Peter Tyler is Professor of Urban and Regional Economics at the University of Cambridge. He has an established reputation in the field of urban and regional economics with a particular emphasis on the evaluation of policy. This is illustrated by him having been a Project Director for over sixty major research projects for Government and which has resulted in the publication of forty research monographs of which twenty-four have been of book length. He has published in all the major academic journals in the field. He has been responsible for evaluating a range of regeneration measures across the United Kingdom and directed the national evaluation of the Single Regeneration Budget for ODPM .The programme lasted nine years and assembled a considerable research platform from which to assess the achievements of regeneration policy. Most recently he has been team leader on a major research initiative funded by HM Government entitled Creating Places for Enterprising Development-the Geography of Innovation. This project is collaboration between the Department of Land Economy and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and investigates why new and growing enterprises, particularly with a technology edge, thrive in certain places and not in others and what may be the role for policy intervention.

Peter is also working on the national evaluation of the New Deal for Communities initiative in England and the interim evaluation of Neighbourhood Management Pathfinders with a specific focus on Value For Money issues. In Scotland he has led research into the effectiveness of Social Inclusion Partnerships, and in Northern Ireland he has advised the Department of Social Development on the performance measurement issues relating to its neighbourhood renewal strategy. He is a member of the National Evaluation of Sure Start panel, and an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. He was Coordinating Editor of Regional Studies until April 2005.