Cities occupy a pivotal role in advanced European economies, acting as a launch pad for raising productivity and leading the wider renaissance of the regions they are located in. But although EU and national urban policy has placed a great deal of emphasis on dealing with severe deprivation in cities, there is still relatively little evidence about the economic relationship between cities and their regions. This means that urban and regional planners have little experience to draw on when deciding how best to drive competitiveness in city regions. The COMPETE network focuses on enabling cities to fulfil their potential as drivers of urban renaissance and as critical economic assets in their regions. Its main purpose is to allow a representative group of major regional cities across Europe to share and exchange experience on strategies that nurture and enhance city competitiveness in a way that supports the overall economic success of Europe’s region Achievements: Achievements so far The COMPETE project is a dynamic European network of Cities and City-Regions established in order to share experience and raise the profile of major regional cities in order to enable them to fulfil their performance as drivers of urban renaissance and economic competitiveness.Sheffield leads the project on behalf of the seven network partners, the Core Cities and DCLG. The lessons and learning outcomes from the project are of great strategic significance in the current economic climate, in particular the linkages with Cities and City Region developments and their contribution to the Lisbon Agenda, and the themes of the 2007/13 opertional programmes for European structural funds, particularly priorities relating to knowledge and innovation. We have now successfully delivered all planned conferences in Sheffield, Dortmund, Barcelona, Helsinki, Munich, Lyon and Rotterdam and staged the final high profile conference in London. We have also published the project final strategic report. The previous events are all available on the website www.compete-eu.org. Sheffield 11-13th May 2005 The role of Public Private Partnerships in Competitive European City Regions Dortmund 28-30th Sept 2005 Human Resources – Motor of City Region Competitiveness Barcelona 15th-17th March 2006 Creative Industries Helsinki 7th – 9th June 2006 The Knowledge Economy and Innovation Munich 5-6th Oct 2006 The role of networks in the knowledge-based economy Rotterdam 29thNov 1 Dec 06 City Regional Connectivity as a Motor for Competitiveness in a Globalizing World Lyon 8-9th Feb 2007 Cluster Strategy and Policy in city-regional competitiveness and London June 2007 competitive European Cities What Messages for the UK? Core Cities Summit November 2007. The project evidence base is compiled through an on-line Knowledge Resource Centre led by the European Institute for Urban Affairs at Liverpool John Moore’s University. It includes a wide range of information such as: ' The sharing of benchmarking data from partner cities and their respective city regions ' City and city-regional profiles ' Best practice case studies ' Event details ' Project publications ' News and updates All information is freely accessible via the Knowledge Resource Centre at www.compete-eu.org