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Cardiff University (CU)

General Description

Founded in 1883, Cardiff University (CU) is a world-leading research institution. Cardiff University is recognised in independent UK government assessments as one of Britain’s leading teaching and research intensive universities, and was ranked in the 2014 assessment in the top 5 Universities in the UK for its quality of research and 2nd for Impact. It has approximately 30,000 students (around 22,000 undergraduates and 9000 postgraduates) representing over 100 countries, Cardiff University is the 8th largest university in the UK in terms of student numbers. Cardiff University has 6,000 staff and an annual turnover of around €525M. With a research portfolio of over £500M and an annual research Income of over £100M, Cardiff University supports a world-leading research community with a strong and broad research base. In terms of European funded projects, the University was involved in over 150 FP7 projects representing a drawdown of around €70M over the lifetime of the Programme. Success has continued into Horizon 2020 with 104 awards to date, with a value of €44M. The University’s research ambition for the coming years is to secure its reputation as a community of scholars with the imagination, energy and capacity to co-create the future. It wants to be recognised for its innovation and contribution to the health, wealth, security and wellbeing of future generations in Wales, in the UK and globally.

ENTRANCES will be undertaken by the School of Geography and Planning. The School of Geography and Planning is one of the leading schools in its field in the UK. Its staff have been involved in both the theory and the application of regional innovation, energy transitions and the economic resilience of regions for more than 20 years, with a particular emphasis on governance, institutional dimensions and concepts of connectivity and learning.

Role in the project

CU will support the development of the methodology for ENTRANCES (WP2) and undertake the proposed case study of Wales (WP3). This is the main task of CU, building on its extensive knowledge of Wales and its resilience to economic and social shocks in recent decades, particularly relating to its transition from a coal intensive economy and its future aspiration for net-zero carbon status. CU will also contribute to the comparative analysis of the case studies to extract common themes (WP5), communication and dissemination of the results, focusing particularly on making the findings of ENTRANCES available to policy makers in Wales (WP6) and will input into the overall management of the project (WP8).