Yorkshire Policy Innovation Partnership
Y-PERN and YPIP are enhancing collaboration between university academics and policymakers in Yorkshire and the Humber to develop evidence-based policies that benefit local communities. With £4 million in funding, Y-PERN connects policymakers and academics through a network including 11 policy fellows and an academic steering group. YPIP has secured £5 million in funding to build on Y-PERN’s efforts, creating a Local Innovation Partnership that involves all Yorkshire universities and addresses inclusive growth, sustainable living, and data analytics, with a focus on marginalized communities.
YPIP is a UKRI-funded project that builds on the existing multi-sectoral partnership working between academia, local government and community organisations in Yorkshire and the Humber across the 4 Mayoral Combined Authorities: York and North Yorkshire, Hull and East Riding, South, and West Yorkshire. The project looks to develop additional regional structures and processes that incorporate and empower low income, marginalised and/or spatially isolated communities – truly ‘working with’ these groups rather than ‘doing to’.
The project will be working on place-based initiatives with communities in their places with a focus on improving standards of living through:
- addressing inequalities through inclusive business practices and creating pathways into economic activity through entrepreneurship and creative economy
- cutting carbon emissions in historic built environments and demonstrating climate action in diverse places.
The diverse stakeholders working across these will also have an input into creating a shared facility to access and analyse local and regional data sources. This will recognise community generated data, provide learning from previous initiatives, and reduce duplication.
YPIP will explore ‘what works’ locally and what can be scaled up to regional policy innovations, and aims to develop a legacy of collaborative cultures and systems change.
Key Objectives:
YPIP will generate insights and solutions under the cross-cutting theme of communities in their places, delivered through 3 work packages:
- data and informatics
- inclusive growth – divided into 2a inclusive business practices, and 2b creative industries
- sustainably living in a greener economy
Mission & Vision:
- giving all partners access to a shared facility for analysing the available data and being less dependent on external, private organisations to do that analysis;
- using place-based initiatives to demonstrate the art of the possible and give confidence to policymakers to make impactful policy interventions;
- learning how to make community co-production of policies and solutions better at involving those people who are often left out of decisions that affect them.

Y-PERN hosts meeting of the Yorkshire and Humber Councils Policy Officer Network
Y-PERN hosted a meeting of the newly reconvened Yorkshire and Humber Councils Policy Officer Network (YHCPON) at the Cloth Hall...
Our Project Outputs
Our project team is a partnership made up of representatives from the Yorkshire Universities, local authorities and social enterprises in the region. Here are some key highlights coming out of YPIP:
YPIP Community Panel
A forum of diverse lived experience to co-shape and co-develop major YPIP activities and meaningful community involvement.
Learn MoreCommunities Innovating Yorkshire Fund
An opportunity for additional regional insights and activities linked to YPIP’s themes.
Learn MoreYHODA - Yorkshire and Humber Office of Data Analytics
An Office for Data Analytics supported by an accessible digital presence, the Yorkshire Engagement Portal - a one-stop-shop for local and regional evidence from diverse sources to build a true picture of the policy landscape
Learn MoreOur social media platforms
Our Work Packages
The Yorkshire Policy Innovation Partnership (YPIP) has a number of work packages aligning to the overarching themes of inclusive growth and living sustainably in a greener economy. Our internal partnership project team are working on a number of demonstrator projects and sites to explore ways universities can use their academic expertise to help local stakeholders – businesses, local and combined authorities, and residents in any area – innovate new policy approaches to solving the socio-economic challenges they jointly face.
Data and Informatics
Work package 1 aims to develop an integrated regional data hub for Yorkshire, which will enable communities to co-design effective policies for their places. This work package will provide support and guidance for communities to navigate and analyse relevant local, regional and national data, and will be working to better understand what kinds of data and evidence best serve community needs.
Inclusive Business Practices
Work package 2a aims to reduce inequalities through supporting inclusive business practices, by creating a Yorkshire and the Humber inclusive business network to share good practice amongst the community. This work package looks to understand what makes good practice through studying local good examples, and aims to create a space where disadvantaged communities can come together with employers to understand how they can benefit one another.
Creative Industries
Focusing on how culture has the power to transform our lives, whether we are in an audience or involved in creative activity directly, and increasing. Many people have limited access to cultural activity, not all communities’ cultures are recognised or valued and investment and engagement in cultural education and skills programmes has declined significantly in recent years. The ambition of work package 2b is to reaffirm the significance of culture in our lives and its importance to the prosperity of the UK; and look at the practical steps which can be taken to ensure everyone has the opportunity to take part in culture, whether they follow their passion and use their talents as a creative, paid/unpaid, or just love to watch, to listen, to read and enjoy.
Sustainably Living in a Greener Economy
Aims to accelerate climate action and nature recovery by improving the application of relevant evidence to policy and practice. The specific strands of work package 3 are retrofit to supporting heritage building to become more sustainable in their energy usage; land use change to enable reduced negative environmental impact and nature recovery; and working with good examples of where communities are engaging in environmental projects and building environmental resilience.
Cross-cutting Theme - Communities in their Place
As well as developing and supporting the YPIP Community Panel, the Cross-cutting Theme will work collaboratively with panel members and local organisations and communities in Hull, North Yorkshire and Sheffield/South Yorkshire to review and draw learning from examples of community-led action. They will work examples of this good practice in these areas. The Cross-cutting Theme will facilitate the coming together of local communities, voluntary and public sector organisations to build a collaborative space or community of practice to create change together.

YPIP Community Panel
Do you have ideas about how to improve your community? Would you like to see better jobs in your area or find ways to live in a greener way? At the heart of this project is a community panel where we will listen, learn and make decisions together to shape local and regional policy. The community panel is a group of 24 people from across Yorkshire and from all walks of life. It will make decisions about how the project runs and how we can improve our communities by agreeing on good practice examples of living and working sustainably in our communities. Panel members will be trained and supported to take part and will meet every three months either in person or online. Panel members will be paid a living wage of £15 an hour for their time and their expenses will be reimbursed. Resources are also available for other support if needed. Panel members will also have the opportunity to work on specific areas of the project that interest them.
Please contact Ben Jessop b.jessop@hull.ac.uk if you’d like more information or are interested in joining the panel.
Communities Innovating Yorkshire Fund
The aim of the Communities Innovating Yorkshire Fund is to support projects, studies, activities, and collaborations that:
- advance YPIP’s commitment to innovative approaches to inclusive growth, sustainable living, and data informatics
- include partnerships with – or significant input from – members of Yorkshire communities, and/or that deepen the capacity for the involvement of members of Yorkshire communities in policy innovation.
The CIYF particularly encourages:
- projects that focus on socially marginalized residents of the region– racial/ethnic or national minorities, women, residents of spatially isolated communities, those living in poverty and/or without adequate access to educational or vocational opportunities
- demonstrator projects, research addressing evidence gaps, the piloting or study of new approaches (or of existing approaches in new places).
CIYF project applications must align with one of the 5 YPIP themes:
- Collecting and Utilising Community Data
- Good Work and Better Business
- Culture and the Creative Industry
- Climate-Ready Places
- Communities In Their Places.

YHODA - Yorkshire and Humber Office of Data Analytics
The Yorkshire and the Humber Office of Data Analytics will host the integrated regional data hub The Yorkshire Engagement Portal. The team will be creating a user group made up of different stakeholders to co-design the digital resource, and test the product so that it is an effective tool for collating and sharing different types of data and evidence.