Paul Benneworth passed away unexpectedly in his sleep on Tuesday 12 May. Paul had been an associate of PASCAL and an internationally renowned writer on universities and their engagement with place, amongst many other topics. His passing at the young age of 46 is a tragic loss to his wife Leanne, two young children, and their family, but also to an international network of researchers who have benefitted from Paul’s deep scholarship, sharp mind and most importantly his generosity of spirit.
Paul worked at three universities: Newcastle, Twente and latterly at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. At Newcastle he did his PhD in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies on innovation and the modernisation of the North East of England. He then developed his interests in universities and regional development and among other things co-authored the university-regional benchmarking tool used in the PASCAL PURE project. He led an ESRC project there on universities and disadvantaged communities, later published by Springer. In 2009 he moved to Twente in the Netherlands as a senior researcher in the Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies, and led studies on the public value of the humanities and the contribution of universities to European Territorial capacity. He was a core member of the COST network, ENRESSH (European Network for Research Evaluation in Social Sciences and Humanities) and led a large transnational project on knowledge and cities. (https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/news/2020/5/615595/in-memoriam-paul-benneworth [1]) In 2019 he moved to Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (Høgskulen på Vestlandet) as professor of innovation and regional development developing a new PhD programme on Responsible Regional Innovation.
Paul was hugely committed to supporting PhDs and early career researchers, and in the last few years he was a core member of the RUNIN Marie Curie network on the role of universities in regional innovation. He played a major role in the development of the project and on the supervision of PhDs from across the network. Their memories of him can be found at https://runinproject.eu/paul-benneworth-in-memoriam/ [2] and https://runinproject.eu/pauls-memoire-by-the-phd-fellows/ [3]. Paul especially contributed to the support offered to ECRs by the Regional Studies Association which he played an active role in from being a PhD student rep on the board, then editing the association’s newsletter ‘Regions’, the ‘Regional Insights’ magazine and introducing an early career mentored paper section. https://www.regionalstudies.org/news/a-message-from-sally-hardy-rsa-ceo-in-memoriam-of-paul-benneworth/ [4] He helped launch many young researchers as acknowledged by many comments on Twitter following his passing.
Paul also had a huge appreciation for place and a great concern about inequality, represented throughout his work, but also in his private life. He retained a love for the coastal area near Newcastle upon Tyne, growing up in Tynemouth, and moving back to Whitley Bay last year. His love of sport - rugby, football, cricket and cycling – was tied up with local affiliations, Whitley Bay football club as well as Newcastle United, and FC Twente. He wrote a regular column for the local newspaper on economic development issues, even as an ex-pat living in the Netherlands. https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/tribute-paul-benneworth-expert-who-18297517 [5] Paul was always a kind and generous person and deeply engaged where he lived.
His loss is enormous, both for what he achieved and the love and appreciation of his family and friends, but also for the work he would have done had lived. In half a career he did so much more than most, the promise for the next twenty years has been taken from us all.
See https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AZIVIBiyuVdY_JxV7wyLrTFHgILPdIbu/view [6] for a memorial ceremony held by his university. Contributions are being made in his name to Tiny Lives and the Regional Studies Association https://www.justgiving.com/team/PaulBenneworth [7]