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Our partners

iCoCo is a unique partnership of academic, statutory and voluntary organisations, together with practitioners from local and national agencies.

Our founding partners include Coventry, De Montfort, Leicester and Warwick universities, Coventry and Leicester City Councils and the Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government (IDeA).

Coventry City Council is a Metropolitan local authority in iCoCo's home city in the West Midlands.

Leicester City Council is the unitary authority serving the citizens, communities and businesses of Leicester, the biggest city in the East Midlands.

The IDeA is owned by the Local Government Association (LGA) and belongs to local government. Together, they work to help councils serve people and places better.

iCoCo's main academic partners

Coventry University

Coventry University logo
  • iCoCo is based at Coventry University, at the Innovation Village on the University's Technology Park.
  • Coventry University is also home to the Centre for Sustainable Regeneration (SURGE), which is concerned with a wide range of issues associated with local economic development and sustainable communities.
  • The University has wide range of international connections, both within Europe and beyond, particularly the Middle-East and in Sub-Sahara Africa. 
  • The work of the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies (CPRS) is active in both teaching and research and has developed strong working relationships with faith communities, including Coventry Cathedral. 
  • The Technical and Business Education Initiative in South Africa (TABEISA) is based at Coventry University and is a joint initiative between South African and UK Universities. It is primarily aimed at social and economic development of disadvantaged communities in southern Africa. TABEISA has been successful in developing both social and business entrepreneurs and has recently been nominated by the European Union as its example of a success story in poverty alleviation and employment creation.

De Montfort University (DMU), Leicester

De Montfort University logo

  
  • Through its expertise in inter-cultural work across Europe, it is well placed to contribute to the Institute of Community Cohesion's research agenda.
  • Carried out research for the ODPM on the implications for social inclusion of developments in e-democracy and e-government.

University of Leicester

University of Leicester logo

  
  • Its Department of Criminology has built upon the previous work of the Scarman Centre. 
  • The University provides a particular focus on citizenship and also has a strong interest in the study of religion and faith. 
  • Leicester also contributes to the schools and education agenda, with the support of the Schools Development Agency (SDSA).

University of Warwick

Warwick University logo

  
  • Its Institute of Governance and Public Management is the umbrella body for all Warwick Business School's teaching and research in governance, public policy and management.
  • This includes the Warwick University Health Service Partnership, which is a partnership of leading UK strategic health authorities, hospital trusts and Primary Care Trusts.
  • Warwick also has a long standing Local Government Centre and Local Authorities Research Consortium, together with public sector leadership and social exclusion programmes, as well as longstanding academic specialities in race equality and social studies. Improvement and Development Agency for local government (IDeA).