NPIF ABC Business Collaboration Success

Highlighting our Business Collaboration Success

NPIF ABC 2020-2021

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Introduction The National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) Accelerating Business Collaboration (ABC) was awarded to the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York to expand opportunities and build the capability and capacity of social science doctoral students and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to engage and collaborate with business.

An area which has seen little engagement in comparison to STEM subjects, despite the value their expertise would bring.

Creating opportunities open to the seven institutions of the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership (WRDTP), we successfully delivered a suite of activities to support Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) and ECRs to engage effectively with business.

This document details our delivery highlights and the impact we have achieved for our social science community and the private sector by collaborating on key societal, economical and political challenges.

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Enterprise Support Routes Social Science Enterprise Programme In collaboration with our WRDTP partners we delivered a virtual commercialisation bootcamp (x2 half days across 4 weeks). The bootcamp attracted 28 WRDTP researchers with an interest in research commercialisation.

Content was developed and delivered by commercialisation professionals from across the WRDTP including Annie Thirlwell, Research Enterprise Manager for Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences, as well as external social enterprise, marketing and communication professionals.

Rather than cash prizes we offered three participants the opportunity to pitch and win up to £2k worth of brand and marketing support for their idea.

28

participants

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businesses supported

Social Sciences Enterprise Fellowships, York The aim of this programme was to provide seedcorn funding and support to develop collaborative activities with business. The scheme supported a variety of activities including: time spent on knowledge exchange activities with business, tailored training and development opportunities and relevant project costs.

4 industry partners enterprise 1 social partnership

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PhD students ECR

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Social Sciences Enterprise Pre-Accelerator, Sheffield Our pre-accelerator programme focused on developing ideas and early stage start-ups supporting a new generation of entrepreneurs that look at both profit and purpose equally. Looking at sustainability at the heart of business rather than an afterthought.

The cohort was equipped with the skills, knowledge, networks and inspiration to help make their ideas into a reality.

33

participants

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Career Development What Next? Social Science PhD and ECR Careers Week The Universities of Sheffield, Leeds and York, in partnership with the WRDTP, created a week of professional training, inspirational talks and career workshops held across the week commencing 22nd March 2021.

These digital events were designed to help PhD students and Early Career Researchers, navigate their next career move. Events were open to all Social Science PhD students and ECRs across the White Rose University network.

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alumni talks

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career workshops

650+ attendees during week

Series of Knowledge and Innovation Sharing Sessions - NEXUS at University of Leeds Social Science and Business: Opportunities for Impact and Career Development drop-in led by Leeds Social Sciences Institute, University of Leeds

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Career Development Workshops and 1:1 Coaching A series of workshops to help PhD and ECRs from across the Social Sciences and WRDTP prepare for a possible shift into a career outside of academia. We have curated a series of four workshops delivered by a Chartered Psychologist specialising in Career Development and Talent Management.

Workshops themes:

Why we need career resilience in the 21st Century and how to develop this What are your values? Exploring your own mission statement and examining if it’s a fit with the ethics and morals of the organisations you are interested in Embracing imposter syndrome Identifying opportunities: A ‘How To’ s session

1:1 coaching was offered to attendees to discuss their career objectives.

159 attendees

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1:1 coaching sessions

Communicating your Research to Business Workshops The key to making your research understood and collaborating with businesses is to speak plainly and to adopt a targeted approach to dissemination in short and accessible formats. The aim of these online workshops was to help researchers clearly communicate their existing research to private sector stakeholders, identify ways to approach and make connections with these stakeholders, as well as create potential collaborations.

30+ attendees

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workshops

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Capacity Building Live business challenge virtual workshops A series of six certificated, interactive, online programmes that equipped teams of PhDs and ECRs from across the WRDTP to understand and apply business analysis tools to create potential solutions for real business challenges.

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businesses

25

participants

Collaborative academic and industry projects, Sheffield Three truly collaborative projects between social science academics and industry partners were supported. These included a media consultancy partnership between The School of Education and the production company Dinosaur Roar, as well as a IBS awareness campaign between Sociological Studies and the travel and transport sector.

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projects

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PhD Working In industry Placements We created a set of resources to help the students maximise their experience on business placements. PGRs on placement were followed up via a Learning Gain Tool an app based self-assessment tool. PGRs were asked to complete this before and after their placement to explore the impact of this on their skills.

We used the feedback from this Tool to help develop a Reflective Diary. We now use these resources as standard across all the placements that we facilitate.

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Sheffield

Leeds

• Don’t do a Dodo, a Chesterfield business that aims to help local people ‘go green’ • Urban Wilderness landscape design and environmental consultancy • Strata Homes, Doncaster home builder

• Business in Nexus - Itecho Health, Research Toolkit and Focus Facilitation • Regional Businesses - INC360, Greencore, Fit Talent Management and Full Circle

Impact mentoring for PhDs/ECRs The focus of this mentoring was to improve individual impact and harness a number of practical, individual and organisational tools and techniques available. Mentoring was tailored and bespoke but the output was a clear impact action plan, which the PhD student / ECR could discuss with their supervisor / manager.

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mentees

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Developing your business idea, York A series of workshops delivered by The Big Bang Partnership, looking at what makes a great business idea and how to validate/develop it; a step-by-step guide to building a business investment case; leadership skills for innovation projects and enterprise; and how to innovate successfully in a partnership with businesses and other external partners.

71

participants

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For more information visit: york.ac.uk/social-science lssi.leeds.ac.uk Contact The Faculty of Social Sciences Knowledge Exchange Team, on fss-ke@sheffield.ac.uk

Designed by Nifty Fox Creative, 2021.

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