Institutional Context
Summary
As set out in the refreshed Corporate Strategy, industry collaboration (private, public and third sector) remains the guiding principle to deliver our mission to:
Educate the next generation of modern industrialists, innovators, creators, entrepreneurs and leaders
Develop the skills and knowledge needed to capitalise on the next industrial revolution
Work in collaboration with public and private sector partners to address local and global economic and societal challenges
Through our industry-focused research and innovation, we harness our expertise across areas of excellence, working with partners to address real-world challenges. We do this by helping businesses to improve products and services, supporting policymakers to tackle major issues facing society and through connecting with our community to share knowledge and expertise.
Institutional context
From its inception as a royal institute in 1896, the University of Salford has always been a place where original research is combined with applications for industry and where knowledge is translated to generate measurable impact.
Our Strategy for Knowledge Exchange
Our Corporate Strategy is delivered through seven pillars, one of which is Innovation. Bringing together research, enterprise, knowledge exchange (KE) and engagement, our strategy for Innovation provides a single unified vision and plan to capitalise on our key areas of strength in research; working in partnership to address the needs of local, regional, national, and global stakeholders to generate measurable economic, societal, and environmental impact.
An overview of our Innovation Strategy 2021-26 (below) details three goals; four cross-cutting thematic areas; and five priority areas where we are focusing activity.
Innovation Strategy Overview
Our KE activity is specifically underpinned by four of our five Innovation Strategy priorities, forming the basis of ongoing HEIF investment: supporting projects and developing an engrained KE culture across the University, as illustrated below.
KE Activity
Our People
Research and enterprise success is dependent upon our academics and postgraduate researchers (PGRs) working in productive partnerships with industry, public, and third sector organisations to address real-world challenges, co-create solutions and translate knowledge to create value.
At undergraduate level, our business incubator programme “Launch”, delivers entrepreneurial opportunities for students. Our industry-embedded curriculum serves as an ever-growing foundation to build industry engagement and continually reinvest in staff and student talent.
Our PhD programmes are increasingly connected with external partners. Our co-investment in industry-sponsored projects provide candidates with valuable employment skills and serve to differentiate our offer in the market.
Our industry-framed Academic Career Framework focuses on utilising KE activity to create academic pathways to success, providing professional recognition of our entrepreneurial environment.
Our Place in the Region
A signatory to the Greater Manchester Civic University Agreement, we demonstrate commitment to our city-region, expanding our vision around impact to incorporate a clear civic mission. As an anchor institution within the region, we are building on our partnerships with Salford City Council, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and other Greater Manchester (GM) universities, working together to identify and address local issues; positioning ourselves through Innovation Greater Manchester to co-develop the region’s innovation ecosystem.
Supporting Economic Growth
Salford produces excellent discovery and applied research. Through the exploitation of our research findings, we drive IP and commercialisation and other opportunities. The University has a reputation for applied research with measurable impact on job and wealth generation. At the forefront of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) since its inception, we have managed 200+ KTPs. Through our sector leading CPD offer we work annually with 1,200 SMEs and 12,000 delegates.
Our Future
Our Innovation Strategy provides a lens to challenge, reassess and reposition our engagement with industry and the community, positioning us as bold, distinctive and ambitious in relation to the higher education sector in our offer and practice and driving external partnerships even further, through an industry-led curriculum, preparing our students for work and life.
For further information, please send queries to research-impact@salford.ac.uk
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
The University works through mutually beneficial industry partnerships to support growth and regeneration across the North and beyond, but our primary focus is on our immediate locality of the City of Salford and the broader Greater Manchester (GM) city-region. Our four Strategy themes of Productivity, Healthy Living, Sustainable Environments and Creative & Resilient Communities align with the
Innovation Greater Manchester initiative and the GM frontier sectors outlined in the Local Industrial Strategy. We continue to build around our key disciplinary strengths such as Data Science & AI, Digital, Acoustics, Prosthetics & Orthotics, Robotics, Sustainability and the Built Environment to ensure we deliver added value for SMEs and larger businesses locally and regionally.Aspect 1: Strategy
Born out of industry need, the University is based in the City of Salford and has its origins in the demands for new industrial skills created by the Industrial Revolution. The educational institutes created to meet those needs grew throughout the 20th Century leading to creation of the University of Salford in 1967. This legacy continues with the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with Salford continuing to deliver impact for local, regional and international private and public sectors through innovative collaboration.
The City of Salford is covered by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), made up of 10 local authorities who work together on city-region issues including sustainability, economic growth, innovation and regeneration. The University is located in the heart of the City of Salford and works at both the local city and Greater Manchester (GM) city-region level, highlighting our role as a major stakeholder in the wider region, as well as our importance as an anchor institution for the area, which, whilst growing rapidly, has regeneration challenges and areas of deprivation.
In 2021, the Greater Manchester Civic University Agreement was signed by the vice-chancellors or leaders of the five GM universities and GM Mayor Andy Burnham, alongside the 10 local authority leaders of the city-region. Through the agreement we pledge to deliver collective action on six priority areas: education and skills; reducing inequalities; jobs and growth; the digital economy; net zero; and the creative and cultural economy.
Our University plays an active role in working with regional partners on the development and delivery of strategies to drive economic growth. Collaborations include:
Partner in Salford’s Inclusive Economy Strategy, published in 2021.
Working with Salford City Council and other partners on the development of the Salford Innovation Triangle to drive jobs and growth through R&D in Salford.
Joint venture with Salford City Council and English Cities Fund to deliver Crescent Salford which will regenerate the Crescent area of Salford, deliver new homes, transport infrastructure and an innovation zone.
Supporting GMCA in the development of the Greater Manchester Strategy, published in 2021.
Inputting into the Greater Manchester Local Industrial Strategy, published in 2019.
Working as a key GM stakeholder in the establishment of Innovation GM in 2021; a business led partnership focused on driving a globally leading innovation ecosystem in the city-region that will spur on the discovery, invention, and adoption of new technologies and provide solutions for our big societal challenges such as the zero-carbon target for the city.
The University is a member of several regional boards, making a proactive contribution to GM’s economic success. For example, the Vice-Chancellor sits on the board of Innovation GM, which has signed a partnership with Innovate UK to support closer collaboration to drive business innovation, as well as Health Innovation Manchester, an academic health science and innovation partnership.
Innovation activities are linked together across the University through our internal network of Associate Deans Enterprise and Engagement (ADEEs). The ADEEs develop solutions-focused knowledge exchange (KE), delivering informed innovation for economic, environmental and social impact as well as engagement.
Aspect 2: Activity
Our Innovation Strategy 2021-26 identifies four cross-cutting themes of Productivity, Healthy Living, Sustainable Environments and Creative & Resilient Communities. Our disciplinary strengths and key facilities supporting these thematic areas include the following:
Productivity
GM Cyber Foundry is a collaboration between Salford, Manchester, Lancaster and Manchester Metropolitan universities to help businesses assess and develop cyber strategies and utilise cyber technologies to innovate and support growth. Launched in May 2019, the programme was part-funded by ERDF with the aim of supporting 150 GM SMEs, with the University contracted to support 50.
GM AI Foundry is a similar collaboration to support GM SMEs in embedding artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to develop innovation and growth. The collective knowledge and research from within the University is helping programme delegates to understand and apply this learning into business models. The programme is split into two phases. Phase one is a series of seven half-day workshops where businesses learn from experts on topics such as: AI technologies; applications of AI; ethical frameworks for AI; text mining; chatbots; information extraction from digital images; graph mining. Phase two enables businesses to receive up to 45 days of intensive technical support from the Data Science/AI Foundry team to help develop a product/service through AI innovation. Funded by ERDF, the project targets working with 170 GM SMEs, with the University contracted to support 40.
Healthy Living
Prosthetics and Orthotics is an area of research excellence at Salford which secured an EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in 2019. Industrial collaboration is central to the CDT and wider team’s activities. The team are active innovators, with regular patent UK & International filings, and seek to collaborate with innovative companies to develop these patents into products on the market. As a result of an NIHR-funded project into upper limb prosthetics, we have moved into the commercialisation phase of our patented novel electrode housing, which markedly reduces unwanted socket movement.
Additionally, the team has provided advice to the GM Health and Social Care Partnership on walking aids. Walking aid research has led to work with an industry partner, resulting in new, patented designs for improved walking frames that have the potential to improve fall risk by 100%.
Radiography research has contributed to the development of continuing professional development (CPD) to support practitioners both regionally and internationally. For example, the ICE Postgraduate Dental Institute is a National Reference Centre for Digital Dentistry and currently runs courses in partnership with Salford‘s Radiography department. In collaboration with World Wide Radiology (WWR) a course in point-of-care ultrasound has been created as an aide to traditional examination techniques in assessing acutely unwell adult patients in resource-restricted settings, including in Ghana. This gives clinicians around the world a broader, more affordable grounding in bedside ultrasound as a diagnostic tool in emergency care, basic obstetrics and infectious diseases, supporting local regeneration in these LMIC settings.
Salford Acoustics is focused on improving the quality of life for all; helping industry innovate and address significant societal issues. In the area of Acoustics for Health, Wellbeing and Accessibility, Salford Acoustics has a well-established and recognised track record of research and commercial activities. In 2021, over 40% of the businesses supported through commercial activity within the Acoustics team were based in the North of England.
Sustainable Environments
Energy House 2.0 (EH2.0) was conceived to overcome the major barriers to innovation in the construction sector. Building upon our research strengths in energy within buildings, EH2.0 represents one of the largest investments made by the University in a single research facility and harbours the ambition to be an internationally recognised Research Centre of Excellence for low carbon buildings. With the built environment accounting for 40% of the UK’s carbon footprint, if the UK’s ambitions for net zero are to be achieved then a step change is required in new building design and a comprehensive retrofit of the existing regional housing stock.
At a cost of GBP16m, the EH2.0 laboratory has been supported by ERDF and the Office for Students. Commissioned in February 2022, EH2.0 is the largest research and test facility of its kind. Incorporated in the facility are two environment chambers each able to accommodate two detached houses and recreate a wide variety of weather conditions with temperatures between -20°C to +40°C together with wind, rain, snow and solar radiation. EH2.0 won the PraxisAuril KE award for Net Zero Project of the Year in 2022.
Salford Archaeology led the regional update of the North-West Regional Research Framework for the Historic Environment with the Greater Manchester Archaeological Advisory Service (both part of the Centre for Applied Archaeology within the University) on behalf of Historic England, engaging with over 350 regional industry professionals, public stakeholders and academics to provide an updated archaeological resource framework for the next decade. All commercial archaeological activity within the North-west must consult and reference this body of work as part of the initial project proposals and design.
The University was also commissioned by GMCA to provide heritage advice for the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, the key regeneration strategy for the region for the next decade.
Archaeological Site in Salford
Creative and Resilient Communities
MediaCityUK is the hub of the digital and media innovation ecosystem within GM from which over 250 media and digital businesses operate. Our investment in the MediaCityUK campus includes a range of activities in support of local industry and encourages collaboration between students, technicians, academics and the media production industry.
Our work in video encoding standards, such as MPEG, provides links with industry-facing working groups, while award-winning work in acoustics created the spin-out Salsa Sound, leading to work with international broadcasters such as BBC, SKY & BT as well as international sporting organisations such as FIFA. Research has led to AI-driven audio mixing for live sports broadcast to enable audiences to better engage with their favourite sports. This included collaboration with industry to introduce a virtual crowd solution (‘vCROWD TM’) for sports played behind closed doors during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Salford Digital Skills Passport (‘DiSk Pass TM’) was designed and implemented as a novel solution to equip Health and Society students with digital capabilities required for study and practice (functional skills, technical resilience, digital health knowledge, confidence, and values). The team has explored, through an additional HEIF-funded research project, the digital readiness of registered nurses at a Northern Care Alliance to adapt DiSk Pass TM for nursing staff workforce development.
Aspect 3: Results
Our ambitious projects around the four Innovation Strategy themes have laid the foundations for future success, with comprehensive governance and reporting lines in place to ensure that we continue to drive impact and communicate our results effectively.
Key Outcomes
Core areas of activity during the reporting period have delivered the following results:
NERIC: by 2022, support for 48 businesses through robotics innovation had commenced. Eight of these are in the City of Salford with the remaining 50 in GM.
GM Cyber Foundry: by 2022, Salford had worked with 52 SMEs, with 21 of these collaborations resulting in new-to-firm or new-to-market products and a further two generating additional employment within the SME.
GM AI Foundry: by 2022, 48 SMEs had been supported by the Salford team from a wide number of sectors, including advanced materials, manufacturing, digital and creative media, and health innovation. 800+ hours of KE were delivered through a series of workshops and 14 phase two technical assists completed, one of which is currently being developed into a KTP. 20 of our academics supported the programme from a variety of specialisms including Business, Computer Science and Built Environment.
Salford Acoustics: with a strategic focus on industry engagement and collaboration, the team has worked with an average of 328 different industry partners annually, delivering approximately GBP500,000 of commercial work during the period. Acoustics is active in research and KE and held four KTPs with SMEs and three industrially funded PhDs as at July 2022.
EH2.0: the ERDF contribution enabled a major knowledge transfer and business engagement programme with local businesses, who have been provided with technical support and access to the EH2.0 to further their development of innovative low carbon products. By 2022, the project had engaged with over 150 businesses. The next phase of the project, which has been supported by Barratt Developments, Bellway Homes and Saint-Gobain, will see the completion of two houses inside the environmental chambers. These houses will act as test beds for local businesses developing the next generation of low carbon products.
Pandemic Support
As an anchor institution in the city-region, the University’s response to supporting our local communities during the Covid-19 pandemic was expansive and included the following initiatives:
Specialist training: provision of specially designed training for NHS Nightingale North West, covering the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), assisted breathing techniques (CPAP), communication and clinical skills. Six members of staff volunteered at the government testing centre at the new Lighthouse Lab at Alderley Park in Cheshire, led by the Medicines Discovery Catapult.
Radiographer training: an international team of experts, led by Salford colleagues, created training for radiographers in mobile chest x-ray techniques to meet increasing demand during Covid-19, work which was shortlisted for the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards in 2021.
Resilience training for NHS staff: provision of training and counselling for foundation year doctors and other clinical staff at Northern Care Alliance to help them manage the demands of dealing with Covid-19.
Equipment: loan of a ‘phantom’ medical imaging machine to Alliance, a company that was upskilling radiography staff to work across NHS Nightingale hospitals to provide cover for increased demand in CT chest imaging for Covid-19. We also loaned a Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction, or RT-PCR, machine to the government to support testing. The ABI 7500 machine is normally used by University researchers looking into lung inflammatory and fibrotic diseases.
Testing for ventilator parts: our Acoustic Testing team helped GCE Healthcare to rapidly test the acoustic performance of oxygen concentrator units.
Production of PPE: Maker Space, a state-of-the-art engineering and digital fabrication lab on campus, produced PPE for frontline NHS staff. After developing a visor prototype in collaboration with the local hospital, Salford Royal, the team manufactured over 5,000 pieces of kit.
Streaming service: our Media Production team supported the online nightly streaming service that was launched to support GM’s night time economy. United We Stream ran for ten weeks and raised almost GBP480,000 for local charities. The University’s team provided the technical support to enable the events to go ahead.
Communicating Results
The University Programme Management Office has been established to support project managers across the University to develop the tools, skillsets, and culture of good practice for the planning, delivery and evaluation of projects, ensuring the achievement of and reporting on results at an institutional level.
In line with our value of openness, Salford has made a commitment to develop and expand its online presence, ensuring knowledge and impact is shared widely, influencing wider conversations in our areas of expertise, and bringing together stakeholders to collectively tackle society’s challenges.
Evidence of outcomes and impact are communicated effectively across all of these mediums. Outcomes are evaluated to inform the future delivery of innovation activities, whilst two-way communication with stakeholders is actively encouraged to ensure continuous improvement.
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
In order to achieve the goals set out in its Innovation Strategy 2021-26, the University focuses activities around five priority areas, one of which is ‘Delivering Successful Public & Civic Engagement.’ Our Public & Community Engagement Sub-strategy supports the delivery of this strand with the vision to engage with society to bring positive benefits for all, working in partnership with the people of Salford, Greater Manchester and the global community to educate, inspire, empower and transform lives.
Through our commitment as a signatory to the Greater Manchester Civic University Agreement, we bring value to our city-region and respond to society’s challenges in ways that are relevant to both our city and the wider community.
Aspect 1: Strategy
Our Public & Community Engagement (P&CE) Sub-strategy builds on one of the key priority areas in the Innovation Strategy, with the aim of delivering successful public and civic engagement.
The sub-strategy, developed by our Engagement Forum, sets out five core values as well as eight priority areas for action: deepening relationships with key stakeholders (Connecting); developing an annual programme of festivals and events (Delivering); communicating our achievements externally (Showcasing) and acknowledging staff and student contributions (Recognising); providing support for undertaking P&CE within staff and postgraduate researcher development programmes (Enabling) and connecting publicly-engaged individuals within our University network (Facilitating); strengthening P&CE activities (Resourcing) and reviewing evaluation processes to continuously improve our practices (Evaluating). Outcomes and KPIs from the sub-strategy feed into our central KEF Action Plan which is reviewed quarterly to map progress (see Aspect 4).
P&CE Sub-strategy Values and Priority Areas
The sub-strategy provides formal recognition together with resourcing for activities that have been undertaken for many years in partnership with local and regional stakeholders, for example, as part of Salford Culture and Place Partnership and as Lead Educational Partner for Manchester Science Festival with the Science and Industry Museum, and nationally as a Higher Education Partner for events including the Edinburgh TV Festival and ESRC Festival of Social Science.
Understanding of key P&CE stakeholders has been drawn from work undertaken in 2019 to map impact and knowledge exchange (KE) through academic collaborations together with institutional and School-level strategic partnerships, as recorded in our Customer Relationship Management system. Partners illustrated below are those with whom we have longstanding relationships and often multiple touchpoints, having undertaken activities that cross over research, teaching, employability, enterprise and engagement. Our School Industry Advisory Boards are a key mechanism through which external partners contribute to strategy and activities.
Key P&CE External Stakeholders
In the civic realm we have a deep and productive relationship with Salford City Council, with whom we are delivering the GBP2.5bn Crescent Salford Masterplan and which is managed by the Vice-Chancellor’s Office. Our other core civic relationship is with Greater Manchester Combined Authority in delivering the Greater Manchester Strategy, which includes priorities around healthy ageing and net zero.
Our institutional P&CE strategy is driven by our University Engagement Champion and supported by a new HEIF-funded Public & Community Engagement Officer from 2022 to ensure actions are completed within agreed timeframes through a robust governance structure (see Aspect 5). These posts complement existing engagement support roles across the institution (see Aspect 2).
Aspect 2: Support
Support for P&CE activities is underpinned by a variety of mechanisms:
Resourcing
Overall budget (2019-22) primarily in Research & Enterprise (R&E) and Marketing, Recruitment & External Relations (MRER), totalling GBP10m+ (staff and operating costs).
Public engagement and outreach included in academic workload planning, recruitment, selection and promotion criteria, embedded and supported through professional development frameworks: Salford Behaviours and Salford Academic Career Framework.
Coordination and reporting through School-level Associate Deans Enterprise & Engagement, with a dedicated engagement team in the School of Arts, Media & Creative Technology (SAMCT) covering creative opportunities with external partners, delivering music events and managing the Theatre.
Workload allocated to School-level Academic Impact and Engagement Leads to support local P&CE development as part of wider impact.
A University Engagement Champion chairs the Engagement Forum, bringing together colleagues from Schools and Professional Services to drive our local and national engagement agenda (see Aspect 5).
Central support for cross-University engagement through a REF, KEF & Impact Manager, Quality, Impact & Skills Manager and Public & Community Engagement Officer within R&E.
Cross-School external partnership building supported by two Strategic Partnership Managers within R&E.
A new Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) appointment builds on the University’s 2016-2021 Inclusion and Diversity Framework Policy.
New School Knowledge Exchange Fellow roles created in 2022 connect cross-institution P&CE activity and build external relationships.
Wider support from the MRER team: Communications, Alumni, Art Collection, Outreach/Widening Participation, Public Affairs.
P&CE Facilitators
Funding
GBP133,000 allocated through the internal Research Impact & Public Engagement (RIPE) Fund (2019-22) to researchers demonstrating commitment to public engagement and widening participation with a view to generating real-world impact, with outcomes captured through reports and published on external impact and engagement pages. As part of our EDI commitment, applicants outline considerations made in respect of protected characteristics and mitigating adverse impacts.
GBP20,000 Participatory Research funding granted to SAMCT (2021-22) to support co-created community activity.
External and match funding as University Partners in the ESRC Festival of Social Science and Manchester Science Festival. Evaluation forms distributed at events and internal post-event capture surveys collect EDI data to inform future event delivery.
Ad hoc external funding to develop public engagement for research, e.g. Microbial Puppet Masters exhibit at the Royal Society’s 2022 Summer Science Exhibition.
Funding raised through University flagship projects, such as Friends of Energy House 2.0 (GBP120,000) to support outreach and local community initiatives.
Training and Support
Media training for academics through the Communications team assists researchers with developing public engagement and outreach activities.
Annual impact action plans through R&E support research-active individuals with engagement as a pathway to impact.
Researcher development training programme for PGRs and research-active staff embeds core elements including developing impact, communicating research to the public and engaging with communities.
Online resources (engagement toolkits, on-demand modules, guidance materials) via Staff and Student Hubs.
Showcasing Success
Internal/external comms through MRER highlight public engagement and outreach stories, targeting audiences ranging from students and academics to funding councils and policymakers, and evidenced through monthly media reports on the Staff Hub.
Internal Staff Hub P&CE pages promote public engagement with research activity, festival involvement and engagement with local communities, also providing links and resources.
A dedicated Public Affairs team promotes the University externally and coordinates our civic engagement approach.
The Engage creative space showcases public and industry-facing engagement and an archive of content.
Aspect 3: Activity
The University takes part in activities ranging from longstanding collaborations, such as the ESRC Festival of Social Science and Manchester Science Festival, to new initiatives including New Scientist Live 2022 and Green Space, Dark Skies. Salford is Higher Education Partner for Manchester Animation Festival, the Asian Media Awards and Edinburgh TV Festival. Commitment to our civic mission has seen us engaging with Salford City Council on their Salford Learning City initiative to develop an alternative model for learning, and developing a partnership with IntoUniversity to create opportunities and improve educational outcomes for young people in Salford.
Our Higher Education Business & Community Interaction survey returns (2019-2022) illustrate delivery of over 950 events attracting 2,005,175 attendees (excluding media engagement). Over 40% of events were public lectures, with 97% of all events free to attend:
P&CE Event Data 2019-2022
Aligned to our Innovation Strategy themes, our activities focus on benefits to Salford and Greater Manchester (GM) communities:
Healthy Living
The University is a partner in the Health Innovation Manchester initiative; an academic health and science system at the forefront of transforming the health and wellbeing of GM’s 2.8 million citizens. As one of the largest trainers of NHS staff in the country, we bring a unique combination of workforce training and development expertise, alongside leading research capability to the partnership.
The collaboration in the health system was particularly evident during the Covid-19 crisis. From donating personal protective equipment and testing kit to providing resilience training to key front-line workers and training for radiographers in mobile chest x-ray techniques, the University committed to making an impact on health and care across GM.
Sustainable Environments
Every year since 2015 we have hosted Go Green Salford, a four-week programme of events to increase awareness around environmental sustainability issues. We collaborate with staff, students and local community groups to organise events such as tree planting, wildlife surveys and cycling maintenance to educate our community and empower them to get involved in sustainability. Other initiatives include the Hedgehog Friendly Campus campaign and Green Impact sustainability engagement programme.
The University's infrastructure also contributes to our sustainability objectives: Energy House Laboratories help businesses understand how effective their products and services are in lowering consumers' carbon footprint and reducing energy bills. Research facilities include award-winning Energy House 2.0 (EH2.0).
EH 2.0
The Friends of Energy House 2.0 Impact Fund is a collective funding source to drive activity and extend the reach of the new facility. Each of the Friends, including Barratt Developments and Bellway Homes, donated over GBP120,000 to support diversification of the energy efficiency workforce, educational outreach programmes, and local community initiatives. The Art Collection team partnered with Energy House and Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool) to host a 10-day exhibition in January 2022, attended by 1,239 visitors. This pilot project paved the way for two artist residencies in EH2.0.
Creative & Resilient Communities
The University is a major cultural institution within the city and through our arts and cultural programme, we undertake significant public engagement and are a key partner in the Salford Cultural and Place Partnership. Our Art Collection team works with partners to support culture and creative industries in GM and beyond to deliver exhibitions and cultural engagement.
During the Covid-19 pandemic we held drop-in sessions for the creative community, enabling artists to talk about their project ideas and apply for funding. We also turned our events space, Maxwell Hall, into a production line for 16,000 Creative Care Packs that were distributed to disadvantaged and digitally excluded young people across GM.
Our 350-seat New Adelphi Theatre has a mission to deepen relationships between staff, students, artists and builds audiences with the cultural community. During 2019-20 30 events took place (pre-Covid closure), with 4,324 attendees. A full post-pandemic programme recommenced in 2022. In 2022, we partnered with the Salford Local Cultural Educational Partnership to deliver the Stage Directions Summer programme with 50 young people.
Stage Directions Event 2022
In 2019, we launched our pro bono law clinic in collaboration with local law firms Fieldings Porter Solicitors and Ward Hadaway Solicitors. SILKS (Salford Information and Legal Knowledge Scheme) is a free legal advice service for the community, with advice given by qualified lawyers and assisted by Salford’s law students working under supervision. The clinic has built up a network of core referral partners, including Salford City Council, Salford Foundation and Salford CABX, to reach individuals most in need.
SILKS handles around 170 housing and family law referrals annually, with an estimated financial value of GBP204,624 for legal advice undertaken in 2021 and 2022. The clinic was shortlisted in the category for Community Engagement (University Sector) at the Educate North awards 2022.
Range of Enquiries at SILKS
Aspect 4: Enhancing practice
At Salford we seek to connect diverse areas of engagement activity across our Schools and Directorates more effectively by identifying synergies and developing better understanding amongst colleagues about how to reflect on their practice to ensure more uniform capture and reporting on engagement outcomes.
We have examples of well-established strategic partnership activity around research festivals, such as the annual ESRC Festival of Social Science, which includes an embedded evaluation process to capture feedback from audiences, event organisers and partner organisations. Evaluation and feedback capture is otherwise being embedded through the following mechanisms in place across the institution since 2021/22:
A suite of engagement toolkits (e.g. Coordinating UoS Engagement Events) to provide staff and students with step-by-step advice and guidance in planning and evaluating events.
An online post-event notification form for colleagues undertaking engagement activities to complete so that data and feedback can be continuously and effectively captured.
Dedicated ethics resources on Staff and Student Hub sites to provide practical support to staff and students on running events.
Impact and engagement training run periodically by R&E colleagues for staff and students at PGT and PGR level.
Internal funding for staff through the RIPE Fund to support these activities. For example, ca. GBP5,000 obtained in Summer 2022 to support involvement in the AHRC Being Human Festival. Evaluation reports from RIPE-funded projects are hosted on an external blog to share good practice with other colleagues.
An institution-wide annual events calendar of key strategic engagement activities that take place to ensure effective support, resourcing and promotion and which provide return on investment.
Recruitment of a Public & Community Engagement Officer in 2022 to coordinate the collation of evaluation data from strategic engagement events and to provide effective reporting internally and externally: delivery is tracked and monitored against our Public & Community Engagement Sub-strategy actions and support the strategic goals set out in our Innovation Strategy (see Aspect 1).
Progress with capturing outcomes against our P&CE sub-strategy priorities is outlined below:
Progress against P&CE Sub-strategy Priorities
Aspect 5: Building on success
The introduction of the KEF and Knowledge Exchange Concordat (KEC) in 2020/21 provided the University with the framework to coordinate and centralise activities around P&CE and to refresh previously established processes. As a result of the pilot KEC exercise, a set of priority actions was embedded within our KEF Action Plan, with a focus on creating a governance structure and reporting line to support and connect engagement activities more effectively across the institution. This included establishing a cross-University Engagement Forum (EF) and KEF Steering Group, which is a sub-committee of the University’s central Research, Enterprise and Innovation Committee (REIC), itself a committee of University Senate.
To support our Innovation Strategy around the successful delivery of our public and civic engagement priority, newly established governance mechanisms provide us with a means to report on progress in developing, promoting and evaluating our engagement activities. We have done this by:
liaising with key internal stakeholders via EF meetings to understand how we can work effectively as an institution to support and promote their engagement activities and EDI priorities.
creating online forms and guidance for colleagues pursuing engagement so that we can capture data and feedback on their activities.
working closely with Marketing, who are represented on the EF, to ensure that targeted internal and external comms and social media campaigns reflect strategic engagement priorities.
providing reports on engagement across the institution on our internal Staff Hub and externally through blogs and social media.
allocating internal funding to support colleagues wishing to undertake these activities.
A mapping of key internal stakeholders enabled activity around engagement to become better coordinated and more uniformly evaluated. Based on initial learnings, the EF developed its Public & Community Engagement Sub-strategy which was approved in 2021/22. This was fundamental in driving SMART objectives and planned outcomes that have been fed into a wider internal KEF Action Plan which is reviewed and updated quarterly.
The recruitment of a Public & Community Engagement Officer to R&E (2022-2024) provides a dedicated resource to track progress against these actions and to realise these within an achievable timeframe across all areas of the institution. This includes prioritising relationship development with key external stakeholders and establishing a community of practice so that feedback can be sought and acted upon more effectively. This complements ongoing work with GM universities under the Civic University Agreement to drive change in our city-region.
Note You are currently viewing the latest version of this narrative statement. View the previous version as published in previous iterations of the KEF (KEF1 and KEF2)