What is KEVRI?
If you're wondering what the word KEVRI means, it translates from the Cornish language as 'contribute'. KEVRI the company, however, is a digital start-up that supports universities and their academic staff to capture and showcase their Knowledge Exchange contributions.
Emily Devonald, Chief Marketing Officer at the Knowledge Exchange data start-up, KEVRI, gives us a snapshot of the company's aims and ambitions to provide a solution for better data capture in knowledge exchange.
What is KEVRI?
If you’re wondering what the word KEVRI means, it translates from the Cornish language as ‘contribute’. KEVRI the company, however, is a digital start-up that supports universities and their academic staff to capture and showcase their Knowledge Exchange contributions.
Who is KEVRI?
We are three entrepreneurs (Corin Mynett, Natalie Campion and Emily Devonald) who met at Launchpad - Falmouth University's venture studio. Prior to starting our business Natalie was a university lecturer, Emily was an international education journalist and Corin was a graphic and UI designer. Together, we share a passion for social impact and university innovation.
What does KEVRI do?
Over the past eight months, we have listened to many Knowledge Exchange leads, higher education industry professionals, university academics and staff.
From these shared discussions have arisen an understanding of shared challenges within the UK’s Knowledge Exchange landscape. We want to solve these challenges and enable university staff and academics to champion their university Knowledge Exchange projects.
Our solution
KEVRI’s solution is to build a centralised software system that optimises and captures essential KE and funding data through effective technology and UI design. We aim to remove blockers for both academics and institutions and create more efficient processes to allow innovations, products and technologies to be successfully commercialised.
Through the system, Academics, Project Co-ordinators and Knowledge Exchange Managers will be able to log their Knowledge Exchange (KE) projects quickly. The projects will be matched up to KE frameworks and directed to relevant metrics and data that need to be collated e.g. data for the annual Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) submission.
Submitted KE data will then be identified, collected and exported to relevant frameworks or internally using intuitive tools and KEVRI algorithms.Ultimately, we aim to save time and resources for both the institution and its staff when collecting essential KE data for funding purposes and the showcasing of projects.
Plus, by tracking industry and community collaborations within our system, we hope to increase university innovations and partnerships post-covid. We must also note that we are still in our beta testing phase and aim to have a market-ready product by mid-2022 (so stay tuned!).
What collaborations has KEVRI seen?
It’s no secret that the universities are melting pots of knowledge and innovation. Through our 1-1 discussions with UK university staff, we’ve discovered some incredible Knowledge Exchange collaborations happening across our nation.
For example, at Falmouth University we had the pleasure of capturing the Reporting Earth project which enabled young journalists across the UK to share best practice and generate actionable ideas for reporting the climate crisis.
And through recent discussions with (PraxisAuril board member) Matthew Sutherland and Sarah Stephenson from Northumbria University, we’ve witnessed some incredible Knowledge Exchange initiatives happening such as the innovative Help to Grow programme and their Why Small Business Matters podcast.It’s clear to us, and to organisations like PraxisAuril, that Knowledge Exchange within higher education is booming across the UK – so we must keep recognising and celebrating it!
Where is KEVRI now and what’s next?
For the next three months, we will be completing our product Beta Tests with our selected cohort of UK universities. By working iteratively with Knowledge Exchange Leads and academics, we can build and design a system that fits their needs and solves their data capture challenges.
We are also growing our team. We have recently recruited a creative marketing strategist and a software developer who both share the KEVRI vision.
To continue exchanging our knowledge with others, we also have many events on the horizon. One of these will be our exhibition debut at BETT London. So, if you’re there in March, please do visit our stand at the BETT Futures hall and say hello. We are also very much looking forward to attending the PraxisAuril Conference in Brighton this June and meeting fellow Knowledge Exchange enthusiasts!
If you’d like to hear more from us before those happenings, feel free to follow our LinkedIn Page here or email us at info@kevri.co. We are always open to discussing and discovering new ways to exchange knowledge!
Emily Devonald, KEVRI Chief Marketing Officer