REVIEW, REGROUP, REVOLUTION: CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS JUNE 8-10 2021
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CONTENTS Welcome from Maxine Ficarra
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Women in Knowledge Exchange and Spinouts
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Conference Schedule
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Chair’s Keynote Summary
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Boosting Business Resilience: Helping Businesses Recover from the Impact of COVID-19
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Social Science Commercialisation: Where do we go from here?
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KEF Metrics
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Supporting the Supply Side: Inspiring Change Through Incentives
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CRM Systems for KE
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Launch of the KE Skills Framework
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Future Funding: Research England
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KE Creative: Knowledge Exchange with the Arts and Culture Sector
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Keynote: KE Concordat
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Emerging IP Issues
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Improving KE Interactions with Medical Charities
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Diversity in KE
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Partners in Collaboration: Bringing the R&D Supply and Demand Chain Together
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The Physiological Society: Disciplinary Aspects of Knowledge Exchange
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Conference Review
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Powering the digital infrastructure and data analysis behind Knowledge Exchange
26
Thank you to our Conference Committee
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PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Welcome| 3
WELCOME FROM MAXINE FICARRA Welcome to our first conference proceedings – a summary of our annual conference, held online and bigger and better than ever in terms of representation from both member and stakeholder organisations. As we start to think ahead to what will be – fingers crossed – a real celebration in Brighton in 2022, I hope that you will be inspired to read through the conference summaries and reflections provided by session Chairs and speakers. Special thanks go to Browne Jacobson, who sponsored this publication. Don’t forget that PraxisAuril members can also access videos of all the conference sessions on our YouTube channel here (along with an archive of ShedTalks and KEnCoffee sessions). A huge thanks to Tamsin Mann, PraxisAuril’s Director of Policy & Comms, who directed the programme this year and to all the volunteer session Chairs and speakers, without whom the conference wouldn’t have been possible. To all of you who registered and attended and engaged so brilliantly online in some of the most thoughtprovoking discussions we’ve ever seen at conference, thank you - let’s make next year even more compelling, face to face in Brighton AND online! We’re already starting to plan for June 2022. Our Conference Committee Chair, Shona Campbell, University of Brighton, shares her reflections on this year’s event and a few aspirations for when we can join her on the sea front in June 2022. If you would like to suggest a new topic or get involved in helping to shape or chair a session, then it’s not too late. We are committed to making the PraxisAuril conference a platform and a forum for a broad range of perspectives and shared experiences, accessible
to all. Whether you are relatively new to the profession or very experienced, or simply want to find out more about the wonderful world of knowledge exchange, your view really matters, and we’d love to hear from you and discuss how we can support you to get involved. 2022 is an important year for another reason: it marks the 20th anniversary of professional development for KE professionals launched by PraxisAuril (then simply, Praxis) in October 2002. Knowledge exchange has grown hugely in terms of its breadth, reach and relevance to the world of research and impact, and we’re incredibly proud of the role that our members have played in that. We want to make the most of our conference platform to profile the KE profession and hear your stories of how you make KE happen, your successes and perhaps some of your challenges too! We’d love to see some new faces up onstage next year as we explore what the next generation of KE practitioners are doing to innovate in KE, as their predecessors did. I’d like to take the opportunity to say thank you to the PraxisAuril Board for their support and guidance over the last year and to our brilliant exec team – who weathered the 2020 storm with professionalism and good humour. A final thank-you to all those brilliant individuals and organisations who have been involved with the planning and delivery of all our digital events in 2020/21. And to our sponsors and supporters, Browne Jacobson, IP Pragmatics, Jisc and UKRI. Maxine Ficarra, PraxisAuril CEO
WOMEN IN KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE AND SPINOUTS Women may have broken down many professional and personal barriers, but significant gender disparity remains in the research and development community. Female entrepreneurs account for just one in five university spinout founders, and only 12% of new spinouts have at least one female director at the helm. The diversity of knowledge exchange (KE) professionals was discussed during an insightful session held on 10 June at the PraxisAuril Conference 2021, and speakers including Anji Millar and Megan Aanstoos shared thought-provoking views on the current diversity landscape within KE. It was really interesting to hear while many of the organisations that the audience worked for had equality, diversity and inclusion leads with a specific focus on this agenda, the majority of the audience still thought there was room for improvement.
It is clear that there is a long way to go, and each KE professional has a part to play in educating themselves and others to work towards a more diverse and inclusive environment.
Encouraging more female led spinouts Focussing specifically on female involvement, our experience has shown that historically many women developing innovative concepts in universities are often less likely to commercialise any intellectual property (IP) assets they create, and instead have previously continued their work through tried and tested applications for grant funding. However, we are witnessing more female led spinouts being established and far more women in universities looking to commercial their IP assets in recent years, and we hope that this trend continues so that female representation increases.
It is also interesting that almost all spinout companies are exclusively in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine (STEMM) areas, which have historically attracted fewer women than men. The Equality Challenge Unit has previously reported that only 18.5% of all professors and only 25.5% of academic senior managers in STEMM disciplines are women. Although, 43.4% of postgraduate researchers in STEMM are women, which poses the question as to why more women are not becoming entrepreneurs of new spinout companies. As a follow on from the Conference session, Selina Hinchliffe, a Partner at Browne Jacobson, recently hosted a webinar which discussed the key issues that women entrepreneurs face in spinouts including:
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Women in Knowledge Exchange and Spinouts | 5
• the barriers faced by women entrepreneurs entering the market and commercialising their intellectual property and knowhow; • the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs in seeking external funding and funding initiatives in place to specifically support women; • why so few women are involved in university spinout companies; and • what can be done to improve female involvement in the spinout and investment community. The guests who discussed these issues included, Kate Walker (Founder of ExpHand), Frankie Snobel (Founder of Tipplesworth), Megan BinghamWalker (Co-Founder & CEO of Anasai), Sandy Reid (Investment Director, Mercia) and Bethany Watrous (Director Experience Heritage).
Commercialisation of intellectual property in spinouts Most universities have become actively involved in forming spinout companies as a method of commercialising IP. Implementing a clear pathway to commercialise IP is also more attractive to researchers and academics working within the university. A spinout company will usually acquire some IP from the university, or it will have licensing arrangements in place to enable the spinout company to use and develop the IP. To maximise the commercialisation of IP in spinouts, any available grant funding for research and development of IP should be
considered and innovative collaborations with third party organisations can be another way to bring IP to market quickly. Collaboration and research and development agreements can govern the relationship with any third party’s which may be involved in funding the research. The most notable issues which often arise are: • Who will own the IP rights which are being developed, or currently used during the development? • Will there be any licenses of IP rights, and what type of license will this be? • How will the spinout company be paid for its research and development? • What will the royalty structure look like when the IP is commercialised? These are all important questions which should be fully explored between the parties and reflected in any collaboration or research and development agreement.
Corporate and governance considerations for a spinout Spinouts raise over £1bn a year with the most recent trends being in the pharmaceutical and artificial intelligence sectors. However, recent data suggests that 41% of spinouts cease activity between five and 10 years after formation and the average age at ‘death’ of a spinout is 7.4 years. This can be for a wide variety of reasons; both successful and not so successful. At the start of the spinout journey
Sam Sharp Senior Associate Sam.Sharp@brownejacobson.com +44 (0)7919 165061
there are justifiable high expectations and hopes for all stakeholders. Maintaining this through the process of spinning out and growth is not straightforward; it requires compromise on all sides and a deep understanding of both how to stay aligned at inception and with a view to an exit. The mechanics of commercialisation can be straightforward - assign or licence intellectual property or know-how to a newly incorporated company, agree the board composition and shareholding structure as well as controls to allow the new board to grow the business, transfer/second/employ staff and exit. The legal structure of a spinout is vital to its success because it is the incentivisation structure which drives commercialisation. There are excellent opportunities for boards to include academics representing the HEI to further the connection between HEIs and industry as well as, of course, generating a return on investment in research and development for the HEI. A structured forward-looking approach to the issues can only help increase the success of both spinning out technology and keeping it spinning. Browne Jacobson LLP has extensive experience working with universities, venture and growth capital investors and high growth tech companies in which HEIs hold shares. To find out more about how they can help with your spinout strategy visit their website.
Jess Johnson Associate Jessica.Johnson@brownejacobson.com +44 (0)7976 437211
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Conference Schedule | 6
CONFERENCE 2021 TUESDAY 8TH JUNE
WEDNESDAY 9TH JUNE
Review: Day one offers a chance to take stock of the changes we’ve had to make around the how, where and why of KE during the pandemic year. Responding to Covid-19 put KE firmly in the spotlight as never before, whilst we all had to adapt to new ways of working that turned business-models upside down and brought down geographical barriers.
Regroup: Day two sets up our launch pad for the future. We’ve seen how KE can operate in a crisis but we can’t work at crisis pace for ever, so what elements do we want to retain? This day is about assessing the current state of play and setting the scene for our way forward.
09:00 – Welcome to the PraxisAuril Annual Conference 2021: Iain Thomas, PraxisAuril Chair 09:15 – Keynote, Chas Bountra, PVC Innovation, Oxford University
Parallel 1 11:00 – Boosting Business Resilience: Robin Knight, INPART; Janine Coomber, University of Kent; Paul Kirkbright, BIG South London Partnership; Benjamin White, BCU Advantage
Parallel 2 11:00 – KE Social Science Commercialisation: Chris Felingham, Oxford University Innovation; Syahirah Abdul Rahman, Oxford Brookes University; Rachel Middlemass, Zinc; Melanie Knetsch, ESRC; Tim Vorley, Oxford Brookes University 13:00 – KEF Metrics Workshop with Research England: Hamish McAlpine, Sacha Ayres, Ellen Bamford, Rosie Lavis from Research England, UKRI
Parallel 1 15:00 – CRM Systems for KE: Sophie Chadwick, Canterbury Christ Church University; Heidi Hammond, University of the Arts London; Rosemary Nunn, I&K, The Innovation and Knowledge Agency; Mairi Gibbs, Oxford University Innovation; Rukmal Abeysekera, University of York
Parallel 2 15:00 – Supporting the Supply Side: Georgine Jamieson, Edinburgh Napier University; Jaci Barnett, University of Bristol; Danielle Miles, University of Leeds 16:15 – What we’ve learned: Wrap up session
09:00 – Launch of the KE Skills Framework: Jennie Shorley, Manchester Metropolitan University; Sarah Stables, Stables Consulting; Alasdair Cameron, University of Strathclyde; Sophie Duncan, NCCPE; Shona Campbell, University of Brighton
Parallel 1 11:00 – Future Funding Opportunities: Britta Wyatt, Oxentia; Rachel Tyrrel, Michael Clark, Hamish McAlpine, Louise Wall, Tim Shuttleworth from Research England
Parallel 2 11:00 – Knowledge Exchange with the Arts and Culture Sector: Suzie Leighton and Evelyn Wilson, The National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange 13:00 – Keynote, KE Concordat: Trevor McMillan, University of Keele and Chair of the KEC Steering Group; Phil Clare, University of Oxford; Greg Wade, Universities UK; Joe Marshall, NCUB; Amanda Baxendale, University of Derby
Parallel 1 15:00 – Emerging IP Issues in Post-Brexit Trade Agreements: David Secher, University of Cambridge; Charlotte Teal, Forresters IP; Alasdair Poore, Mills and Reeve
Parallel 2 15:00 – Improving KE Interactions with Medical Charities: Tony Hickson, Cancer Research UK and Angela Kukula, Institute for Cancer Research 16:15 – What we’ve learned: Wrap up session
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REVIEW, REGROUP, REVOLUTION THURSDAY 10TH JUNE Revolution: Day three focuses on where we go from here. How do we create our own ‘new normal’ for future KE that plays a part in addressing urgent challenges such as climate change? How have public and business expectations of KE changed during 2020 and what opportunities does that provide? 09:00 – Diversity in KE Professionals: Maxine Ficarra, CEO of PraxisAuril; Carole Barron, University of Kent; Anji Millar, LifeArc; Megan Aanstoos, Kentucky Commercialization Ventures; Tom Hockaday, Technology Transfer Innovation
Parallel 1 11:00 – Partners in Collaboration: Julia Swinbank, Durham University; Peter Wilkins, Defence & Security Accelerator; Nicola Nuttall, University of Exeter; Josephine DixonHardy, University of Leeds
Parallel 2 11:00 – Physiological Society: Adrian Day and Andrew Mackenzie, The Physiological Society; Beverley Vaughan, Anglia Ruskin University; Tim Curtis, Queen’s University Belfast; Tamsin Mann, PraxisAuril 13:00 – PraxisAuril Report to members: Maxine Ficarra, CEO PraxisAuril and Iain Thomas, PraxisAuril Chair
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Chari’s Keynote Summary | 8
CHAIR’S KEYNOTE SUMMARY Don’t Mention the Pandemic This year of the covid-19 pandemic had been a dramatic and testing year for most people. However, I am struck by the fact that it has brought out the best in people in all walks of life from the caring professions to researchers and everyone in between. In our world, the contributions of research institutions up and down the country to testing centres, ventilator designs and PPE supply have been phenomenal and, in many instances, helped by swift-acting and sophisticated knowledge exchange professionals. However, without a doubt, the most astonishing contribution to rolling back the effects of the pandemic is the global commitment to covid vaccinations. In the UK, we can only be hugely grateful for the commitment of the Oxford and AstraZeneca teams that have brought hundreds of millions of vaccines to upper arms up and down the country and across the world. Whilst only those in Oxford will know what they had to do to partner so swiftly and successfully with AstraZeneca to get to where we are today, it is safe to assume that
skilled, dedicated and creative KE professionals played an important part in that process. Congratulations on a job well done. What is also striking is that other successful vaccines also had their origins in academic research for example: Moderna from the University of Pennsylvania and Pfizer-BioNTech from the University of Mainz. Those technologies being licensed to commercial biotech/ pharma companies were also facilitated by KE professionals doing their jobs well and unsung. The world is a better place because of the effective deployment and exploitation of the fruits of publicly funded research. We have all benefitted and I am reminded of the words of Churchill from the summer of 1940: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”
Democratized From the dramatic and profound to the mundane. We all had to keep working from kitchen tables to sheds. We have all had to learn to work in new ways with colleagues and partners with new technologies. We have been forced to re-evaluate what
we do, how we do it and make the most of the situations in which we have found ourselves. We have missed our friends and colleagues but the new ways of working have come with some distinct benefits; especially to our jobs. It has never been easier to get a quick half hour meeting with busy people, or to bring people together across different geographies and organization (from continents apart or just buildings apart). These meetings are the basic building blocks of the partnerships that our profession is committed to finding, building and cultivating. This ease of access has helped break down hierarchies, allowed greater access and enabled people to have more exploratory meetings. The new ways of working have democratized many working environments KE is no exception.
PraxisAuril: change for the better PraxisAuril has had to adapt to the market and community we serve as much as any. Training courses and conferences are the life blood of our business and we have all enjoyed attending those events to network with new colleagues, meet old friends, learn new things and
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Chari’s Keynote Summary | 9
share our experiences (good bad and the ugly) as we strive to do our jobs better. Those opportunities, along with many things across the country, came to an abrupt end in March 2020. PraxisAuril had to adapt fast, very fast.
All that said, I look forward to seeing more of you than ever before in Brighton next year. My goal is certainly to meet as many new people as I can.
Our professional development committee and course directors, swiftly moved courses online with the first online course running in June 2020 and we were back to a full course offering from early autumn 2020. This was achieved by the amazing commitment of so many of our volunteer community. It was hard work and in places daunting.
Why did so many volunteers make so much effort? It is because of the extraordinary values that drive this community. We all wish to make the world a better place, we know we cannot do it alone, we need as many people to be equipped with the right skills, enabled with the right tools and empowered so that everyone can succeed. Volunteers have been inspired by the national reach that online platforms give them; they can help more people. In short, the changes of the last year have considerably democratized what we do. The conference is no longer the preserve of the few.
The June 2020 conference in Brighton had to be cancelled and the June 2021 conference was never even scheduled in-person but the conference team put on two exciting programmes, one in December 2020 and one in June of this year. The numbers of people who attended was at a record high, the format enabled colleagues across our membership to work in conference attendance with their day job and focus on sessions most relevant to them. Again this could not have happened without the astonishing commitment of the volunteer community.
Volunteers: Thank you so much
Thank you to all of you who have volunteered over the last year or have put yourselves forward to support future activities. Without you we are nothing. If you wish to join in please get in touch.
Opportunities abound and we are not on mute The expectations of what knowledge exchange can offer our communities, country and the world are high. They are better understood by government, policy makers, funders and the public than ever before. Opportunities abound; we have never had such exciting times. As our conference plenary speaker Prof Chas Bountra put it so eloquently, we will have greater impact if we collaborate more extensively, taking greater risks and think more ambitiously. I whole heartedly agree; it is incumbent on us to seize new opportunities, bring greater aspiration and delivery for the widest possible benefit. We have great responsibility, we are innovation management, we must take risks to achieve our potential and we need to do it with others. We may be on zoom for some months to come but we are certainly not on mute.
Iain Thomas PraxisAuril Chair and Head of Life Sciences at Cambridge Enterprise
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Boosting Business Resilience | 10
BOOSTING BUSINESS RESILIENCE: HELPING BUSINESSES RECOVER FROM THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 This panel session overviewed the diverse support provided by three institutions, including the multicentred BIG South London project. Speakers highlighted their flexibility, resourcefulness and ability to pivot initiatives in light of an ever-changing threat to businesses (notably SMEs) in their respective locales. Janine Coomber, Knowledge Exchange Manager at the University of Kent covered the delivery of a programme of business support alongside institution wide action in response to the pandemic. Janine highlighted three key strands of activity demonstrating the impact of smaller scale initiatives in support of business resilience. Notably, her team facilitated the interdepartmental design, testing and provision of 1700 sets of PPE for the care sector, enabled a series of free academic webinars to help support business recovery in Kent and Medway, and launched a recovery innovation fund, supporting SMEs with grants of up to £7,500. These initiatives highlighted the importance in understanding your local business landscape and in doing so, effectively supporting them with academic expertise and knowledge. Another takeaway was the agility shown to create impact by redeployment of funding (made possible following a go-ahead to use HEIF funding) to support local businesses.
Benjamin White, B2B Marketer within the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Department at Birmingham City University discussed the challenges of supporting local Birmingham businesses in a city with the highest amount of start-ups outside of London, but with one of the lowest 1 year survival rates. Ben’s Department conducted user research with a wide variety of target audiences from individual makers to department heads in growing corporations to identify several areas where local businesses wanted help to grow. The key takeaways from this were support with amplification (helping businesses to be heard), current/ future planning (where am I now and where do I need to be?), providing public sector support in a language businesses understand, and offering practical, personalised support that fueled long-term development, not just throwing them out of the nest. From these principles, Ben created a series of products which resonated with their personas and addressed their needs at different business levels. The key products created were mainly ERDF funded in the initial phase with a focus on looking to monetise these in later stages of development. Paul Kirkbright, Head of Knowledge Exchange & Partnerships at the South London Partnership overviewed the BIG South London project reflecting on insight gained from Year One and drawing on priorities shaping Year Two, including:
• Investment in KE interventions absent from the South London marketplace; • Scaling what’s working for South London partners already innovating; • Investing in KE interventions that unlock innovation and growth potential; • “Experimenting at the edges” by deploying a pilot & scale approach to test smaller, Borough level innovations; • Building a mandate through work with partners to utilise what our business base is telling us about their ambitions and needs; • Discovering and supporting the disruptors, whilst respecting established business engagement; • Creating coalitions by incentivising innovators with common interests to mobilise and convene, and build innovation clusters; • Strengthening the partnership by bringing regional knowledge assets around the BIG South London table. Success for BIG South London will look like a deeply embedded, shared culture of innovation, creativity, and applied research; high levels of academic visibility and engagement; high talent attraction and sticky retention; high value, high growth start-ups and scale-ups; meaningful community ownership. Increased employment, wealth, and prosperity; renewed vitality, ambition, and confidence. Chair - Robin Knight, IN-PART; Janine Coomber, University of Kent; Paul Kirkbright, BIG South London Partnership; Benjamin White, BCU Advantage
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Social Science Commercialisation | 11
SOCIAL SCIENCE COMMERCIALISATION: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? A panel discussion organised by the Innovation Caucus to explore opportunities, challenges and advances in social science commercialisation. Our speakers each provided five minutes of reflections based on their ongoing activity in this dynamic and developing field, followed by a stimulating and wideranging discussion with audience members on the future of social science commercialisation. Our speakers (full bios can be found in the PraxisAuril programme), represented different elements of the social science commercialisation ecosystem – their key reflections are outlined below followed by a summary of the audience led discussion.
Panellists’ Key Reflections Melanie Knetsch’s opening remarks were entitled ‘Social Sciences and Commercialisation: the next impact opportunity?’. This framed the session by providing an overview of the social science commercialisation ecosystem and how it presents an opportunity to sustain or enhance impact (sustainably). The UKRI definition of commercialisation was shared as “the process by which new or improved technologies, products, processes and services are brought to market” showing its breadth and the contribution possible by social scientists. Mel suggested three lenses through which the broader commercialisation ecosystem can be viewed, and explained how ESRC is working to provide support in each area: 1. Supporting Research Offices, 2. Funding and Supporting
Researchers, and 3. The Market. As a final step, Mel shared the example of the ISCF Healthy Aging Catalyst funding programme (watch out for Round 3 launching in Autumn 2021). Dr Syahirah Abdul Rahman’s talk focused on the ‘Supporting Research Offices’ aspect of the ecosystem as previously outlined by Mel, through sharing findings from a small research study on social science commercialisation conducted by the Innovation Caucus. Syahirah’s talk focused on the challenges and opportunities relating to the cultural differences in commercialisation in social sciences, compared to STEM areas, and what this means for the specific training needs of KE professionals. Understanding how to engage social scientists, the appropriate language, and access to networks of other KE professionals were all highlighted as important factors and training needs for KE professionals in this area. Chris Fellingham’s talk shared thoughts under the ‘Funding and Supporting Researchers’ lens, as termed in Mel’s introductory piece. Chris’ comments also dovetailed well with Syahirah’s in highlighting the specific needs of social scientists which may not always be met in traditional models often built on STEM subjects. Chris then shared his work at Oxford Innovation and particularly the project with Aspect to create ‘world’s first’ social science accelerator (ARC Accelerator) – designed to meet social scientists where they are.
Dr Rachel Middlemass shared the exciting work of Zinc Venture Builders, which supports missiondriven start-ups from scratch in response to pressing societal and environmental challenges.
Discussion Professor Tim Vorley then chaired a fast-paced panel discussion, drawing on a lively chat box. Limited space precludes a full summary, but get in touch with the speakers if you wish to find out more. In response to the opening participant question ‘How would a university start in this area?’ (perhaps in a context of limited resource), discussion turned to available networks such as the special interest group created by PraxisAuril, but also available templates (e.g. see ESRC’s commercialisation toolkit). Consultancy was raised as a tentative way for social scientists to take first steps on this pathway. Discussion also centred on the importance of social purpose, sometimes in the form of social ventures, as a key means of connecting with the predominant motivations of social scientists. The importance of providing support and training for PhD students and ECRs was also mentioned as a valuable step and helping to create career mobility. Institutional incentives were discussed such as impact for REF returns, but also in relation to charitable mandates to do societal good. We are at the start of a journey, together breaking new ground! Chair - Tim Vorley, Oxford Brookes University; Chris Felingham, Oxford University Innovation; Syahirah Abdul Rahman, Oxford Brookes University; Rachel Middlemass, Zinc; Melanie Knetsch, ESRC
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | KEF Metrics | 12
KEF METRICS Research England’s Knowledge Exchange Framework team held an interactive session to provide an update on the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) for delegates. Using live polls throughout the session, the team sought feedback from the audience on the different elements of the KEF being discussed. Hamish McAlpine started by discussing the review of the first iteration of the KEF that is taking place this summer (2021) and the areas this will cover. Sacha Ayres then talked about opportunities to provide feedback on the KEF, in particular the imminent launch of a survey for
KEF participants. Published on 17th June and open until late July, the survey seeks feedback on a range of elements around the KEF and will complement more detailed focus groups to be held in late summer. Sacha went on to give some preliminary findings from the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) who have been commissioned to review the Public & Community Engagement narrative statements. Ellen Bamford took attendees through the plans around reviewing the metrics and methodologies used
in the KEF, highlighting particular points that will be looked at in detail by an expert metrics steering group (membership also to be announced shortly). How, these metrics are presented in the data visualisation is also key to the accessibility and usefulness of the data; Rosie Lavis took members through possible options that could be adopted in future. Finally, Hamish concluded by discussing plans for future metrics that could form part of future iterations of the KEF and the options being considered for timing of the next KEF. Hamish McAlpine, Sacha Ayres, Ellen Bamford, Rosie Lavis from UKRI
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Supporting the Supply Side | 13
SUPPORTING THE SUPPLY SIDE: INSPIRING CHANGE THROUGH INCENTIVES As part of the Supporting the Supply Side: Creating Academic Incentives for Knowledge Exchange session, Georgina Jamieson (Head of CPD and Consultancy at Edinburgh Napier University (ENU)) presented on a recent piece of work that ENU has undertaken. ENU are in the process of developing a new consultancy policy framework to launch in the next academic year which will provide incentives to increase consultancy activity, including bringing private consultancy into the institution. It is intended that the policy framework will result in a genuine step change in this area – the aspirations are lofty. The presentation covered an overview of the institutions journey to date, key learnings and reflections and next steps for ENU and the sector. Historically, ENU offered an incentive scheme however this was abolished and there has not been a policy in place for at least five year. More recently over the last couple of year, staff across the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) team have been lobbying for change. This finally paid off roughly three months ago whereby a directive came from the Principal and University Leadership Team (ULT) to set up a working group to devise a new incentive scheme for the institution. Three teams were represented including RIE, HR and Finance. Work commenced to review the current practice across the sector and undertake analysis.
Resultantly a principles paper has now been submitted to the ULT with recommendations for their review. The main learnings shared and reflections from ENU’s experience include: Income Split: Substantial discussion was required to determine the relevant recommendations for percentage split of the project income. Current sector practice is varied, from surplus split to full project cost (less direct costs) split. It is important to define terminology and ensure that approaches adopted are a contextual fit. Crunching numbers as part of analysis is key to ensure that proposed incentives are generous enough. Policy Scope: Most policies only cover specifically full-time permanent academic staff. It was reflected on whether or not this was inclusive. ENU has proposed other groups such as professional services, emeritus professors and associates should be included. Trade Unions will most likely review new or revised policy so it is vital to reflect on what their perspectives and get their insights as early as possible. Allowable Days: Depending on contracts and terms of employment (as well as institutional position on conflict of interest) it took some discussion to determine the number of consultancy days each individual
would be allowed to undertake. It needs to be balanced to ensure duty of care for work-life-balance purposes as well as not infringe on day-today work responsibilities. There is currently a huge range of positions (from twenty to fifty to unlimited) across the sector. ENU has proposed thirty days as a starting point but this will be reviewed annually. Multi-departmental Working Group: Reflections from across the institutional was vital to ensure robust recommendations have gone forward. These are acceptable when viewed through the different departmental lenses which will expedite the launch and operationalisation of this new policy. Moving forward PraxisAuril are planning some events focusing on incentives and the Consultancy Community (accessible via the PraxiaAuril Online Community portal) is live and should be joined for those that are interested. The KEC and KEF have inspired institutions across the board to ensure their policies are fit for purpose and with a collective effort to share best practice it should save substantial cumulative time. Sophie Chadwick, Canterbury Christ Church University; Heidi Hammond, University of the Arts London; Rosemary Nunn, I&K, The Innovation and Knowledge Agency; Mairi Gibbs, Oxford University Innovation; Rukmal Abeysekera, University of York
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | CRM Systems for KE | 14
CRM SYSTEMS FOR KE This engaging session attended by 110 delegates, was chaired by Mairi Gibbs from Oxford University Innovation with Heidi Hammond Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, Rosemary Nunn from the University of Greenwich and Sophie Chadwick from Canterbury Christ Church University.
Following a brief introduction from the panel the session, attendees were asked a series of questions to gain an understanding of their interest and experience of CRMs. The results are within the report. Interestingly, the majority of delegates (42%) did not have a CRM but were planning one in the next few years.
The Business Case Unsurprisingly, many of the questions were around how to develop a good business case for a CRM. The panelists all agreed that it was essential to have senior management support and to raise awareness of how a CRM will enable the university to present a more professional approach to stakeholder and customer engagement and how it brings additional value to the institution. The power of a CRM to overcome a number of high frequency manual tasks was also seen as a really useful benefit.
Convincing staff to share contacts was another hot topic. The panel highlighted that individuals can “own” contacts and if everyone uses the CRM then it is less likely for other members of staff trying to approach the same contact as they will be able to see who has existing relationships. There was range of different systems used but the majority used SalesForce or Microsoft Dynamics, and the majority were using them for business engagement but there was a good spread of different uses.
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Implementation
Reporting
In terms of implementing a CRM, starting with a pilot project and then raising awareness of the success of the CRM, the types of reports that can be produced and the wealth of data available can really help gain buy-in. This can result in departments being “pulled” rather than “pushed” into being part of the roll out resulting in much greater acceptance, compliance and take up.
The ease of reporting and skills needed was another area of interest. At Greenwich their approach was to develop a datamap to find out where all the relevant KE data is held and then to look at what reports are needed. Once there is an understanding of what data is held, where it is held and the reports needed, then for most of the commercial CRMs APIs can be developed to integrate with other systems, and to export and report the data.
There was an interesting discussion on how long it can take from concept to implementation. In CCCU it took around 16 months from concept to going live, but that was very fast in comparison to other institutions. The panel recommended that in order to speed up the process, an institution should ideally identify a dedicated technical project manager who will lead the project from start to finish working with the IT dept, the users and the provider. This dedicated resource is well worth including in the business case. Another useful piece of advice was that some systems such as Salesforce work through a channel partner who works with the organisation to configure and implement the CRM. Very often these channel partners give a very small window of time to build the system. During this period the university needs to have 20-30 days when all the university resources are available to work to the deadline of the channel partner to implement the system. Governance and Day to Day Management of the CRM Heidi from UAL said that highlighting the power of the CRM is amplified by opening up access as wide as possible and that when people leave or move roles then contacts can be reassigned. It was also noted by Rosemary that it is important that there is an individual or group of people who are responsible for managing the CRM, developing and running reports and developing effective processes and guidelines for using the CRM etc. In some institutions there is a CRM users group that shares best practice. Other ideas included holding drop-in sessions for users, regular training sessions, identifying superusers, teams prioritising dedicated time each week to update and cleanse records, and using different platforms where people can raise questions etc. Ideally the system should be relatively intuitive and needs to be designed with the user in mind and should integrate seamlessly into the day job. It is definitely worth talking with the channel partner and asking them to work with both the key and the intermittent users to help design the user interface.
Although API development is complex and does need specialist skills the most important element is actually working out what data and reporting is needed and how that will be of benefit to the institution. Most systems can report on a multitude of data sets but this is only worth doing if there is some value from that analysis. Therefore start with what you need rather than being limited by the system.
TOP TIPS • Pick the right people to be involved at the beginning who will be great advocates • Involve your users right from the start • Pick your channel partner very carefully • Make sure you have resource for ongoing maintenance and system development • Communication is key - everyone involved needs to talk regularly and minute the regular meetings • Ask difficult questions early on • Know how you want to use the CRM • Bring a business analyst for 6-12 weeks prior to contracting for a CRM to review what systems are available, what data and systems are available, what the gaps are and what the user needs are. • Be kind to the users - make sure it is easy to use (how many hours training do you need to use a smartphone !!!!!) • Build a long list of requirements of the system before building your system • Have a well resourced contingency plan as there will always be things that haven’t been thought of or need changing • Keep good records so you can evidence what decisions were actually made
Sophie Chadwick, Canterbury Christ Church University; Heidi Hammond, University of the Arts London; Rosemary Nunn, I&K, The Innovation and Knowledge Agency; Mairi Gibbs, Oxford University Innovation; Rukmal Abeysekera, University of York
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Launch of the KE Skills Framework | 16
LAUNCH OF THE KE SKILLS FRAMEWORK A unique opportunity to hear about the development and refresh of this skills framework for KE professionals, how it relates to RTTP, and supports KE capacity and capability building as part of the KE Concordat. This highly-anticipated session introduced the PraxisAuril Knowledge Exchange Skills Framework, a fully reviewed and refreshed version of the professional development framework devised by AURIL and sector partners in 2013. Chaired by Shona Campbell, speakers Jennie Shorley, Alasdair Cameron, Sarah Stables and Sophie Duncan told the story of skills development in knowledge exchange, outlined the original Business and Community Engagement Skills evaluation tool and how it has been refreshed for today’s knowledge exchange environment and professionals. Panel members discussed the origins of the AURIL skills framework project and their own professional development – including the benefits
of being a volunteer for PraxisAuril as a way of developing skills – and their own experiences of using skills frameworks in knowledge exchange contexts.
Skills recognition The session started with a survey of participants on their previous engagement with skills frameworks, both those developed by national associations (notably by KCA, in Australia) and those developed for internal use. Well over half had not used any frameworks in the course of their professional development. Alasdair Cameron, former Executive Director of AURIL, introduced the history of the BCE framework, launched at the AURIL annual conference in 2012. A significant step in the framework’s development was the establishment of the Association of Technology Transfer Professionals (ATTP) and the RTTP accreditation in 2010 (PraxisAuril – then PraxisUnico – was a founding member). The name
‘Business Community Engagement (BCE)’ framework was, therefore, a deliberate step to be inclusive and ensure that there was an equivalent support structure for ‘engagement professionals’ alongside the ‘tech transfer professionals’ identified by ATTP. The BCE toolkit was launched following an extensive stakeholder consultation. Led by AURIL with JISC, it drew steering group members from across the sector. The online, interactive tool enabled individuals to evaluate their skills and derive a personal profile of competencies. The original framework was developed to support long term career planning, for recruitment, and for strategic and capacity planning. It was also designed to help other people to understand the KE role, raise individual profile and professionalism, and help “place” KE roles within organisations. None of these objectives have changed, and in fact we could argue that they matter more than ever as KE is firmly in the spotlight with high
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Launch of the KE Skills Framework | 17
expectations of its impact and potential for ‘building back better’ post-pandemic. This relevance, or currency, of the framework was emphasised by Alasdair who drew on some of the original project literature: “The rapidly changing landscape in higher and further education and research is placing new demands on institutional staff beyond those of traditional teaching and research” “…the need for more enterprising and collaborative behaviours” “There is…political pressure on institutions. The government is determined to make the UK the best place in the world for businessuniversity collaboration…therefore unis will need the organisational and organisational capabilities to organise and sustain productive relationships with externals.” Alasdair ascribed this currency to the effort made at the time to build the tool – it was the righ tool, but perhaps ahead of its time. He also gave an overview of other competency frameworks in play, including that developed by Knowledge Commercialisation Australia (KCA) and published in 2016. The KCA framework has c.200 desirable competencies for knowledge transfer professionals at different career levels. The Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA) takes job roles as the starting point for their skills framework, and the RTTP accreditation (ATTP) helps KE professionals to recognise and consolidate their own experience with peer-review. Sarah Stables spoke about her comparison of the BCE framework with the RTTP scheme. Notably, the RTTP award has broadened to recognise more KE skills over the past decade and has been influenced by both the BCE and KCA frameworks.
Changemakers
Next steps
Sophie Duncan, Co-Director at the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) was part of the team that developed the original BCE framework. The NCCPE was founded in 2008 to change the face of public engagement in universities and her role on the BCE framework project was to consider how different, or similar, public and community skills were to those used in business engagement: could one framework serve all engagement staff? She discussed the need for both recognition and development of skills in public engagement specifically and the unique elements of university work in these engagement-focused spheres. She identified the lack of career pathways and obvious next steps when you reach a certain level of skills development – the recognition and valuing of skills being an important part of creating those pathways. The launch of NCCPE’s ‘Engage’ academy is their response to building capacity and capabilities in this space, building PCE into formal processes rather than being ‘at the margins’.
Jennie Shorley introduced the refreshed framework in the context of the “new world” of knowledge exchange – the Knowledge Exchange Framework and the Knowledge Exchange Concordat – and noted that skills development for knowledge exchange professionals, as well as for academic staff and students, are key elements of these university sector initiatives and support each of the KEC principles in particular.
“The KE framework and the KEC…have brought a critical moment…[and] have shone a real light into the fact that there are amazing, professional, skilled, talented people working within our HE institutions who are doing an amazing job at realising the value of teaching and research and learning, for society, and also realising that value back into the university. This is a critical moment to build on that enthusiasm…” Sophie Duncan, Co-Director, NCCPE
The panel then discussed key changes made to the framework incorporate based on sector feedback and through test groups, to introduce the refreshed framework and its key elements. Delegates contributed to online surveys on their job roles, job titles and the most important aspects of their roles – with interesting results – and asked participants to try out a shortened version of the new framework themselves as this forms an important part of the ongoing development of the tool. The panel concluded by noting that this is self-assessment based on assessing strengths, rather than assuming gaps in skills or knowledge. This will, hopefully, provide better engagement based around what people are good at, rather than expecting everyone to be good at everything, whilst recognising that there are a set of core skills that are necessary to particular KE roles (IP management, bid development being two examples provided). The KE framework is a plank of PraxisAuril’s professional development work and will be integral to our training offer in the future. We are particularly delighted that JISC is a PraxisAuril sponsor and will be taking forward development of the online diagnostic and profiling element of the toolkit. Please contact Tim.Fishlock@praxisauril.org.uk to find out more.
Chair - Shona Campbell, University of Brighton; Jennie Shorley, Manchester Metropolitan University; Sarah Stables, Stables Consulting; Alasdair Cameron, University of Strathclyde; Sophie Duncan, NCCPE
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Future Funding: Research England | 18
FUTURE FUNDING: RESEARCH ENGLAND Members from across the Knowledge Exchange team at Research England held a broad session on policy and future funding. This session was designed to be informative and to provide attendees with the opportunity to pose questions to the team, and to comment on future KE policy agendas. Rachel Tyrrell began the presentation by discussing the contributions that universities will make to various expected UK government strategies and initiatives, as well the critical role of collaboration and partnership in knowledge exchange. Hamish McAlpine then provided context of the KE funding landscape in England, highlighting the significant growth in funding between 2002 and 2020 and the split in total KE income. Hamish also provided an overview of the most recent HEIF funding information, found here. Attendees were then provided with an update on progress with HEIF accountability progress – the team thanked the sector for their considerable efforts in meeting requirements and providing RE with high quality case studies. Hamish addressed the impacts that the effects of the Covid-19
pandemic has had, and continues to have, on KE activity. Hamish highlighted RE’s recognition of the importance of stability to aid forward planning, (balanced with recognising performance) noting that the checks and balances built into the HEIF allocation remain – for example, an institution’s allocation in England will not reduce by more than 10% on this year’s, unless there should be significant change to the HEIF allocation. Louise Wall then discussed the Connecting Capability Fund (CCF), providing a detailed summary of projects with a national focus, and projects with a regional focus. Louise then shifted the conversation to discuss the notable success of the first wave of CCF, highlighting its proven track record of stimulating economic growth, skills and jobs through innovation. Michael Clark discussed the plans to commission a full evaluation of HEIF, as well as discussing the most up-todate timetable for the review/reform of the fund. Michael re-iterated that the reform plan will aim to put KEF at the heart of our approach and will consider our experience of the first publication of KEF data, as well as
UK Government priorities set out in the R&D Roadmap. Attendees were reassured that we will continue to consider the appropriate timing of our activity, taking into account other requirements and the external environment to minimise burden on the sector. The KE Concordat (KEC) was to be explored in depth by Universities UK at a different conference session, however, Rachel Tyrrell provided an RE perspective. Rachel explained why the sector needs a concordat, and how the KEC and the KEF are aligned, as example - the KEF explores what universities are doing, and the KEC investigates how universities are doing this. Michael Clark concluded the presentation by providing a snapshot of how the KE work streams fit together, before the team took questions from attendees. Chair - Britta Wyatt, Oxentia; Rachel Tyrrel, Michael Clark, Hamish McAlpine, Louise Wall, Tim Shuttleworth from Research England
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | KE Creative | 19
KE CREATIVE: KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE WITH THE ARTS AND CULTURAL SECTOR This session provided an introduction to the work of the National Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange (NCACE), a new centre established with the support of Research England. NCACE’s key purpose and mission is to facilitate and support capacity for Knowledge Exchange between Higher Education and the arts and cultural sector across the country with a particular focus on evidencing and showcasing the social, cultural, environmental, as well as the economic, impacts of such activities. The project comprises four interconnected work packages focussed on: Brokerage and Networking, Skills and Capacity building, Evidencing and Impact Development and Showcasing and Communicating. NCACE is focussing on four themes over the life of the project. These include: Placemaking and Levelling Up, Health and Wellbeing, Climate change and Technology for Social Good. NCACE’s work is underpinned by a keen attention to diversity and inclusion, and the project’s evaluation is embedded from the start of the programme. The presentation outlined some of the key events that NCACE has curated since it’s public launch event in Feb 2021. It also listed some of the key blog pieces that have been written so far and invited attendees to engage actively with the new national centre.
The session also shared key findings from a recent survey conducted by NCACE in collaboration with Arts Professional, a key sector publication, entitled Collaboration with HIgher Education. Over five hundred arts and cultural sector organisations responded to the survey, with over 84% of respondents citing that they had worked with the sector once or on a number of occasions. Our slides focussed on some of the key findings from the survey including one on the roles that the arts and culture sector cited themselves playing in the collaboration. Here, 66% of arts and cultural organisations who were involved in KE reporting that they either led or co-developed their respective collaborations. A further slide indicated some of the barriers to collaboration with a high percentage (60%) of respondents stating that they did not know how to go about a collaboration with an HEI, and nearly a quarter were unsure about the benefits of working with the higher education sector. Attendees were also put into breakout groups and given the opportunity to reflect on their “collaboration assets” using a tool provided by the facilitators which defined assets as falling into one of the categories below:,
• • • • • • • •
Financial Built Motivational Social Creative and Cultural Human Political Natural
Attendees were then asked to discuss the following questions with colleagues before feeding back the key points of their discussions to the main group: • What do you draw on most often in developing collaborations? • What areas do you feel are under resourced and would benefit from support / development • Are any categories missing from the list provided The feedback from this session indicated that the space in which to have such discussions was useful and fruitful with participants saying it had helped them to focus on opportunities afresh. Suzie Leighton and Evelyn Wilson, The National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Keynote | 20
KEYNOTE: KE CONCORDAT The KE Concordat has been significant part of PrA activity over the past few years, and in the last year in particular through our role in the Operational Group (of which Tamsin Mann, PrA’s Director of Policy, is a member) and support for sector engagement through webinars and evaluation panel training. This keynote panel session was a reflection on the learning that has been shared throughout the development year to date, and also on where the KEC fits into our wider R&D policy environment alongside particular challenges post-Brexit and post-Covid. As a community we need to take a moment to acknowledge and celebrate the extent of engagement that the project has had from the KE professional community and the willingness with which people have embraced the opportunity to scrutinise their own internal structures and activities and in response to external stimuli. The participation through webinars, deep dives and training shows a huge commitment of the KE community to work together to optimise KE for all stakeholders. We should all be proud of that and continue to work towards that same goal. It’s important to remember that the KEC should be part and parcel of the university mission alongside research
and teaching: making an impact and making a difference to communities and individuals. In this respect, Knowledge Exchange is a touchpoint for all universities, all stakeholders, and in all geographies. And there there is particular relevance, for the KEC, to current government priorities: post-Brexit priorities, levelling up, workforce skills, impact & innovation. The KEC has a focus on improvement and demonstrating the commitment to knowledge exchange. Challenges remain though: do external stakeholders share the same commitment to KE, how do we judge ‘high quality’ KE and what does ‘good’ look like anyway? Ultimately, the KEC is about building confidence, for both stakeholders and for KE professionals. As Phil Clare, Chair of the evaluation panel put it, it is “A process that will help us to get better at what we do” and we can use the process as a mechanism for engaging more people in KE as an agenda and to get more recognition from stakeholders at the local and national level in the public and private sector. Outcomes from the KEC ‘deep dives’ have enabled the KEC Operations Group to reinforce some of the messages from, and the approach to, the KEC but also – importantly – have enabled sector participants
to share their thoughts on the KEC, their approach to self-evaluation, and ask questions about tackling the action planning. The enthusiasm and commitment alongside a willingness to share, learn and develop is a testament to how seriously the KEC is being taken by the sector in England but also by a number of HEIs in the devolved nations. The same evaluation has been shown by the very high number of applications to join the evaluation panel, and engagement with the evaluation process so far. Its purpose is to provide support, advice, guidance, suggestions for all KEC participants in what is a comparative not a competitive exercise and where context is key to providing feedback that is useful to individual institutions as a critical friend. The KEC remains in development and the Operations Group is committed to learning from the evaluation and adopting an attitude of continual improvement as the KEC process rolls on and comes to its, initial, conclusion in Autumn 2021. Chair - Amanda Baxendale, University of Derby; Trevor McMillan, University of Keele and Chair of the KEC Steering Group; Phil Clare, University of Oxford; Greg Wade, Universities UK; Joe Marshall, NCUB
“I am…more convinced than ever that this is an important exercise for us to go through” - Trevor McMillan
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Emerging IP Issues / Improving KE Interactions | 21
EMERGING IP ISSUES This session covered: • Grace periods • Membership of the European Patent Convention • Exhaustion of rights • Unified Patent Court • Access benefit sharing of genetic resources (Nagoya Protocol) Charlotte and Alasdair both provided lucid and authoritative explanations of these rather technical topics, emphasising why it is important for KE professionals to be aware of the current, post-Brexit developments in these areas.
IMPROVING KE INTERACTIONS WITH MEDICAL CHARITIES Medical charities are key partners for collaboration and translation of research but can feel ignored in sector discussions about KE. With medical charity funding hard hit due to Covid, how can we make KE interactions stronger with these vital parts of our innovation system? Conference delegates can watch the recording of this session through our Online Community. Tony Hickson, Cancer Research UK and Angela Kukula, Institute for Cancer Research
We should never stop reminding others that the introduction of Grace Periods would be advantageous for universities. We may now have support from pharma too. Some trade agreements may mandate grace periods, though the risk is of being excluded from the EPC. Topic 3 is the subject of an IPO consultation that has just opened. It may be worth PrA making a short submission. Topic 4 is a sad tale of an opportunity missed as a consequence of Brexit!
Researchers who use genetic material – and perhaps even sequence data – from abroad should be aware that this might be illegal under the Nagoya Convention. On all these topics KE offices should be advised by their patent agents, so as to be able to advise their researchers where appropriate. Chair - David Secher, University of Cambridge; Charlotte Teal, Forresters IP; Alasdair Poore, Mills and Reeve
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Diversity in KE | 22
DIVERSITY IN KE We were very privileged to hear from each of our guests about their personal experiences of helping to create awareness and drive solutions around equality, diversity and inclusion and a quick poll of the 160? attendees, enabled us to get a feel for where all participants were on their EDI journey: • Do you feel EDI issues are considered at all levels within your organisation? • Do you feel inclusion could be improved within your organisation? • Do you have someone within your organisation whose role is dedicated to EDI? • Do you believe you have clear and well understood EDI policies within your organisation? • Have you introduced measures or policies to diversify the talent you recruit? We heard from Maxine Ficarra, PrA CEO, about where PrA is on its own EDI journey and the action the organisation has been taking internally. She noted that
it wasn’t until after the Black Lives Matter protests that PrA started to think more seriously about the responsibility that it has, as an organisation with significant convening power, not just to quietly endorse these sorts of messages, but to amplify them – and to take action to ensure that PrA members feel enabled and empowered to discuss the issues and find solutions to challenges that they are facing. This session was designed to start a conversation, to ensure that people feel comfortable to talk about the EDI agenda and to ensure that we take action to follow up and maintain a safe space for those continuing discussions. The Zoom chat was on fire during this session! We heard about challenges in relation to gender, race, disability, class, age and were grateful that so many solutions and initiatives were signposted by the speakers and a very engaged audience. As is often the case at PrA events, there is so much value in being able to voice issues and challenges that resonate with our peers.
Chaired by Maxine Ficarra, CEO at PraxisAuril; Carole Barron, University of Kent; Anji Millar, LifeArc; Megan Aanstoos, Kentucky Commercialization Ventures; Tom Hockaday, Technology Transfer Innovation
Key messages from our speakers: “Get involved, educate yourself, find ways to make your office and your activities more inclusive and welcoming. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to get started and there are lots of resources online (including GEDITT!).” “Commit to making one change to support diversity in your workplace, challenge conventions that actively discourage an inclusive environment, and inspire others to believe in themselves.” “Be bold, brave and stand your ground. Put EDI at the heart of all activities. This is not an easy culture change and at times you will feel alone, but every tiny step forward is progress.” “If you are not from an underrepresented group, think how your life would be if you were - different, for sure, in so many ways; that’s why EDI is important.”
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Partners in Collaboration | 23
PARTNERS IN COLLABORATION: BRINGING THE R&D SUPPLY AND DEMAND CHAIN TOGETHER Peter Wilkins, Innovation Partner (SE) Defence & Security Accelerator;
Nicola Nuttall, Heritage Innovation Theme Lead, University of Exeter
Dr Josephine Dixon-Hardy Director – Grow MedTech, University of Leeds.
Title: DASA: Promoting Collaborative Innovation for Defence and Security
Title: Partnerships and Collaboration in the Heritage sector
Title: Grow MedTech: scaling sector-focussed translational capability through a consortium of 6 universities in the Leeds and Sheffield City Regions
• DASA is part of the ministry of defence and build relationships between innovation suppliers, the defence sector and end users. • They work across different organisations including SME’s, innovators, tech companies, academics, start-ups. • They act as a single point of contact so a supplier can talk to someone and get a vital early stage information on what innovation is likely to succeed.
• The heritage and culture sector has been hard hit and has been one of the last sectors to reopen. It has impacted the financial sustainability of many organisations. • Working in partnerships means you can achieve more and can share best practise between organisations and create sustainability. • Rules for engagement: Share a vision and values, ambition and passion, manage expectations as often organisations think that HE organisations think they have a lot of finance they can provide. • Working together we get the work done.
QUESTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS: Q - Is it important to have sector knowledge when working with third sectors? A – It is important to have third sector knowledge and specific industrial sector knowledge, especially in medical technologies. External sector knowledge helps with an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the challenges partners face. Q – How do you avoid a partnership failing? A - The main thing is engagement and identifying in advance what the aim of the partnership and developing win-win opportunities. With regards to clinical adoption, it is important to look ahead as well and forming relationships with bodies that can help adoption at the end. It is important to manage expectations and understand where the drivers. Preparing the foundations of relationships and setting expectations at the beginning is so important to successful collaboration.
• Grow Medtech is a CCF funded programme, involving 6 universities. Sector specialists within the universities codevelop innovation processes and challenges with the medical sector. • Important to have a clear vision together across the 6 universities and work together on funding bids, MedTech have formed an inclusive group ensuring that all parties are represented and have enabled data sharing so all partners can share information. • Recruiting sector specialists to work on the ground within all 6 university partners has been crucial to the success of the project. Those supporting the project and developing partnerships with the academics and industry are vital and it couldn’t be done without them. Chair - Julia Swinbank, Durham University; Peter Wilkins, Defence & Security Accelerator; Nicola Nuttall, University of Exeter; Josephine Dixon-Hardy, University of Leeds
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | The Physiological Society | 24
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY: DISCIPLINARY ASPECTS OF KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE The Physiological Society’s report on KE spotlights on the specific contributions to knowledge exchange made by physiology. It is an insightful report, revealing a perhaps surprising level of KE from this particular disciplinary base but also highlighting opportunities for greater engagement and how that might be achieved. What can KE practitioners learn from these deepdives and why are they important to our understanding of UK knowledge exchange? Over the past few years, we’ve seen increased demand for more focus on specific disciplinary areas and industry sectors. At PraxisAuril, the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences special interest group (AHSS SIG) has led discussions and training about the need for a different approach to KE. Another example is the NERC’s KE Fellowship programme, aimed at researchers but focused on a disciplinary group to explore the possibilities for KE with external organisations. More recently, we have the ASPECT CCF focusing on social science commercialisation, and the Research England funded National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange (NCACE) to facilitate and support capacity for KE between Higher Education and the arts and cultural sector.
Perhaps the most extensive ‘dive’ to date was the ‘Bond Review’ (2018) which examined KE in mathematical sciences responding, in part, to a lack of recognition for maths in R&D discussions and policy (see also the recent special edition on KE in Mathematics Today). This demonstrated not only the potential for maths KE but also how much activity was already taking place. This addresses the KE ‘demand and supply’ conundrum: how do potential collaborators identify the academic base that will help them to innovate? How do they stretch their understanding of a problem by looking beyond their usual frame of reference? On the flip side, how does a particular discipline demonstrate that it is relevant to industrial challenges of the kind we see identified through industrial strategies and funding programmes? The latest deep-dive from the Physiological Society also aims to understand the contribution of a particular disciplinary area, identify KE modes and models, and assess the potential for doing more. Some challenges are generic to KE – lack of time being one much quoted impediment – but some are specific to physiology, for example relating to lack of understanding of the applicable field of impact outside the
research base. The benefit of having a professional society leading this kind of report is that outputs based on sector data can be drilled down and related to academic activity in a way that’s not possible on a national level (we do not want a disciplinary level KEF). It also opens conversations about academic incentives for knowledge exchange. It is a model that other societies may well follow, giving us a more rounded picture of UK strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for KE than traditional output metrics. “It is to the credit of this project’s Advisory Group, the academics across the country who provided case studies and the knowledge exchange professionals in higher education institutions across the UK who contributed institutional data, that we have been able to reflect the breadth of physiology and provide a snapshot of the UK’s physiology-related knowledge exchange.” (Foreword, Physiology and Knowledge Exchange) Chair - Tamsin Mann, PraxisAuril; Adrian Day and Andrew Mackenzie, The Physiological Society; Beverley Vaughan, Anglia Ruskin University; Tim Curtis, Queen’s University Belfast
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Conference Review | 25
CONFERENCE REVIEW The morning of Tuesday 8th June dawned bright and clear in Brighton and I paused on my run along the seafront right in front of the Brighton Centre to capture a photo, wishing that my fellow conference delegates were waking up to the same view. I headed home wondering whether the conference would feel like an extended holding pattern waiting to convene in person in Brighton 2022. Was that the case? I’m going to share a few of my highlights of the 2021 conference, some thoughts on the 2022 conference and finish off by answering the question of where I sit regarding physical vs virtual conferences. Day 1 got off to a cracking start with Chas Bountra using the Oxford/ AstraZeneca vaccine development programme to illustrate the power of university/business innovation collaborations leaving us with the headline message ‘be more ambitious, be more collaborative’. The other message that really resonated with me was ‘worry about having the right team to exploit an idea instead of worrying about the money’. My next session was Boosting Business Resilience with 3 speakers sharing approaches to aiding business recovery. To prove that networking need not be constrained, by the time the coffee break was over I’d LinkedIn with Paul Kirkbright from the BIG South London Partnership and got a date in the diary to discuss
complementary approaches to work we’re doing in Brighton. On day 2 I tested out being in the Chair for the launch of the KE Skills Framework. Being so relevant to the KE Concordat this was a really timely session that achieved a conversational tone and completely nailed audience participation, using polls and word clouds effectively. My day 3 highlight had to be the Diversity in KE session. The participants were knowledgeable, passionate and really complemented each other to cover gender, race and disability inequalities. And critically, they were intent on action. I didn’t check my email once during this session, that speaks volumes! With learning points across all 9 sessions that I attended I have to conclude it will be a hard act to follow as the Chair of Brighton 2022! As we turn to planning the 2022 Conference with the Committee and executive team, the following will be at the forefront of my mind: • We want to be inspired: Who will be the Chas Bountra of 2022 who inspires us to be more ambitious? • We want to hear the next chapter: How will we have we moved forward in addressing diversity in KE? • We want to learn: How are we implementing the KE Framework? • We want to participate: How can we use tools to introduce even more participation, and get a wide
range of voices involved in the conversation? • We want to be listened to: We appreciated an open airing of views on the KEF, how can we continue to create the spaces where we can constructively influence policy and practice? And finally, on the question of conference format. #PrAConf21 worked exceptionally well as a virtual conference, it was well conceived and produced and we all know our way around Zoom by now. We missed not catching up with old friends, making new contacts and having the rich incidental conversations around the margins of the conference but a virtual format offered many advantages, with being inclusive for delegates with caring responsibilities alone signalling that we must embrace virtual formats going forward. The challenge for Brighton 2022 must surely be to bring our community together in a blended physical/virtual conference space to continue driving excellence in KE. I’m looking forward to seeing you in Brighton in June 2022, whether that be in 3D or 2D.
Shona Campbell, Head of Conference Committee, University of Brighton
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Powering the Digital Infrastructure PraxisAuril andConference Data Analysis 2021 Behind Proceedings Knowledge | Article Exchange Title | 26
POWERING THE DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND DATA ANALYSIS BEHIND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE The past year brought challenges that our sector was unprepared for; like many, Jisc had to learn how to transition to remote working quickly. During our first year as Praxis Auril members, we could not meet knowledge exchange colleagues in person, which was unexpected. However, as the digital sector body for UK higher education and research, we were prepared for research and innovation collaboration to play a critical role in our society and economy. We believe in technology for good and want the UK to be a world leader in technology for education and research. This year has taught us that
to power and empower our members and customers, including universities and UKRI research institutes, we need to expand our community. Working across the sector in the early stages of the pandemic, we expanded our open access services to enable broader access to publications, journals, and archives. Through Jisc authentication services our users carried on business as usual while moving from a worldclass lab to a dining room table. We developed Janet, the UK National Research and Education Network, to become the digital backbone for collaborative environments wherever they developed.
Digital infrastructure The Janet Network is a high-speed network for the UK research and education community and is essential for meeting the demands of research. It connects UK higher education institutions and research organisations to each other and the rest of the world. This network securely moves enormous volumes of research data and provides the high-speed connections required for remote and shared research environments.
PraxisAuril Conference 2021 Proceedings | Powering the Digital Infrastructure and Data Analysis Behind Knowledge Exchange | 27
One collaboration powered by the Janet Network is between the European Bioinformatics Institute and UK Biobank. This partnership enables approved researchers worldwide to access genetic and health data to gain insights into human health and disease. In 2019 we worked with them to make substantial infrastructure changes to support their worldwide role of providing open data to the lifescience community. Since increasing its networking capacity, the European Bioinformatics Institute and UK Biobank have seen a large increase in web requests. These requests can be anything from a query to the downloading of an entire dataset. As the pandemic began, daily requests went from 62 million to 81 million, resulting in a data flow requirement met by Janet’s capacity. Their work supports millions of researchers worldwide, and this demand highlights the importance of capable infrastructures being in place. “In recent years, we’ve seen an explosion in data and uptake in scientific activity, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic. The Janet network capability and shared data space we access from Jisc give us the flexibility to increase capacity and meet demand.” – Steven Newhouse, Head of technical services, European Bioinformatics Institute and UK Biobank.
James Earl-Fraser, Deputy Director, Business Development (Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation)
Data analytics
Supporting the sector
Jisc has a long history of working closely with funders and fellow sector bodies, like the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Delivering trusted data analysis to support institutions making data-driven decisions and gain valuable insights is important to us.
As we look towards post-pandemic collaborations, Jisc prepares for reliance on open research environments, reliable digital infrastructure and data analytics to grow. In early 2021 we launched our Research and Innovation Sector Strategy.
Research England approached our data analytics team to help the sector visualise activity relevant to the Knowledge Exchange Framework. As a result, the Knowledge Exchange Framework dashboards draw together tangible evidence on knowledge exchange activities between English higher education institutions and their partners, from big businesses to the local community.
“In response to changing priorities of the sector and after extensive engagement with our members, we have identified seven themes that shape our support of the UK research and innovation sector in the coming two years. These themes will direct our activities and will support our vision: for the UK to be a world leader in technology for education and research,” says Dr Victoria Moody, Director, Research and innovation sector strategy, Jisc.
The dashboards bring together a multitude of data. This includes quantitative data submitted by higher education institutions for their annual statutory data return of the HE-BCI survey. It includes institution provided narrative statements on local growth and community engagement which contribute insights on knowledge exchange activities. These activities may include events, providing access to specialist equipment or facilities, undertaking consultancy, or licensing intellectual property so others can use it. The Knowledge Exchange Framework Dashboard provides a graphical representation for each university to show how they perform relative to similar institutions. They offer a user-friendly interface for institutions, businesses and the wider public. It gives access to explore knowledge exchange strengths of institutions and provides interesting insights into how the work they take forward supports the levelling up of society.
Knowledge Exchange is at the centre of one of our themes, shaping the sector’s future. We are working with Praxis Auril, Research England and Guild Higher Education on the Knowledge Exchange Concordat to ensure knowledge exchange can enter a new phase. The interconnected systems producing world-class research and innovation are increasingly reliant on shared and secure infrastructure to grow. Our commitment is to support the impact of knowledge exchange from research commercialisation to shared research infrastructure. We need ongoing support from Praxis Auril, its members and the rest of the sector. You can learn more about Jisc and participate in our sector support development for knowledge exchange by contacting us at customer.support@jisc.ac.uk.
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THANK YOU TO OUR CONFERENCE COMMITTEE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE CHAIR Shona Campbell, University of Brighton
COMMITTEE Amanda Selvaratnam, University of York Frank Allison, FIS360 Ltd Susan Baxter, University of Sussex Tim Brundle, Ulster University Stuart Duncan, University of St Andrews Rebecca Edwards, Bournemouth University Alison Hardy, Liverpool John Moores University Chris Hewson, University of York Yvonne Kinnaird, University of Strathclyde Alicen Nickson, Royal Holloway, University of London Rhian North, Cardiff University Adele Roberts-Hunt, Kingston University Britta Wyatt, Oxentia Limited
SAVE THE DATE Conference 2022 - Brighton
6 - 8 June 2022 Brighton Centre Kings Road, Brighton, BN1 2GR
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