PraxisAuril, in partnership with the ESRC, are building a new Community of Practice dedicated to social venture building and commercialisation of Arts, Humanities and Social Science research.
PraxisAuril are building on existing work from our Special Interest Group, our dedicated conference sessions and many fruitful forum conversations we have facilitated to develop a new dedicated Community of Practice for Social Venture building and self-sustaining Commercialisation of Arts, Humanities and Social Science research.
This new CoP will go beyond the vital mapping of different players in this growing field within the sector. With support from ESRC we will be creating a series of practical challenges and focussed networking events that aim to tackle directly the cultural and institutional barriers that affect AHSS researchers when trying to carry out non-profit work, start commissioned partnerships with the third and public sector, as well as building fully independent spin-out social ventures and commercial vehicles. From this we will coproduce professional training, practice or other intervention as required to create the right conventions within the workforce providing this support.
The Problem
There are many factors involved in growing this part of research translation. From applying STEM processes to less tangible outputs, through garnering recognition in institutions for this novel work as well as communicating the opportunity for large scale impact and social value in this work to academics who are hesitant around the term commercialisation.
As well as practically walking through the specific challenges that will tackle these issues across our sector, a key aspect will be bridging the gap between professionals providing this support and social enterprise infrastructure. Obviously, funding is the biggest ask, but there are also huge gains to be made by having organisational development support more available as well as a platform of like-minded people in and outside of universities who can provide advice and presence to speed up the first steps which still seem so novel to many people. By taking part you will help decide what best practice looks like and how it is shared across the sector.
Get Involved
We are building a community, and like everything we do here at PraxisAuril this must be led by the incredible contributions made by our members and beyond. The best way to stay posted is on our Members Forum for AHSS. Click here to go straight to the group.
This will be the dedicated platform for updates, discussions, and anything about how to get involved in the conversation and decide the priorities as we coproduce this cultural and professional change defining a new area of work in research.
Challenge Workshops
In Autumn we will hold a series of practical workshops to enact the solutions to issues affecting efficient and recognised social-focussed innovation and AHSS commercialisation. We will use the forum to let members decide which topics are most important and some other details of the workshop, but we are excited for this to be a conversation throughout, so get in touch any time via Arnie.king@praxisauril.org.uk.
And register for the workshops HERE