC) and the DEFRA Central Science Laboratories. The College provides training programmes for the Environment Agency so is also able to disseminate research results to the statutory agency responsible for monitoring the impact of the STI.

The College is also in a prime position to work with rural practitioners (from the farming community and other economic sectors) on the sustainability programme, through its many business networks and its role as a centre of research and knowledge transfer for the agricultural industry. Our Higher Education Innovation Fund programme includes a Business Network, based on our research, for those wishing to diversify into on-farm composting to help manage rural and municipal green waste.

We work closely with the agricultural industry on issues such as bio-control methods to reduce the use of pesticides (Dr Pat Haydock), the impact of agri-environment schemes on natural resources (the College Farm is a major technology-transfer resource in this respect) (Dr. Andy Wilcox), climate change and crop quality (Dr Peter Kettlewell) and on food safety, in conjunction with the Food Standards Agency (Dr Simon Edwards). The College is developing research with the Clean Air Group at Keele University to 'join-up' basic science with the College's applied research and knowledge exchange expertise to reduce the impact on the environment of emissions from farming processes. The College is also hosting one element of a NERC water catchment research programme which is investigating the impact of environmental changes on the River Tern.

The Countryside Agency

Harper Adams works with the Countryside Agency and its policy initiatives in a number of areas.

• Through WiRE (Women in Rural Enterprise) several projects support and illustrate the Eat the View and Vital Villages Programmes in practise.
• WiRE in partnership with The Countryside Agency have launched a Business Support Facilitation Service in North Yorkshire for women in rural areas, and WiRE features as part of the Countryside Agency 'Rural Proofing' report in the 2002/3 document.
• Through membership of the Newport Regeneration Partnership Harper Adams has an active role in developing the Healthcheck and Action Plan for its local Market Town.
• Harper Adams supports the Countryside Agency's initiative to promote the co-location of essential services for rural communities. As part of the preparatory research for the national pilot project, (the Waters Upton 'new model post office'), Harper Adams conducted a community opinion audit. This explored the shopping patterns and information-sources used by local residents, and studied the level of home computer use. The Waters Upton Post Office project was completed in 2003, and was opened by the Rt Hon Margaret Beckett, M.P.

We look forward to further collaboration with The Countryside Agency in the shared aim of 'Working for people and places in rural England'