Prof Keith Shaw

Over the last 30 years Keith has researched and published on urban regeneration, local and regional governance, and the community and voluntary sectors.

He has also had extensive experience of working for governmental and non-governmental organisations in relation to project and programme evaluations, voluntary and community sector involvement, neighbourhood governance and local partnership working. This included involvement in the National Evaluation of the New Deal for Communities Programme as Regional Coordinator for the North East, evaluator of the West Middlesbrough NDC and co-author of the case study report on Liveability in NDC areas.

Keith has also conducted evaluations of Urban Development Corporations (for the JRF Foundation); City Challenge (for Sunderland City Challenge); SRB programmes (for three local authorities in the North East) and Housing Action Trusts (for the DETR). He was part of two major assessments of the role of the Economic and Social Partners group within the North East Assembly, and worked on several reviews of voluntary sector infrastructure organisations in the North East. More recently, Keith has been involved in the EU CONNECTIONS project (on Social Inclusion) which involved a number of European cities including Rotterdam, Munich, Budapest, Vienna, Oslo and Newcastle.

He was a member of the Government Office/RDA Academic Advisory Panel for the North East and now sits on the management board of the North East Institute for Local Governance. He sat on the Newcastle Fairness Commission in 2011-12 and is currently the Independent Chair of the Newcastle Future Needs Development Board. He also Chaired the South Tyneside Living Wage Commission in 2013.

Keith’s recent research includes the studies: ‘From Regionalism to ‘Localism’: Opportunities and Threats for the North East’ funded by the Millfield House Foundation; and Borderlands: can the North East and Cumbria benefit from greater Scottish autonomy? funded by the Association of North East Councils. His recent research also includes work on local and community resilience.

Since 2014, he has been heavily involved in undertaking funded research on Devolution within the UK. This includes being the lead author of two major reports, Borderlands: can the North East and Cumbria benefit from greater Scottish autonomy?  and Developing the Framework for a Borderlands Strategy. He was the Principal Investigator on the ESRC Seminar Series, ‘Close Friends? Assessing the impact of greater Scottish autonomy on the North of England and Scotland. In 2016 he has been awarded a grant by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust to investigate ‘Who runs the North East’ and an ESRC award to examine policy-makers understanding of the implications of Brexit for economic development and devolved governance on the North of England.