On Friday, 21 April, Scottish Enterprise and EPRC jointly organised a seminar Managing Regional Development in Scotland: From the SDA to the new Scottish Enterprise at the University of Strathclyde.
At a time when the future structure of Scottish Enterprise is under review, and with a mix of former and current senior directors of the SDA/SE and academics in the audience, this seminar was a timely opportunity to reflect on 30 years of economic development activity by Scotland's national development agency and to look forward at the challenges that lie ahead.
The seminar was chaired by Alf Young (The Herald) and involved two presentations: Professor Henrik Halkier (Aalborg University) presented an historical perspective on the Scottish Development Agency, examining how a development agency originally came to be established in Scotland, its performance from 1975 to 1991 and the factors that led to it being superseded by Scottish Enterprise.
Charlie Woods (Scottish Enterprise) then picked up the story from 1991, looking at how Scottish Enterprise has developed over the last 15 years and its plans for the future.