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Mayoral authorities may not be developed enough to take control of research and development (R&D) funding, university and business leaders fear, as Labour continues to pursue its devolution agenda.

Earlier this year,?the government?announced a new ?500 million?Local Innovation Partnerships Fund for research investment, with directly elected mayors given a say for the first time on how to spend the money.

But new research from the UPP Foundation suggests some are wary about this. The organisation convened four roundtables in York, Bristol, London and Nottingham, which included ¡°leading¡± figures from the UK¡¯s higher education sector and representatives from local government and industry.?

At some of these events, participants said they were concerned about directly elected mayors having more control over R&D funding.?

¡°Mayors haven¡¯t been a universal success in England, with risks attached to centralising?authority into one figure,¡± says the organisation¡¯s report on the conversations.?

In the East Midlands, where a new Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) was created last year, participants expressed positive feelings towards mayors, including ¡°their ability to help facilitate collaboration between universities, improving a region¡¯s advocacy¡±.?

However, the report says, ¡°with the new authority in its infancy, participants noted that the MCA was not yet ready to take control of powers like research and development funding¡±.?

There were also concerns in the areas that hadn¡¯t been selected for Labour¡¯s devolution priority programme that these regions may be ¡°left behind¡±.?

The report, which focuses on the civic role of universities, notes that civic engagement ¡°has in the past been prone to being seen as a ¡®nice-to-have¡¯ extra, rather than a necessary?function of the university, making it vulnerable to cuts in times of financial pressure¡±.

However, it continues, ¡°With the government¡¯s renewed attention on civic purpose, universities should embrace the chance to re-embed this ambition into their work and future-proof it for the coming decades.¡±

Last year, in a letter to universities?confirming an increase to the maximum cap on tuition fees, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said, in return, she expected universities to ¡°play a greater civic role in their communities¡±, alongside four other priority areas.?

¡°This civic contribution must be locally led, and you will each have distinctive and different roles to play, but I am clear that the government will want it to form a core part of a renewed vision for the sector,¡± the letter says.?

UPP¡¯s report notes, ¡°Some participants warned against viewing the civic role as a box to tick to receive funding, as this contradicts the idea that the civic role is vital to the ¡®spirit¡¯ of universities and can lead to civic activity being bolted on rather than properly embedded.¡±

Participants also believed that some of the language surrounding civic universities, including terms like ¡°placemaking¡±, can alienate communities from local institutions.?

Instead, they stressed the importance of responding to what communities want, rather than developing their own plans ¡°in isolation or based on assumptions¡±.?

¡°The higher education sector is under enormous pressure at the moment, but the civic university agenda offers a real opportunity,¡± said Richard Brabner, executive chair of the UPP Foundation.?

¡°As the experts at our roundtables made clear, rooting institutions to their local places and economies offers them a clear path through instability, giving them the means to show their value to a wider audience.?

¡°It¡¯s essential that universities and civic organisations don¡¯t recoil from this opportunity and face inwards, as this will only compound existing pressures.¡±

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com