Institutional Context
Summary
The University of Lincoln is a university of/for the 21st Century. Created by the people of Lincolnshire, we are as much the University for Lincoln, as the University of Lincoln. Dynamic, enterprising, and globally connected. We nurture talent and ideas, contribute globally by creating and sharing knowledge and demonstrably help to transform lives and communities for the better.
Our Vision is to establish an international reputation for challenge-led, co-created, impactful research and knowledge exchange that addresses global, national and regional priorities.
Our civic responsibilities seek to address inequalities across our large rural, coastal and industrial sparsely populated geography. This includes initiatives to enhance employment, skills, address health disparities, improve educational attainment and provide better access to cultural activities.
Institutional context
We were established in 1996, on a brownfield site. Charged with enriching the city’s economic, social, and cultural life, we became the University of Lincoln in 2001. We have since grown into a flourishing institution that has become a key driver in contributing over £400m to the local economy.
The University has grown its student population to >19,000 across a full range of disciplines set within four academic colleges: Arts, Science, Social Science and Lincoln International Business School. We provide individuals with the tools needed to achieve their career aspirations and to meet the needs of employers looking for people with the skills and drive to make a difference in the world today. The unique and innovative relationships we have with businesses across a wide range of sectors from the large like Siemens Energy, Lincolnshire Co-op and Bakkavor through to SMEs like Saga Robotics, EyeGuide and Firmative Media have led to investment in infrastructure and co-production of curricula and qualification routes. Working in partnership with the Greater Lincolnshire LEP we have leveraged opportunities for inward investment in our region to drive forward game changing activity like UK Food Valley.
The University is committed to developing impactful research that responds to the needs of communities and organisations, levelling up ‘left behind places’ and to working in partnership to make great things happen. We address challenges from our locale that have global significance, such as rural health and social care, agri-food technology, heritage and culture, defence, energy and supply chain and logistics.
Our strategic plan to 2027 focuses our ambitions to contribute significantly to the nation’s success through regional regeneration and international connectivity. We recognise the challenges the region faces and are building on our existing strengths and resources to attract global talent to help solve some of the world’s current and future grand challenges.
Our research and knowledge exchange ambitions are structured around three priority areas: Growth, Culture and Collaboration.
Growth:
Knowledge exchange and innovation activities have been developed to deliberately link our assets and needs of the surrounding area alongside its key industries and sectors. Skills development is supported through various innovations – sponsorship of five multi academy trust schools and an Institute of Technology (IoT); 2 dedicated agri-food campuses; a new medical school, a medieval library in the Cathedral and award-winning International Bomber Command Centre.
Culture:
We aim to remove barriers to interaction within and beyond the University, integrating stakeholders, communities, and disciplines. We are engaged participants in sector initiatives such as research and KE concordats. These support sharing of best and innovative practices to increase the capacity and confidence of our staff and students to produce meaningful new knowledge and transfer it out to make a difference to society and business.
Collaboration:
Collaboration is at the heart of what we do. It stretches from the local – where we work with partners in our region to address pressing social, cultural, and economic need – to the global, where we address strategic development goals that are rooted in local needs.
For further information, please send queries to KnowledgeExchange@lincoln.ac.uk
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
Our vision has been to deliver a sector and partnership centred ecosystem that will generate future research and KE opportunities and long-lasting transformation in our place with solutions that can benefit the world. Our place reflects the Greater Lincolnshire LEP area covering Lincolnshire, North and North-East Lincolnshire, and Rutland with strong ties to the Humber.
In the last academic year, more than half of the University’s externally funded research income supported projects aligned with the priority industrial cluster areas as identified by the Greater Lincoln Local Enterprise Partnership (GLLEP); more than two thirds with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals; and over two thirds involved non-academic partners. This is in alignment with our Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) strategy goals.
Aspect 1: Strategy
Being for and of Greater Lincolnshire, with strengthening ties to the Humber, gives the University’s approach its distinctive character. Our strengths and priorities are aligned to the needs and assets of our region. We have developed a range of initiatives and research expertise to address significant inequalities across the geography set out in our Civic and Regional Engagement Plan.
Our collaborative approach between our academics, students, businesses, communities and partners enables us to make the transformative step changes required to address local needs in these sectors. As defined by the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership (GLLEP), our four game-changing sectors – Humber Freeport, UK Food Valley, Green Energy and Defence & Security have high potential opportunities for growth, investment and collaboration on a region-wide scale aligned to our strategic plan. The University also continues to invest in the broader key sectors which have a competitive advantage - agri-food, energy, health & care, ports & logistics, defence & security and the visitor economy.
Alongside these regional opportunities, we have identified some of the barriers to growth. The University’s Regional Inequality Commission identified that Greater Lincolnshire’s economy is growing at a slower rate than both the East Midlands and UK, and the gap is widening. Across all stages of life, Greater Lincolnshire underperforms compared to the England average. Early years and working years emerge as particular challenges. Many places in Greater Lincolnshire have seen increases in levels of deprivation in the past 5 years with a persistent trend of deprivation being worst in coastal areas and some industrial areas.
Key barriers highlighted below have shaped our KE approach to raise productivity and innovation aspiration through investments we have made as specifically defined in Aspect 2:
poor transport connectivity both within Greater Lincolnshire (especially rural and coastal areas) and to other parts of the country;
low innovation activity with businesses spending less on R&D per full time employee (£353) than the GB average (£1,638) – the region also contains fewer innovation jobs (2.2%) than seen nationally (4.5%);
a persistently low skilled population, with poor outcomes and limited access to HE and FE provision;
high levels of economic inactivity, especially in coastal areas with low healthy life expectancy;
an ageing population, ageing more rapidly than nationally;
acute labour market shortages in key industries, and skills mismatches in others with increasing automation and digitalisation likely to exacerbate these issues over the coming years.
Our partnership approach is one of co-creation, co-development and co-delivery with our stakeholders as part of the wider innovation ecosystem. We have a powerful and growing set of interventions across the region including a strong network of science/industrial park activity and expansion of our National Centre for Food Manufacturing into Grimsby and its seafood industry. These drivers for change are supported through collaborations like: Midlands Engine, Midlands Enterprise Universities; our own knowledge mobilisation support engines Lincoln Policy Hub and Lincoln Impact Literacy Institute; and organisations that represent our community assets (over 10 councils, GLLEP and HEY LEP, FE colleges, schools, businesses, NHS, Third Sector organisations). We are also an active member on Towns Fund Boards addressing deprivation and skills. All are critical to delivering joined up strategies and resources that are focused on addressing regional inequalities over the long term.
Aspect 2: Activity
Our Research and Knowledge Exchange Strategy aligns directly to the region’s development priorities as identified in GLLEP Industrial Strategy (UK Food Valley, green energy, defence and security) and grand challenge initiatives to address deprivation, poor health, use of AI and data, clean growth and the Freeport. In drawing together the full value of what the University has to offer – its research, knowledge exchange, teaching and engagement activities, and collaboration with other regional stakeholders – we are making significant strides to revolutionise what we are doing, their effectiveness and efficiency to meet the national grand challenges, address regional inequalities and reinforce success in areas where the region has a competitive advantage.
The University supports key sectors where we have a competitive advantage and can offer real growth opportunities throughout the region through the activities we deliver:
Agri-Food/Tech
The Centre of Excellence in Agri-Food Technologies was the first linchpin building in the South Lincolnshire Food Enterprise Zone (FEZ) at Holbeach, completed spring 2021. The Centre acts as an innovation hub offering support services, pioneering research, good quality education and skills development for agri-food SME businesses in Greater Lincolnshire and beyond.
Lincolnshire Institute of Technology (IoT) is an integrated network of prestigious centres for skills development located across Greater Lincolnshire to meet the higher-level scientific and technical skill needs of Lincolnshire's key sectors. Holbeach IoT Hub completed early 2022 sits alongside the Centre of Excellence to drive further education and research in agri-food technologies, delivering employment opportunities in this area.
Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology (LIAT) leads the world in developing autonomous robots for farming. In 2021 it represented the University at COP26 in Glasgow and launched its first two spin-out companies, housed in Barclay’s Eagle Lab, building on our Ceres Agri-tech Partnership; FruitCast which offers unique AI-enabled data analytics and yield forecasting for soft fruits, while Agaricus Robotics is developing a solution to harvest even the most challenging dense clusters of mushrooms.
Showcasing Local to Global in the Agri-Food/Tech Sector:
Manufacturing
‘Bridge’ Advanced Engineering R&D Centre completed June 2022 is a new-build, state-of-the-art, integrated facility to catalyse growth and productivity for advanced materials in Greater Lincolnshire. It promotes research and innovation in the SME supply chains applicable in several key sectors of the regional economy: eg, metals manufacturing, chemicals, petroleum, rubber, plastics, power generation and storage, semi-conductors, electronic devices.
Visitor Economy
Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC) included in the Arts Council England’s National Portfolio of Organisations provides investment of £1.2 million through the Creative Growth Programme, continuing to establish us as a key driver for growth in the arts and creative industry in Lincolnshire with widening national reach. Barbican Creative Hub further supports this in creating opportunities for our Arts graduates, small business creation and community engagement.
The University was instrumental in the creation of the International Bomber Command Centre and devised a new research-based approach to the management of difficult cultural heritage, highlighting inclusivity of volunteers and cultural sensitivity.
Health and Care
Lincoln Medical School, completed March 2021, was purpose-built with the specific aim of improving the recruitment and retention of doctors in Lincolnshire. It serves as a hub for medical practitioners to work with medical academics and students to solve problems for the benefit of people in our region.
It also houses Lincoln International Institute for Rural Health (LIIRH) which conducts interdisciplinary research addressing the most important health issues facing rural and coastal communities locally, nationally and internationally tackling health inequalities that exist across the rural-urban divide.
Showcasing Local to Global in the Rural Health & Social Care Sector:
Since Covid there has been increasing recognition of the links between health, wellbeing, inequality and access to opportunity. At the same time the development of Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) with regional Integrated Care Boards in the NHS placed greater emphasis on the importance of working across the system to focus on health determinants as well as health outcomes – United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT) has been working closely with us and our Medical School to jointly create a strategy focused on developing rural healthcare and education.
Ports & Logistics
We work collaboratively across the Humber through private sector led Opportunity Humber providing strategic leadership to drive the development and delivery of agreed pan-Humber economic priorities with the Humber Energy Board (a regional initiative), Humber Freeport and Hull & East Yorkshire LEP (HEY LEP) and CATCH (an industry-led partnership).
Energy
We have partnered with Yorkshire Energy Park (YEP) to deliver innovation in a range of energy critical fields, including allied technology and digital sectors. Lincoln connects the needs of the industry with onsite vocational training and HE facilities to develop the next generation workforce. This strategic partnership between Lincoln and YEP will benefit from the synergies provided by being located on a freeport site with tax benefits and occupier benefits. It ensures that Lincoln is at the heart of innovation on the UK’s Energy Estuary.
Defence and Security
As an anchor institution to a region which has a critical defence sector, with growing activity in Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR), we are rapidly building partnerships to help provide forward thinking solutions in all forms of defence and security activity.
Lincoln Science & Innovation Park, established as a joint venture with Lincolnshire Co-Op, has helped attract UK and foreign defence and security companies, exploiting academic knowledge available through the University alongside other companies in the sector clustering in Lincoln including at Teal Park, one of our largest business parks. We are creating a Greater Lincolnshire Defence and Security Network (GLDSN) and growing it to become a nationally recognised Defence & Security Cluster.
The GLDSN builds on ISTAR capabilities at RAF Waddington and within businesses supporting the RAF, combined with the University of Lincoln’s leading-edge digital and information technology expertise providing multiple collaboration and problem-solving opportunities.
We are also the academic partner led by a consortium of partners to deliver Project Selborne (started in 2021) which delivers transformational training and education to the Royal Navy.
Opportunities for our students, academic community, and the region’s workforce are also at the heart of key partnerships with SRC UK and BAE Systems which builds on Project Selborne and our work in the Defence sector.
Productivity/Innovation
The challenges in supporting productivity and improved quality of life are interlinked and our experience is that sustained, multi-faceted and co-created interventions are the way to deliver lasting impact.
The Productivity Programme has supported Greater Lincolnshire businesses to advance and develop their ambitions, driving levels of productivity and investments as well as collaborative engagement. The Productivity Hubs sit alongside this to help reach harder to engage with businesses through more intensive accelerator support with both programmes operating across a wide range of sectors. Lincoln Be Smarter funded through Lincoln Towns Deal, is increasing the adoption of digital technologies to help businesses make transformational change in the use of technology.
We promote SME development and growth through GLEAM, a new initiative funded by the School of Engineering and the GLLEP, and our Lincoln International Business School has successfully secured the Small Business Charter, enabling us to offer world-class support to small businesses and foster student enterprise.
Our nationally recognised innovation centres provide co-located office space for businesses and tailored wrap around business support and mentoring. Sparkhouse incubation unit encourages start-up businesses with Student Enterprise to specifically support graduates into self-employment. Enterprise provides the next step grow-on space and Think Tank is for growing businesses to encourage creative thinking and innovation. Eagle Lab, based at our Riseholme campus, is focused on Agri-Tech start-ups and spinouts like FruitCast and Agaricus, with access to a robotics lab, demonstration packhouse and a model refrigerated supermarket aisle.
Aspect 3: Results
We view the success of our investments not on how they have delivered as individual projects but how they have connected with each other and how they worked across other local, regional and national schemes to make our sectors sustainable into the future. The results inform how future investments are made, aligned to strategic priorities and with stakeholder engagement feeding into this throughout the project life cycle.
| Agri-Food | |
|---|---|
| Project | Outcomes/Results |
| Centre of Excellence | New 14,500 sqft facility, the first as part of the South Lincolnshire FEZ supports the work of 25 food specialist and academics at the University and is a catalyst for cluster development bringing businesses and support agencies together to invest in pre-competitive projects and to develop collaborative bids for funding. |
| Greater Lincolnshire Agri Food Innovation Platform | Led by NCFM and supported by Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology and other food research-based institutions has helped businesses innovate in areas such as food waste, security, provenance and safety. It has supported 95 local businesses with research collaborations and delivered 24 new to the market products |
| Holbeach Institute of Technology | The new 459 sqm building sits alongside the Centre of Excellence to build capability to advance digital skills in Greater Lincolnshire food manufacturing sector to provide the industry with the skills it needs to drive innovation and enhanced productivity. 5 new jobs have been created, 416 learners supported and 33 brand new or modernised curriculums provided. |
| Manufacturing | |
|---|---|
| Project | Outcomes/Results |
| Advanced Engineering R&D Centre ‘Bridge’ | A new-build, state-of-the-art, 788 m2 integrated facility to catalyse growth and productivity for advanced materials in Greater Lincolnshire. |
| Visitor Economy | |
|---|---|
| Project | Outcomes/Results |
| International Bomber Command Centre | The IBCC attracted 218,791 visitors to December 2020 and a further 87,784 in 2022; the Digital Archive had 26,472 items published with 1,357 interviews which attracted a further 215,788 on-line visitors by December 2022 and £2.1M unique page views from nearly every country in the world. |
| Health & Care | |
|---|---|
| Project | Outcomes/Results |
| Lincoln Medical School & Lincoln International Institute for Rural Health (LIIRH) | A high-quality 5,692m2 integrated clinical facility which has enrolled 365 medical school students to 2022 driving skills development across the fields of medicine and allied health subjects, providing the platform to grow the scale and diversity of existing provision from professional development to post-graduate qualification. |
| Productivity & Innovation | |
|---|---|
| Project | Outcomes/Results |
| Productivity Programme in Greater Lincolnshire | The project supported 572 businesses; 138 receiving grant funding; 49 graduates had start-up grant funding; 52 graduate interns were recruited; over £270,000 of grant funding was provided for businesses’ research & development costs to promote productivity and growth and 37 projects received expert academic and technical expertise through productivity vouchers The Productivity Programme responded quickly to the unanticipated pressures created by Covid-19 supporting businesses to diversify highlighted in an independent evaluation. Key follow-on outcomes of this included: Matthew Cox Ltd who secured £10,000 to help the company to purchase augmented reality technology during the pandemic which enabled them to keep operating throughout this time. https://productivityprogramme.co.uk/case-studies/ |
| Productivity Hubs | The Hubs supported 151 businesses, 41 attended our accelerator programmes which provided specialist targeted support to some of our hard-to-reach areas. Beneficiaries that have received support have commented on how they have taken key tools from every session including specific developments or learning in relation to new products, processes and services that would not have otherwise been made. (https://productivityhubs.co.uk/case-studies/ ) |
| Lincoln Science & Innovation Park (LSIP) | LSIP has now grown to six directly owned buildings with new grow on space ‘Alchemy’ and ‘Gravity’ plus three University buildings, including specialised facilities like the Bridge lab. Several tenants have demonstrated exceptional growth particularly in the fields of agritech (Aperon, B-Hive Innovations, Harvest Eye) and defence technology (SRC UK, Metrea) which has allowed LSIP to evidence job creation of 227.5 FTE. |
In 2021/22 the GLLEP reported 25 successful FDI inward investment projects from 11 different countries of ownership. This attracted £7,360,766,974 of investment and created 1306 new jobs. High skill agri-tech related businesses have also increased with over 70 inward investment enquiries. Several of these are large investors related to the success of the Food Enterprise Zone and University investments which demonstrates the wider impacts our projects have on the local area.
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
Public and community engagement is central to the University of Lincoln since its 2001 ‘civic university’ foundation. Sustaining this in a rapidly changing world is reflected in the Strategic Plan 2022-27 overarching commitment to “creating and sharing knowledge and demonstrably helping to transform lives and communities for the better”.
As a NCCPE Manifesto for Public Engagement signatory we seek to maximise the value of our activities regionally, nationally and globally, actively encouraging all disciplinary areas to ensure stakeholders can benefit from sharing in our research processes, skills, knowledge, outcomes and insights.
As signatory to the Civic University Agreement 2019, ensuring our research KE benefits our communities is achieved through partnerships, outreach, training, development, conversations, festivals, exhibitions and more.
Aspect 1: Strategy
Strategic approach: Our strategic vision is for public and community engagement (P&CE) co-created and pervasive (across all schools, colleges and departments); informed, shaped and driven by local, regional and global needs; dynamically refreshed to sustain relevance in a rapidly changing world. A dedicated P&CE unit, PEARL (Public Engagement for All with Research at Lincoln) set up (2018) with UKRI funding, supports P&CE across the University, supporting inputs and activity and monitoring outcomes (Figure 1: Logic Model). PEARL developed a Strategy for Public Engagement with Research (2020) based on the five overarching principles that our P&CE should be: beneficial (providing P&CE opportunities which inform, involve, enrich, upskill and inspire); known (familiar/appreciated internally and externally, from local to global scales); ambitious (continuously building capacity for effectiveness and innovation); supportive (providing resources and recognition for staff/students); and reflective (understanding its publics, locale and impact). Meeting these principles is achieved through 20 core actions (Figure 4: Framework), with 50 specific outputs through which progress can be monitored.
The Professor for PER owns the P&CE strategy; the Director of Research & Enterprise (under the oversight of DVC for Research and Innovation) owns RKE workstreams for external engagement and KE; the DVC for Regional Engagement owns CRE strategy; and the PVC for the College of Arts owns the ACH strategy (Figure 2: Governance).
Figure 2 Governance
Priorities and goals: Sharing knowledge to positively transform lives and communities is prioritised throughout the University’s strategic plans (2016-21 and 2022-27). The RKE Strategy aims to intensify knowledge exchange activity, focussing on strengths and opportunities to nurture a KE and impact culture that is ambitious, collegiate, focused, agile and upholds integrity, sustaining a permeable ecosystem within and beyond the University integrating stakeholders, communities and disciplines allowing our research and knowledge exchange to address regional priorities. Specific regional priorities include inequality, health/wellbeing; community, belonging and recovery; education, skills and the labour market; innovation, investment and ambition; and place, culture and connectivity. Specific global challenges rooted in local needs include agri-food technology, rural health, net zero, security, and heritage. Regional priorities include freeports, food production, green energy and security. Identified priority groups include Sincil Bank district of Lincoln, rural/coastal communities and older people.
Identification of public and community group needs at an institutional level: Our understanding of public/community needs is informed by enquiries eg GLLEP Industrial Strategy survey (2019); City of Lincoln Council’s Vision2025 strategy development (2019); and the Regional Inequality Commission (2022). The strategic aims of our Civic University Agreement with City Council and Bishop Grosseteste University were informed by a 2019 Citizens’ Panel survey. 91% of respondents agreed universities should support their communities. Identified priorities included enhancing Lincoln/shire as a place to live/work/visit and strengthening partnerships with schools, colleges, businesses, local authorities and healthcare providers. Specific group needs are routinely identified though external consultations, eg vision testing for the Future Arts Centre which involved 260 community members.
Much P&CE activity at UoL is externally funded through research projects/civic programmes and collaborative partnerships with external organisations/initiatives. PEARL is resourced from QR funds and the College of Arts where key staff are (PEARL manager, PEARL administrator, Professor for PER). Value for money is assured through rigorous monitoring of funded activities including capture and analysis of outcomes data (see Aspects 4&5).
Aspect 2: Support
P&CE support increased following UKRI-funded review (2017-18) which established PEARL to support staff/students across the University (Figure 2: Governance).
Inputs now include:
Annual Small Grants scheme (max. £1000/proposal) offered for new P&CE activity (Figure 3). Applicants are required to detail underpinning research, activity, audience, costs and evaluation strategy. Running throughout 2019-22 the fund has consistently been popular and oversubscribed and supports a wide range of activity (Figure 7).
Annual Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme includes four 3-hour in-person workshops each requiring 3 hours online preparation, covering principles, audiences, planning and evaluation of PER. A fully online version was developed in June 2020.
Year-round open-door and scheduled support and advice includes weekly drop-in café sessions during term, advice for bid development and support for researching, designing, planning, promoting and delivering activities.
Networking through LPEN (Lincoln Public Engagement Network) shares effective practice and supporting peer-to-peer learning.
Digital engagement and promotion through social media and a bi-monthly digital newsletter.
Staff profile page tabs for Public Engagement facilitating access, awareness and data collection.
Community representatives on the PEARL Steering Group include Lincolnshire County Council, Lincoln City Council, Lincolnshire Schools Teaching Alliance, Historic Lincoln Partnership, civic groups, parish councils, special interest groups, schools and third sector organisations.
Additional inputs include reward and recognition processes:
Staff appraisal guidance notes for C&PE (with objective libraries supporting goal setting/assessment)
VC’s Awards for PER with nominations solicited/assessed annually via PEARL and awards made at graduation ceremonies
Staff merit awards (for teams and individuals) with nominations submitted/assessed annually via PEARL and awards made at a formal university celebration event
Student contribution to P&CE is included in the Lincoln Award for students
Promotion of excellent P&CE in annual report ‘Discover’ and PER conference
The above inputs constitute an integrated mechanism facilitating excellent engagement practice follow our P&CE logic model (Figure 1) to provide a cycle of support and capacity building ensuring researchers can be trained, funded, motivated, supported and recognised for public engagement, which supports all colleges across the University.
Figure 3 Breakdown of grant awards
Aspect 3: Activity
The strategic rationale for P&CE activity is outlined in Aspect 1. Our P&CE Framework aims to deliver on our five principles through 20 activities met through 50 specific, observable, measurable, accountable outputs (Figure 4: Framework). This ensures that our activities are strategic, broad-ranging, effective and adaptable. These enable a holistic, integrated suite of co-created PE activity including: talks, discussions, consultations, performances, festivals, exhibitions, unenrolled learning, collaborations and co-produced and participatory research at a range of scales.
Figure 4 Framework
Activities include:
National Public Engagement festivals: Including Pint of Science, Being Human. Fun Palace,
Regular programmes devised by University of Lincoln staff and students: Including Agri-Tech Breakfast Briefings, Philosophy Café, Summer Scientist, Great Lives.
Contributions to programmes run by public/community groups: such as U3A, Cafe Scientifique, historical societies, environmental groups.
On-campus festivals: Festival of Creativity, Medieval Week, Science Week
Community initiatives: Spark Engineering Festival, Frequency Festival; Lincoln Book Festival
1.Being Human Festival (BH) (2018-22) is a national festival engaging wider publics with humanities research. The University of Lincoln has contributed to BH annually since 2018 and twice gained prestigious hub status (2019&2021). In 2020 a pandemic programme of 5 online events attracted 185 attendees with live captioning increasing accessibility. Evaluation showed 77% were aged 45 and older, highlighting a new way of engaging older populations in future activity. In 2021, BH hub funding matched by College of Arts supported a hybrid programme across the city, wider region and online, such as ceramic tile-making remembering Covid developed for museum exhibition 2022-23 (Figure 5).
3.Decolonising history: sharing research and approaches with schools (2020-21). Funded by a PEARL grant, the project team worked closely with five Lincolnshire secondary school history teachers through a series of online workshops to co-create resources to teach decolonised history curricula in relevant and meaningful ways. These were trialled with more than 180 students before being rolled out more widely. Four key impacts were: academic research gained direct application in schools; history teachers changed their teaching approaches; researchers and teachers developed an equitable and trusting relationship, still continuing via Teams; and the university’s public image was enhanced, as teachers valued engaging with the academics. Their work was showcased in 'Teaching History', which reaches more than 3,000 history teachers.
Figure 7 Supported activities
Aspect 4: Enhancing practice
In 2019-22, most evaluation of C&PE is via PEARL which (a) provides annual CPD on evaluation for C&PE; (b) offers protocols to facilitate the capture of outcomes data; (c) offers grants, eligibility for which includes a clear evaluation strategy as a precondition and monitoring of outcomes data; (d) has processes for capturing/recognising P&CE; and (e) runs the LPEN engaged network and annual conferences promoting outcomes data capture.
Monitoring achievement and progress is undertaken with reference to the Logic Model (Figure 1) and Framework (Figure 4) in the PER Strategy 2020.
For individual activities, for example, analysis and feedback from PoS, showed that in 2019 it had delivered PER Strategy Framework outputs 1 (PER activities range in scale and scope…); 2 (Staff and students from all university schools deliver PER…); 3 (UoL website advertises and reports PER activity); 7 (Diverse audiences…); 8 (Activities in different places, on and off campus…); 9 (Activities provide opportunities for dialogue in person and online); 41 (Robust methods (qual and quant) are used to evaluate…); 43 (Data is available on the impact of PER activities); and 45 (A proactive approach is taken to developing new approaches to evaluating PER). We can also see how different types of activity help us deliver on the five PER principles (to be beneficial, known ambitious, supportive and reflective). This mappable evaluation, which relates directly to university-wide strategic goals, can be done using the P&CE framework, for all activities/programmes.
Monitoring achievement of wider strategic goals for C&PE can also be done using the 20 Activities and 50 outputs in the PER Strategy 2020 Framework. For example, over the last three years the impact of the pandemic is evident in output 3 (PER activity is growing year-on-year) in 2020 due to pandemic restrictions cancelling/postponing some activities. Using the framework also shows how the move to online C&PE, once achieved, actually enhanced performance on outputs 5 (PER-specific online presence advertises, reports and archives PER across all colleges) and 19 (The University’s PER activities can be followed online and offline). Greater engagement online also facilitated digital outcomes data capture, meeting output 45 (A proactive approach is taken to developing new approaches to evaluating PER) and improving the University’s understanding of its impact and needs of our audiences, communities and wider publics.
Information on how we share evidence is included in Aspect 5 (below).
Aspect 5: Building on success
Overall, our strategic goals for Public and Community Engagement have been widely met, although the pandemic limited progress relating to year-on-year increases. We have increased capacity for online engagement although still aspire to disseminate our work more widely across academia (outputs 48 (Participation in external conferences, committees and consultations…) and 49 (UoL PER (aims, case studies, national/international comparisons, ethics, evaluation etc are published in peer-reviewed journals).
We have collected and shared our C&PE activity and outcomes data in order to enable development of better and more effective engagement activity in a range of ways: (a) internally through our annual conference; (b) internally and externally through our annual review 'Discover'; and (c) through specific programmes targeting particular priority areas. One example is the Cultural Compact project funded by Arts Council England (2021-2022) which engaged 10% of Lincoln’s 10-19-year old population in co-designing a vision for a city, through an innovative workshop which elicited a compelling set of maxims now being embedded in policy by the City Council.
Audience needs are investigated systematically and serendipitously, formally, informally, organically, reactively and proactively as appropriate. We nurture approaches to engagement which have developed informally and are working well (eg Philosophy Café); we respond positively to requests for new engagement activity (eg Café Scientifique); we scan for new opportunities (eg Creative Reactions); and periodically survey public interests and aspirations for engagement. Outcomes data from funded activities can be measured against planned targets in our PER Strategy 2020.
One example of the ways in which our P&CE supports a culture of continuous improvement, the University’s Centre for Culture & Creativity (C4CC), is a catalyst for cultural public programming underpinned by world-class research which aims to impact positively on places, people, policy and practice in Lincolnshire and beyond. P&CE is pervasive throughout the mission of C4CC which includes connecting academics with real world activities, generating new forms of research using creativity and opportunities for students to engage and to advance thinking across policy and practice, locally and nationally. One outcome of this has been the successful application of our University arts centre (LPAC) to become an Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisation in 2023, which was underpinned by public engagement. As a new NPO, we will harness our funding to catalyse significant change for our communities, emphasising those who are currently under-represented. We will build on this work by launching the Lincoln Future Arts Centre in 2023, and opening a new Creative Hub to develop the region’s cultural ecology in 2024. We will facilitate research and projects connecting science, arts, heritage, and health; building on the promise that our organisation is a facilitator of people and ideas, with resources and expertise, as well as a physical place connecting the public in the making and consumption of work. This will support our aim to re-introduce a cross-disciplinary on-campus festival of knowledge and ideas (not possible during the pandemic). This new approach is premised on previous public engagement successes such as working with Threshold Studios on the annual Frequency Festival or with the YMCA to engage those not currently in formal education in creative skills development programme.
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