Communicating research with the wider world
The Faculty of Social Sciences Knowledge Exchange Team 1
Contents What we do
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How we can help you
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Why is this important?
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The team
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Case Studies
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What we do The Faculty of Social Sciences Knowledge Exchange team works with partners across business and the public sector, charity/voluntary bodies and government to help achieve greater impact with the research we do. The team aims to create better knowledge transfer, enterprise, skills development and local regeneration activities, working towards the University’s vision of delivering life-enhancing research and innovation and education that not only transforms the lives of our graduates, but shapes the world we live in.
How we can help you Our team of knowledge exchange experts have backgrounds in research communications, business collaboration, research impact and public policy. The team will work directly with departments and partners to:
Develop excellent knowledge exchange activities that can lead to highly impactful research, like testing out ideas, influencing policymakers or finding ways to share ideas
Facilitate and develop collaborations with partners to free up your time to concentrate on the work you want to do
Help you identify potential future collaborations
Help and advise on funding applications, including Impact Accelerator Account (IAA)
Work across departments, University and wider networks to ensure research is profiled both internally and externally
Develop content for blogs, social media content, press and events on your behalf to translate your research findings to key external audiences
Collate data for reporting requirements and provide insights to Faculty and departments on your behalf
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Why is it important? Universities and higher education providers have long worked with businesses, the public sector, local communities and other stakeholders to deliver real world impacts. Academics and wider stakeholders are committed to changing behaviour, understanding, feelings, decisions, processes, strategy, perspectives, debate, products, or services. This has wider benefits to the health and wealth of society, the environment, the economy and our knowledge as a whole.
The team
Jo Jenner
Lucinda Bower
Katie Pruszynski
• Leadership • Strategy, • Research management • Bid development • Report writing
• Communications • Branding • Sustainability • Relationship building • Project management • Events • Creative thinking
• Communications • Stakeholder mapping • Relationship building • Creative dissemination • Political environments • Training
Rachael Black
Jennifer Watson
Amy Carter Gordon
• REF and impact • Charities/third sector • Funding applications • Reviewing applications • Reviewing documents
• REF and impact • Public policy development • Stakeholder engagement • Stakeholder mapping • Monitoring & evaluation • Events • Foreign languages
• Public engagement • Cultural & creative producer • Third sector partnerships • Festivals & events • Diverse networks • Local authority contacts • City regional contacts
To work with us, contact: fss-ke@sheffield.ac.uk 4
Case Studies Accessing and applying for knowledge exchange funding
The Canine Care Project, working with colleagues in the iHuman research institute
Organising policy events and building partnerships
Youth Employment UK, working with the School of Education
Knowledge exchange through creative public engagement
I’ll be here in the Morning, working with the Sustainable Care Programme
Networking to partnership to research collaborator
Forging a research collaboration between Dr Matthew Lariviere and the social enterprise Mobilise
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Working with the Knowledge Exchange Team The Canine Care Project Research Working with Professor Dan Goodley, Dr Kirsty Liddiard and Professor Katherine Runswick-Cole from the iHuman research institute, we supported the team in applying to the Impact Accelerator Account (IAA) to fund an off-shoot evaluation project which would specifically explore the role of support animals in the lives of disabled young people. The funding enabled the team to employ a researcher, who has her own canine partner, to conduct the study and produce an animation of the findings.
Feedback As a research team our work focuses on the experiences of disabled people across the life span by working in collaboration with disabled people, family members, advocacy groups, charities, and other organisations. Working with the Faculty of Social Sciences Knowledge Exchange team has enabled our research group to access funding, build partnerships with external organisations and increase the reach of our findings by using innovative ways of disseminating our research. The team has supported us across several projects to maximise and measure our
Professor Dan Goodley Results The research, conducted in collaboration with charity Canine Partners, has forged new understandings of the role of support animals and new partnerships with key stakeholders. The animation was launched at a public engagement event in 2020. Attendees included disabled people and their families, artists, representatives from Social Work England and health care professionals. Feedback was positive and attendees stated they had learned new information, would consider new ways of making information more accessible and would explore support dogs for their own relatives with disabilities. The project was featured in the Yorkshire Post, Disability Horizons and the Sheffield Star.
Working with the Knowledge Exchange Team Youth Employment UK Research The team worked with the School of Education to raise awareness of a research project exploring the huge employment gap for people with learning disabilities. The research found that cuts to education budgets combined with the current Special Education provision which is based on deficit does not equip young disabled people for work. In addition there is a lack of funding and support to enable disabled people to access internships, apprenticeships and paid employment.
What we did To maximise the reach of this research, we supported the School to organise policy roundtables in Sheffield and Manchester. We identified and invited attendees from charities, local government and government departments. Following the event, the School was able to maintain contact with key attendees including Youth Employment UK, the secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group in Youth Employment. We accessed internal funding to support potential REF case studies and to facilitate a collaborative project in which the School employed research associates to evaluate the accessibility and inclusivity of Youth Employment UK’s resources. On top of that, we organised a webinar hosted by Youth Employment UK, which combined research findings with disabled people’s own experience of accessing work. The webinar was shared on the Youth Employment UK website with 700 organisations who engage with their content every month.
Results The research associates produced guidance for Youth Employment UK when creating new resources for young people. They also created a more general guide for employers around employing disabled people. This is now hosted on both the Youth Employment UK and University of Sheffield websites.
Working with the Knowledge Exchange Team I’ll be here in the morning Research The Sustainable Care Programme, led by Professor Sue Yeandle, is a major multidisciplinary ESRC-funded research programme, comprising a number of work packages. The research team has the goal of supporting policymakers and practitioners to conceptualise sustainability in care (unpaid care, residential care and paid care in the home) as an issue of rights, values, ethics and justice. The grant is nearing completion, and the group was seeking ways to secure meaningful legacy impact that would also strengthen its bid for further major funding from the ESRC as it looks to transition to a new phase of research. We identified the Festival of Social Science as an appropriate vehicle to deliver a public engagement project to deliver legacy impact for the programme. This was due to a number of factors: firstly, the availability of funding (albeit fairly limited) specifically available for this kind of knowledge exchange work. Secondly, the Festival offers the chance to work with the central Partnerships and Regional Engagement Team, bringing with them their institutional knowledge and experience in the creative industries. Lastly, the Festival has fairly large-scale promotional activity attached to it, which we knew would be valuable for this kind of event. We discussed a number of possibilities before settling on a digital exhibition with works submitted by the general public. The Knowledge Exchange Team set up a steering group comprising members of the Sustainable Care Research Team, the Faculty Knowledge Exchange Team and a key external partner, Carers UK. We also established the schedule of work, and worked with the Programme Manager to deliver external communications in the form of the call for submissions, press releases, and social media posts.
Feedback
As a research team our work focuses on the experiences of disabled people across the life span by working in collaboration with disabled people, family members, advocacy groups, charities, and other organisations. Working with the Faculty of Social Sciences Knowledge Exchange team has enabled our research group to access funding, build partnerships with external organisations and increase the reach of our findings by using innovative ways of disseminating our research. The team has supported us across several projects to maximise and measure our knowledge exchange and impact.
Professor Sue Yeandle
Results The exhibition comprised 30 pieces submitted by the public from a range of backgrounds and experiences with receiving or providing unpaid care. Over the course of the week of the festival, the exhibition had over 700 visitors. We have had positive feedback from visitors, participants and the external partner. We secured regional press coverage for the exhibition and our social media posts attracted the attention of regional museums (including The Manchester Museum), carers groups and high profile figures including national journalists and media figures. We are now working with the Sustainable Care Programme to move the exhibition to a permanent digital home, and to work towards an accompanying book to further link these public experiences with the ongoing work of the research team. The exhibition feeds into the impact narrative of the Sustainable Care Programme as they seek major new funding from the ESRC for thenext phase of their work.
Working with the Knowledge Exchange Team Networking to partnership to research collaborator Research Dr Matthew Lariviere is a social anthropologist and gerontologist interested in two primary research areas: cross-cultural understandings and experiences of ageing and care, and the challenges and opportunities for technologies to support older adults, families, communities and the care workforce. As part of an ESRC funded project designed to connect social scientists with business, the Faculty of Social Sciences Knowledge Exchange Team organised an ‘Enterprise with Purpose’ knowledge share and networking event. The event brought together social enterprises with social purpose and academics from across the faculty. Spotting this as a chance to engage with a like minded business presenting at the event, Matthew talked to us about the best way to seize this opportunity. The team made an introduction and arranged a one to one meeting between Matthew and Mobilise, a tech start-up company set up and run by carers on a mission to make sure nobody has to navigate a caring role on their own. Sharing such similar research interests and wider societal impact objectives, Matthew and Mobilise were able to form a mutually beneficial working relationship.
What we did The Faculty Knowledge Exchange Team worked with Matthew and Mobilise to draft a research proposal for a project they could collaborate on; to understand how digital technology can support carers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The proposal was submitted to the ESRC’s Impact Accelerator Account, based on the excellent underpinning research within the Sustainable Care team and the opportunity for impact in affecting the way support services are delivered to carers. In addition to requesting IAA funds, we were also able to negotiate match funding from ASPECT,an external platform supporting the engagement of social scientists with enterprise. The full funds requested were awarded and the truly collaborative academic and social enterprise project could commence despite the challenges clearly associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Feedback
This project highlighted to me the potential power of business engagement for social scientists. With support from the Faculty Knowledge Exchange team, I was introduced to Mobilise. James Townsend, the Founder and Chief Executive of Mobilise, and I recognised our similarly aligned goals to explore the possibilities of technology for supporting caring and carers. The team provided guidance throughout the project to ensure we met key project milestones eventually resulting in the publication of our report, Caring during lockdown. Thanks to their intervention and support, I have developed an enduring partnership with Mobilise where we can continue to explore the opportunities for digital technology in care.
Dr Matthew Lariviere
Results Matthew, alongside his co-investigator from the University of Liverpool, published a report after analysing unique, proprietary data to explore the carers’ experiences through their use of digital technology to stay connected, and access support and services from their local authorities. Caring during lockdown: Challenges and opportunities for digitally supporting carers set out key recommendations to assist local authorities in caring for their carers through maintaining the carers’ community vital network of peer support during a national emergency. We helped to organise a formal launch event, which was attended by 80 stakeholders, including representatives from local authorities, BAME carer organisations, Mobilise and the research team as speakers/panellists. The report secured regional press coverage and has led to an ongoing series of conversations with local authorities around investment in digital technology and the provision of online support for carers. Mobilise, who work closely with local authorities, have also been able to adjust and improve their services in response to the findings of this report. Their current branding, ‘a tech start-up of carers for carers’, emerged through discussions with the study team.
Taking research out into the wider world The Faculty of Social Sciences Knowledge Exchange Team fss-ke@sheffield.ac.uk Designed by Nifty Fox Creative, 2021.
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