HEFCE CALL FOR EVIDENCE: Good practice in knowledge exchange
Response from the UK Research Councils
Introduction
The submission is made on behalf of the following Research Councils:
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Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
The Research Councils welcome HEFCE’s call for evidence of good practice in knowledge exchange
(KE). We are committed to understanding the qualities of, and the mechanisms behind, effective KE
so we can invest in activities that work for researchers, ROs, funders and non-academic partners.
We would be very pleased to be involved in the production of your guide to effective KE and
contribute further examples and evidence of effective practice over the coming months.
Below we describe some KE practices being undertaken by Research Organisations that RC funding
has enabled which we consider represent effective practice. We have included where possible
evidence from evaluations or positive feedback. There are a number of ongoing evaluations which
we will share with HEFCE if we can. We consider many of these approaches reflect the Dowling
Review’s call for flexible, accessible and responsive mechanisms delivered at the research
organisation level, in close co-operation with business and social partners. We aim to continue in
this spirit.
Effective practice 1: Embedding KE for impact in research proposals from the ideas stage
The Research Councils position on knowledge exchange is clearly articulated in the RCUK KE Policy.
As well as separate KE activities, KE is primarily embedded in research projects by encouraging coproduction and high degrees of collaboration between researchers, industry, civil society and policy
makers. Through the Pathways to Impact process, we enable researchers to build in impact
strategies and knowledge exchange activities that are carefully considered and adequately
resourced to maximise the potential for impact. We understand that even the best planned KE
activities cannot guarantee impact and we support KE activities not necessarily to generate a
financial return to an individual, research group, institution or the Councils, but to deliver the widest
range of benefits to the UK economy and society from the excellent research, people and facilities in
which we invest.
Effective practice 2: Recognising the achievement of KE professionals within ROs
PraxisUnico and the Research Councils (under RCUK) have collaborated to establish the Impact
Awards for KE professionals. These awards aim to facilitate the sharing of best practice and to
acknowledge and celebrate the work that Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation (KEC)
professionals do in enabling impact from UK research organisations. Our aspiration is that the
Impact Awards for KE professionals develops into one of the primary routes for identifying and
celebrating best practice in KE. HEFCE was involved in the selection process of the finalists 1 and
these have been shared with Adrian Day at HEFCE who kindly participated in the awards moderation
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http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/media/news/impact-awards-for-kec-professionals-shortlist-highlights-successesstrategies/
panel. Of the 64 applications received to this year’s awards, 17 cited HEFCE as a source of funding.
For more information on this initiative, please contact Alex Chaix at BBSRC.
Effective practice 3: Enabling RO agility to support impacts from existing research
EPSRC, ESRC, NERC, BBSRC and STFC have introduced, are considering introducing, Impact
Acceleration Accounts (IAAs) as either their primary mechanism for enabling ROs to support KE
activities for impact or as part of a wider portfolio. IAAs introduce greater agility and flexibility for
Research Organisations (ROs) who are empowered to take strategic-level decisions about how best
to invest IAA funding within their specific context. EPSRC has committed £60M to IAAs over three
years; after two years this has resulted in £78M of cash and in-kind leverage, 618 new research
partners and 358 secondments between business and academia. The leverage capability, agility and
overall effectiveness of IAAs in the overall KE landscape has been recognised (Dowling, 2015,
paragraphs 90-91).
The MRC’s Proximity to Discovery: Industry Engagement Fund will enable more and better
interactions between academics doing discovery science and researchers from across the Life
Sciences to respond quickly to opportunities for collaborations at the very earliest stages of
research. People exchanges are a key component of the scheme and will give people from
universities and industry an understanding of each other’s work and an opportunity to exchange
knowledge and skills to support new collaborative projects.
Several Research Councils operate follow on funding (FoF) schemes where researchers apply for an
award to generate impact from existing research:
• The AHRC’s Follow-on-Fund for Impact and Engagement awards have had an impact on
legislation, the creation of spinouts, the support of exhibitions and performances,
• An evaluation of the The BBSRC follow-on fund has also found evidence of further investments
attracted by researchers involved in translational activities.
Effective practice 4: Enabling ROs to support co-production
The AHRC-led cross-Council Connected Communities Programme is made up of more than 900
partnerships and connects the research base with the knowledge, experience and assets of
communities with aim of generating new research insights and meaningful legacies for communities.
For more information on this initiative, please contact Sue Hanshaw at AHRC.
Innovation and Knowledge Centres (IKCs) are university-based centres of excellence set up to
accelerate and promote business exploitation of an emerging research and technology field.
Operating at an earlier stage than Catapult centres, IKCs are led by an expert entrepreneurial team
and offer a shared space and entrepreneurial environment in which researchers, potential
customers and professionals from academia and business can work side by side on commercial
applications of emerging technologies. Collectively the IKCs have 79 university partners and 189
business partners; and have secured £132M of additional research income and £43M of business
investment. Tthe outputs have included 60 patent applications and 11 spin-out companies. The
impact that an IKC has on its local and regional economies is recognised with substantial funding
from Invest NI and Welsh Government for IKCs. For more information on this initiative, please
contact David Mulligan, EPSRC.
The “blue skies” collaboration between Astra Zeneca and the MRC’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology
demonstrates how RC support can encourage business to collaborate on pre clinical research
projects.
The AHRC’s Digital R&D Fund for the arts in England, Scotland and Wales enables collaboration
between arts and humanities researchers, technology providers and arts organisations. An external
evaluation of this scheme has been commissioned and should report by the end of 2015. For more
information on this initiative, please contact Heather Williams at AHRC. The AHRC’s Knowledge
Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy (KE Hubs) have shown how arts and humanities can
support business development and that different approaches to co-creation and co-production are
required to work with creative economy businesses. To date, these four consortia which include
30HEIs across the UK have engaged with over 1100 microbusinesses and SMEs.
Effective practice 5: Enabling ROs to support early career researcher development
CASE Studentships and doctoral partnerships enable doctoral students to develop their skills in
collaboration and researching for impact. PhD students undertake cutting-edge research relevant to
non academic organisations‘ priorities and objectives. An evaluation of the BBSRC Industrial CASE
scheme evaluation found that 73% of industry supervisors stated that industry placement was
beneficial to their company. The AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Awards/Partnerships scheme has
supported 595 studentships at 87 HEIs across the UK with over 100 non-academic partners while
their Cultural Engagement Fund pilot scheme has enabled Early Career Researchers from 45 HEIs to
engage with 120 businesses, charity and public body partners in their local cultural sector. Between
2011 and 2014, 110 ESRC supported doctoral students were recipients of co-funding.
Effective practice 6: Enabling ROs to offer embedded research capacity
ESRC investment has enabled a Social Science Section (SSS) at the Parliamentary Office for Science
and Technology (POST) to be established. This provides parliamentarians with access to
independent social science expertise which is wholly integrated with POST’s expertise on biological
and physical sciences. ESRC DTC students can apply to spend time at POST through time limited
fellowships who work alongside the core POST team learning how to communicate effectively with a
range of audiences and to fully support Parliament in its legislative role. There are anecdotal reports
that the Social Science Section has been particularly successful in creating a visible access point for
social scientists into Parliament. They have also established the first whole Parliament research
training programme where leading researchers are helping to develop research literacy amongst
support and analytical staff. A research project accompanying this investment will report later this
year on the impact of the SSS on Parliament. For more information on this initiative, please
contact Natalie Jones at ESRC.
Effective practice 7: Support for ROs to offer KE fellowships for researchers
Several Research Councils enable ROs to fund researchers to spend time in business and social
organistions, which have been found to be an effective route to impact and partnership
development. 76% of BBSRC’s Industrial Partnership Award and ‘stand alone’ LINK schemes
grantholders maintained a partnership link with their industrial partner after the grant ended while
the Diet and Health Industry Research Industry Club (DRINC) was indicated as important for the
development of 58% of business-researcher partnerships. The STFC’s Innovations Partnership
Scheme has enabled the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA) to host an IPS Fellow which has
helped to secure over £3.5M in knowledge exchange funding to Alliance partners and has helped to
facilitate six new commercial ventures and more than forty new projects. A recent external
evaluation of NERC’s Knowledge Exchange Fellowships found six Fellows have already had their work
feature in REF case studies despite this being a relatively new scheme. Overall, the impacts cited
cover the full spectrum from policy advice and regulatory issues through to helping companies
improve their operations and generate commercial benefit.
RC level initiatives
The N8 Research Partnership is undertaking a programme partly funded by the ESRC to explore new
models of co-production. It aims to develop and learn from a series of case studies across northern
England to examine how the rigour and quality of research can be maintained alongside achieving
practical relevance. The projects include an examination of alternative forms of impact, skills for coproduction and what early engagement between researchers and co-producers can look like. There
will be an opportunity to shape the recommendations arising from this work in November this year.
HEFCE is very welcome to participate in this discussion and action planning activity. For more
information on this initiative, please contact Natalie Jones at ESRC.
The ESRC’s web based impact toolkit offers researchers at all stages in their careers guidance and
advice on developing effective Pathways to Impact submissions. It advises researchers how to build
contacts and networks with non academic stakeholders, how to clarify the purpose of knowledge
exchange activities and how to communicate effectively with different audiences. Anecdotally it is
known that researchers regularly comment on its usefulness as a resource and it is shared regularly
between peers. For more information on this initiative, please contact Victoria Morrisroe at ESRC.
The AHRC’s Partnership Working in the Arts and Humanities: A Guide to Good Practice is a webbased interactive guide to support researchers in developing partnerships. In addition, the AHRC
produced a guidance document to support researcher engagement with policy makers and policy
with its Guidance on planning and demonstrating effective policy engagement.