Committee and Council Members induction By Paul Sanderson, Deputy Head of Knowledge Exchange, and Dr Dawn Woodgate, Principal Knowledge Exchange Manager (Public Sector and Civil Society)

1. Knowledge Exchange and User
Engagement
Dr Paul Sanderson, Deputy Head of Knowledge Exchange and Dr Dawn
Woodgate, Principal Knowledge Exchange Manager (Public Sector and Civil
Society)

2. Content
▶ Impact Through Partnerships
▶ Public Sector Engagement
▶ Civil Society Engagement
▶ Private Sector Engagement
▶ KE Funding Opportunities

3. Impact through partnerships
▶ Public (including Local Government) and Civil
Society Sectors continue to be important
partners
▶ Range of strategic relationships with Public
Sector and Civil Society partners
▶ But Private Sector a priority for increased
engagement: business co-funding target of 5%
of external income by 2015

4. ESRC‟s role
▶ Working as a knowledge broker with academics
and users from Central and Local Government,
Devolved Administrations, Civil Society and
Business
▶ Developing and funding schemes to facilitate
partnership and knowledge exchange (and
ultimately impact)
▶ Development of an “Impact Toolkit” to support
researchers in developing their skills and
capacity for knowledge exchange

5. Knowledge Exchange – why
bother?
▶ Facilitates, but does not guarantee, impact
▶ Academic Perspective:
– gain an understanding of the needs and priorities of potential
research users
– inform academic research
– increase the prospects of academic research being applied (and
generating a wider impact)
▶ Research User Perspective:
– research-informed evidence to develop and review policy and
practice
– access to innovative ideas and expertise
– add value and enhance organisational creativity, performance and
productivity through collaborations and partnerships
▶ Gain access to collaborative funding

6. Public Sector Engagement
▶ Engagement with Central Government and
Devolved Administrations is already well
established, including co-funding of a range of
initiatives across our portfolio, and knowledge
exchange activities such as placement
fellowships and policy seminars
▶ Discussions are underway with Local
Government umbrella bodies and the DCLG on
how best to increase our engagement with, and
further meet the evidence needs of, local

7. Civil Society Engagement
▶ We have well established funding relationships with
some large charities, such as Cancer Research UK
▶ Some of our large investments, such as the Third
Sector Research Centre and the Centre for Market
and Public Organisation, carry out work with, and of
interest to, the civil society sector
▶ Links have been established with the National
Council for Voluntary Organisations, and their
Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish equivalents
▶ We have ongoing seminar series, in collaboration
with the Institute for Volunteering Research, and the
Third Sector Research Centre respectively

8. Further Developing Relationships with
Civil Society Organisations
▶ We have established that Civil Society organisations
are interested in:
– data on participation in volunteering activities and
charitable donations
– evidence on the effectiveness of their interventions with
client groups
▶ However, there is a great deal of variation in this
sector; some large charities have well resourced
research departments, but the skills necessary for
the collection and analysis of data and interpretation
of evidence are often lacking in smaller
organisations. We are therefore exploring how we
can better link these organisations up with the
research base

9. Private Sector Engagement
▶ Examples of successful engagement:
– Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (TSB)
– Via ESRC funded investments (about a third of survey
respondents reported substantive business links)
– Some good examples of successful placements and
collaborative research
▶ But need to do more:
– ESRC funded investments have much stronger links
with the public sector
– Ventures: business engagement marginal
– KE call does not attract business

10. Engaging with business – some
issues
▶ Access: ESRC has a relatively low profile with
business sector –communication issues, who to
target?
▶ Focus of ESRC research portfolio
▶ Are schemes „fit for purpose‟?
▶ ESRC requirements
– Quality
– Independence
– Impact
▶ …..timescales, disclosure; we don‟t offer
consultancy

11. Overcoming barriers
▶ Improving ESRC profile with the business sector
▶ Identifying value added of research portfolio (our
„offer‟) and potential partners
▶ More proactive engagement, more responsive
approach to potential leads
▶ More flexible access to ESRC funding/ „light
touch governance‟: already generating some
success
▶ Filling gaps in portfolio: e.g. Enterprise Centre

12. Current Business Priorities
▶ Financial Services Sector
– Financial Services Knowledge Transfer Network (co-
funded with TSB)
▶ Retail
– Retail Navigator (Nottingham Business School)
– Retail Data Navigator (UCL/Demographic Decisions
Ltd)

13. KE Funding Opportunities
▶ Individual schemes now fully integrated into
single „responsive‟ KE Opportunities Call
(currently three times a year). Flexible to
encourage innovation
▶ Coverage now includes collaborative, or user led
research: co-funding requirements recently
relaxed to allow any combination of cash/‟in-kind‟
▶ „Directive KE‟: fast-track, discretionary
mechanism to accommodate ESRC priorities

14. To summarise
▶ Impact through partnership: well established
relationships with public sector and civil society,
addressing barriers to improve engagement with
private sector
▶ Role of ESRC: knowledge broker, facilitator,
advisor on KE and Impact
▶ Single integrated „responsive‟ KE funding:
scheme („KE Opportunities‟ ) plus discretionary
„directive‟ mechanism to fast track priority
initiatives
▶

15. ESRC‟s Contacts
▶ Speakers:
– Dr Paul Sanderson, Deputy Head of Knowledge
Exchange
paul.sanderson@esrc.ac.uk
– Dr Dawn Woodgate, Principal Knowledge Exchange
Manager (Public Sector and Civil Society)
dawn.woodgate@esrc.ac.uk
▶ ESRC website
– www.esrc.ac.uk