West Midlands Futures: Grand Challenges - What You Told Us
The report is part of the first phase the West Midlands Futures (WMF) project. WMF aims to create a shared vision for the region’s long-term future and its places in the UK's and global economy. The vision will be developed jointly with our Local Authority, business, community, and other partners.
The first phase of this project – the clarify phase – seeks to identify the big questions and opportunities which the vision will likely need to address to drive change in the West Midlands in the long-term.
This report takes insights gained from 79 academic, think-tank and government papers; 53 interviews with more than 70 interviewees from the private sector, civil service, academia, local government and think tanks; and a workshop testing initial findings to:
- Make the case to use the concept of ‘Grand Challenges’ to frame the challenge of driving significant change in the West Midlands over the long-term.
- Propose 6 Grand Challenges that a regional vision should address.
- Suggest a series of ‘Big Questions’ that will help us better understand the dynamics of each Grand Challenge in the next phase of WMF.
However, this report does not attempt to propose solutions to these Grand Challenges. This will be considered in later phases of West Midlands Futures.