Partnerships & Policy
Partnerships are at the heart of many knowledge exchange activities and come in many shapes and sizes. Defining the start of a partnership is often difficult other than in retrospect but the realisation that a partnership has been created can be a powerful moment; leading to more significant activity and greater robustness for the organisations involved.
Policy partnerships have become a more established part of KE but are still a relatively new field in terms of metrics and value, and engagement may struggle to grow to be more than interactional and ‘one-off’. Policy engagement at the local or regional levels, may offer more potential for partnership working due to proximity and shared objectives around local growth and skills.
Submissions might address:
- Developing strategic partnerships for KE-led change
- Capacity building in small and/or specialised institutions
- Making it stick: building teams, scaling up, securing long-term impact
- Recruitment and skills challenges in IP-related roles
- Consolidating multiple interactions to build strategic agreements (personal to institutional; modest to substantial)
- Reaching beyond the usual suspects – breaking into new markets for KE partnerships
- Multi-party external collaboration models – challenges and opportunities
- Crossing boundaries – bringing together multi-sector and multi-disciplinary teams
|
|
Leadership & Professionalism
In a changing landscape, leadership of knowledge exchange calls for a strong foundation in strategy, and the ability to translate goals and ideals through positive action. Building strong, diverse teams with the right skills is essential to success in achieving strategic goals and wider impact of research.
As knowledge exchange becomes ever more important to social, economic and cultural change in the UK, professionalisation of this sector is likely to become more important, as will structures that define, support and build competencies and confidence needed within the different career paths in KE.
Submissions might address:
- Institutional transformation
- Policy oversight and translation into action
- How the KE Concordat has helped build KE professionalism
- Capacity building in small and/or specialised institutions
- Making it stick: building teams, scaling up, securing long-term impact
- Recruitment and skills challenges in IP-related roles
- Strategic toolkits for long-term success and impact
- Case studies of successful leadership and transformation
- Professional standards frameworks and professional career development
- Fostering and promoting diversity to build successful teams
- The advent of hybrid academic-professional services KE roles
- Training for leadership in KE
|
|
Innovation & Commercialisation
Innovation and impact are twin goals for knowledge exchange that targets economic, social and cultural change. Expectations are high around IP commercialisation, particularly following 2023’s Independent Review of University Spinout Companies and its recommendations for the university sector.
We need to innovate when it comes to commercialisation models, approaches and skills, and we need to build trust and confidence in our research commercialisation system to encourage founders and attract more investors. Novel approaches may be found in non-university research organisations, in industry or in multi-stakeholder innovation groups. Less experienced and resource-rich universities can also offer new approaches.
Submissions might address:
- Direction of Innovation
- New models for commercialisation activity
- The Independent Spin-out review six months on
- Artificial Intelligence: opportunities and challenges for TTOs
- Commercialisation in SHAPE and sustaining impact and measuring social value
- Facilitating Student-led Entrepreneurialism
- IP Commercialisation Policy development
- Capacity building in small and/or specialised institutions
- Making it stick: scaling up, securing long-term impact
- Audit IP of research base/ Assessing protection requirement of IP/ Measuring Technology Readiness Levels/
- Addressing lack of experience and skill- gaps for commercialisation
- Building IP-rich commercialisation ecosystems
|
