Institutional Context
Summary
The University of Sheffield has a proud history of discovery, innovation and social change and our motto ‘Rerum Cognoscere Causas’ (to discover the cause of things) is as relevant now as when we were founded in 1905. Our story continues to evolve and is defined not just by our achievements but by the unique character of our people and the city. Our core vision is to deliver life-enhancing research, innovation and education that not only transforms the life of our graduates, but shapes the world we live in. Knowledge exchange and impact are embedded as part of the Innovation pillar of the University’s vision and interlinked to our ambitions around research and education.
Institutional context
Our Vision: The University of Sheffield’s (TUoS) vision is outlined in four pillars - research, Innovation, education and one university. Our innovation pillar commits to working with internal and external stakeholders to deliver on impact (broadly defined as growing and strengthening our impact, Knowledge Exchange (KE) and innovation outcomes), commercialisation, and contributing to economic prosperity; health and wellbeing; sustainability and the culture of our international, national and regional communities. TUoS is also creating a new University Executive Board position - Vice-President, Partnerships and External Engagement - to drive forward its external engagement agenda.
Knowledge Exchange (KE) Focus: Our sustainable pipeline of high-quality impact activities prioritises knowledge exchange to ensure we maximise the value of our research and education to society. A new Partnerships and Knowledge Exchange Service ensures institutional KE is supported by an integrated, local delivery team aligned to faculties and interdisciplinary academic themes.
Commercialisation of research IP is another key focus. TUoS is a founding member of the pioneering initiative, Northern Gritstone, generating £350 million in private finance to support university commercialisation and strengthen the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Figure - Highlights of University of Sheffield Knowledge Exchange activities.
Economic Context and Institutional Strengths: As a region, South Yorkshire (SY) lags behind the England average for productivity and private sector investment in R&D. Sheffield is the largest city in SY and, as a significant anchor institution, TUoS has a deep understanding of its role and responsibilities in supporting regional growth and development. Partnerships built over the past two decades around our Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) have led to the University being widely regarded as a leader in HE/Industry partnerships. In addition, through the AMRC Training Centre we have established a successful model which builds related skills and drives inclusive growth in the private sector. The Lichfields 2022 Economic Impact Analysis of the AMRC found that some of the biggest private sector investments into UK advanced manufacturing over the last 15 years ‘would not have happened without the AMRC’ and that it has brought more than £260 million and 600 jobs to South Yorkshire.
Figure - Why the University of Sheffield's AMRC matters to UK manufacturing.
TUoS commissioned an Economic Impact Assessment (2020) to explore the economic and wider benefits the University brings to the UK and the region. It found that in 2018/19, the University contributed
£1.1 billion Gross Value Added (GVA) and 16,700 jobs in South Yorkshire
£2.2 billion GVA and 30,200 jobs across the UK.
TUoS also drives productivity, growth and impact on global challenges through our world-leading research and innovation. Working with external partners, our flagship research institutes (Healthy Lifespan, Neuroscience, Energy and Sustainable Food) bring together key academic strengths to make a unique contribution to some of the most pressing issues facing society today.
TUoS recently consolidated its regional engagement activities aligning our excellence in research, education and KE to regional strengths and priorities through the Made Together programme to play a leading role in South Yorkshire. Made Together activities focus on supporting the economy, the health and wellbeing of its people and its environment as well as cultural richness and diversity.
Figure - The eight themes of the University of Sheffield's Made Together programme of regional engagement with partners.
For further information, please send queries to r.hambleton@sheffield.ac.uk
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
The University of Sheffield uses its excellence in research, education and knowledge exchange to play a leading role across South Yorkshire, including its economy, the health and wellbeing of its people and its environment, and its cultural richness and diversity - as embodied by the
Innovation Pillar of the University’s vision. This commitment is moulded into the Made Together programme of regional activities which respond to the University’s founding principles and is core to its civic values. A dedicated team was established in 2017 to coordinate regional activities designed to meet mutual regional and University ambitions. Support in this area has grown over the last five years as our relationship with regional partners has matured and engagement increased.Aspect 1: Strategy
The University’s strategy is clear about its role in South Yorkshire. It uses its anchor institution role and world-leading research, innovation and education as a catalyst for the region’s social, cultural, sustainable and economic development. The establishment of Partnerships and Regional Engagement (PRE) in 2017 has enabled the University to invest resources in building relationships as well as understanding partners’ drivers and points of focus.
This culminated in the development, in partnership with our stakeholders, of the Made Together programme. Through matching the region’s strengths and priorities with the University’s regional engagement activities, a focused delivery programme based on strengths and institutional ambitions was developed. Using our excellence in research, education and KE to play a leading role in South Yorkshire, the Made Together activities are broadly aligned with four main themes and four cross-cutting themes with a focus on supporting the economy, the health and wellbeing of its people and its environment as well as cultural richness and diversity.
Figure - The eight themes of the University of Sheffield's Made Together programme of regional engagement with partners.
The delivery of the Made Together programme is guided by cross representation on various regional governance groups, including South Yorkshire's Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) and the South Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership Board (Koen Lamberts, the University’s President & Vice-Chancellor sits on this Board). The University also provides academic and institutional input into shaping many of the region’s economic development plans, e.g. South Yorkshire Strategic Economic Plan (SEP). This two-way process has shaped the delivery of Made Together activities.
In areas such as Health & Wellbeing and Sustainability, the University’s research activities are aligned with key local issues through working together with our partners to achieve a shared understanding of regional problems. For example:
The South Yorkshire Mayor’s Advisory Board, (chaired by Professor Alan Walker, Co-Director of the University of Sheffield’s Healthy Lifespan Institute) aims to deliver a step change in how health and care is delivered in the region.
University academics have contributed to the development of Sheffield City Council’s Health & Wellbeing Strategy.
For the creation of the South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre - a new research centre bringing together academics, regional businesses and organisations - the current areas of work are related to three of the highest-emitting and most difficult to decarbonise areas of the South Yorkshire economy.
The cultural vibrancy of the region is another University area of focus and civic commitment, led by Professor Vanessa Toulmin, Director of City and Culture. This dedicated leadership and supporting team provides a unique opportunity to co-create with the region’s creatives and cultural industries a diverse range of festivals, exhibitions, green space and regeneration initiatives adding to the region's vibrancy.
Aspect 2: Activity
The University’s activities over the last three years have been aligned to regional needs - as identified through our membership of various regional boards and through our long track record of regional engagement by the University as per its original founding civic mission:
Delivering Innovation for Productivity
Aligning our institutional strengths and translational research facilities to regional growth priorities has already produced significant inward investment for South Yorkshire. For example;
the University of Sheffield’s innovation assets, most notably the Advanced Manufacturing Group including the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), its sister centre, the Nuclear AMRC and award-winning Apprentice Training Centre have catalysed a dense clustering of High Value Manufacturing companies across the Sheffield / Rotherham border. This area sits at the heart of the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District. This clustering has led to significant investment from global companies such as Rolls-Royce, Boeing and McLaren to co-locate with the research and innovation capability of the Advanced Manufacturing Group as well as boosting opportunities for smaller manufacturing firms and SMEs who support the supply chain for our larger partners.
A recent Economic Impact Analysis report by Lichfields found that some of the biggest private sector investments into UK advanced manufacturing over the last 15 years ‘would not have happened without the AMRC’ and that it has brought more than £260 million and 600 jobs to South Yorkshire. In 2019/20, the value of innovation activity undertaken by the AMRC totalled £32.1 million and the centre unlocked a further £55.6 million of private sector leverage or match funding.
Figure - Why the University of Sheffield's AMRC matters to UK manufacturing.
Along the same Sheffield/Rotherham border is the University of Sheffield’s Innovation District. Here is a further concentration of translational research assets most recently focused on research and capacity building activities aligned to net-zero carbon energy systems. 2019 saw the announcement of the Translational Energy Research Centre, followed by the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Innovation Centre (SAF-IC) in 2021 and the Energy Innovation Centre in 2022 (all of which are integrated with the University of Sheffield Energy Institute). It is also home to the Gene Therapy Innovation and Manufacturing Centre - the first of its kind in the north of England - that is set to advance scientific discoveries into treatment options for patients with life-threatening diseases as well as generate opportunities for start-ups and spin-outs. The concentration of these innovation assets is in line with both regional and University ambitions.
As well as developing and nurturing existing research strengths, the University - collaborating with the Universities of Leeds and Manchester - launched a new investment company in 2021 that finances university spin-outs and intellectual property-rich start-ups in the north of England. The first two investments by Northern Gritstone were in Sheffield companies after a first close of £215 million in May 2022 and it is well-placed to continue to develop a ‘northern innovation hub’.
Improving Health Outcomes
There is an intrinsic and strong relationship between our staff, students, local communities and health services. Clinical academic staff work across the University, the regional teaching hospitals and healthcare system in addition to our students undertaking training and serving as staff through clinical placements. Our research into healthcare is also focused on helping people to live healthier lives for longer and our Healthy Lifespan Institute is the UK’s first interdisciplinary research institute dedicated to understanding and preventing multimorbidity and frailty. In 2021 the University was awarded £10 million to lead the establishment of a new Centre for Care to address the urgent need for accessible research and evidence on social care. Regionally, the University is working with the South Yorkshire Mayor to increase the number of years spent in good health in the region through a task and finish board, co-chaired by the Mayor and the University’s Co-Director of the Healthy Lifespan Institute. Bringing together other regional health institutions into the board will also ensure that work programmes are aligned to regional health needs and priorities.
The University also has an intrinsic role in training and developing our region’s healthcare professionals of the future. For example: The University is working with Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals to help develop a research strategy, secure nursing provision and adopt the University’s Medicine community partnership placements scheme (where Medical students provide support to local charities and community organisations as part of their training). The combination of these along with the University being the education provider for Trainee Nursing Associate Apprenticeships across South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw are ensuring that the region has access to enough doctors and other skilled healthcare workers.
Championing our cultural sector
As well as the local democratic boards and statutory bodies with which the University engages, our cultural vibrancy activity is developed jointly with city partners through our (past) Chairmanship by the University’s Director of City and Culture, Professor Vanessa Toulmin, and (current) membership of the Sheffield Culture Consortium. Together with board membership of the Sheffield Culture Collective, which launched its first ever strategy for how culture can unlock Sheffield untapped economic and social potential, the University actively engages and drives the strategic cultural direction for the city and seeks funding to develop Sheffield as a cultural destination. The University also contributes to South Yorkshire cultural developments through working with the SYMCA Arts, Culture and Heritage Project Director and as a steering group member for the SYCMA Culture, Arts & Heritage Engagement Report.
The cultural sector was significantly affected by the recent Covid crisis and in order to aid recovery plans, University researchers produced a report revealing the economic impact on the UK’s arts, culture and heritage sector. The South Yorkshire data in the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) UK Research and Innovation Covid-19 Rapid Response Funded project enabled the leveraging of an additional £1 million of support to the sector with £280,000 of this coming to Sheffield. This was used to benefit a freelancers fund, previously established through the Sheffield Culture Consortium and both Universities, and to leverage a further £120,000 of sector specific funding (e.g. film, music, publishing and theatre). The University, via its Off the Shelf Festival of Words, helped deliver the funding for Sheffield writers.
The University’s Public Engagement team also continues to focus on delivering a core festival programme in support of research strengths. As well as supporting national festivals such as Being Human (AHRC), Festival of Social Science (ESRC) and Pint of Science, the team also provides a first point of contact and coordinating function for local events such as Sheffield Doc/Fest, Festival of Debate and Migration Matters enabling academics and audiences to participate in research discussion and debate. The University’s showcase engagement festival - Festival of the Mind - is held every two years and we deliver the Off the Shelf literary festival, one of the largest in the north of England. Between 2019-2022, 147,746 people attended University-led events with a further 106,275 people engaging with university online public engagement.
Meeting Sustainability challenges
In 2020, the University published its five-year sustainability strategy with specific commitments aligned to our place in South Yorkshire. One commitment was to strengthen relationships between the University, public bodies, business and voluntary sector organisations to build collaborative capacity to address sustainability challenges. Through the South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre, launched in 2022, we are bringing together partners to address net-zero challenges such as the optimisation of transport routes, refitting housing stock, decarbonising the agri-food sector and heavy industry as well as restoring the region’s natural environments and assets. Other initiatives with local partners are more aligned to our campus - for example: by switching to milk churns from a local dairy farm to supply its cafes on campus, the University is set to reduce its plastic waste by 87,000 single-use bottles per year.
Developing infrastructure with partners
Significant activities have also taken place across the region with Local Authority partnerships aligned to the enhancement of the infrastructure and physical environment of the city and region. In 2020, Sheffield City Council, in partnership with the University, city retailers and businesses were successful in receiving funding of £15.8m from the Future High Streets Fund for the transformation of Fargate and High Street (with a further £5m from Sheffield City Council). The University played a pivotal role in the bid from providing academic research and insight to stakeholder consultation and School of Architecture students developing final proposal images.
A new partnership with Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council and community partners has also resulted in the development of two projects connecting our research with cultural programmes, where the University is now the engagement partner with the Council’s successful Cultural Development Fund Round 2 project. Here, the University's research and postgraduate students will work with communities to understand the role and importance of culture in their community.
Commitment to raising aspirations
The University has considered its unique contribution to South Yorkshire’s skills needs, and proactively invests in the development of higher vocational skills in manufacturing related industries and nursing. In 2022, the University entered into a partnership with Sheffield College to provide students with technical and professional healthcare skills in its Employer Skills Academy. With the aim of enhancing students’ employability skills, the University is helping to co-design the Healthcare Academy’s curriculum to simulate real-life work.
Supporting development and enhanced learning at a younger age is also important to the region and together with Sheffield Hallam University, the University is also jointly funding the continuation of South Yorkshire’s Children’s University for the next two years. The University has also had students from a broad range of schools across South Yorkshire engaged with the sustained widening access programmes. Between 2019/20 and 2021/22 the University worked with 77 schools across its pre and post-16 sustained programmes.
The University is also part of the government funded Uni Connect programme (was NCOP), HeppSY with supporting the strategic goal within the Office for Students that students’ access to higher education is not limited by their background, location or characteristics. The HeppSY local partnership offers activities, advice and information on the benefits and realities of going to university or college. Since its inception in 2017, HeppSY has worked with over 75,935 learners in schools and colleges in South Yorkshire.
Aspect 3: Results
Under the Made Together programme, the University has delivered significant benefits to the region, and this has been an effective vehicle for communicating and co-ordinating the University’s regional impact. Examples of significant impacts during this first phase of the Made Together programme include:
Around £55m ‘place based’ funding for the region has been won in the last two years, either for University R&D activity, or activity underpinned by the University’s research - for example:
£5m Research England Funding for the University to create the South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre with our partners which leveraged a £8m match funding.
£15.8m for Sheffield City Council from the Future High Street Fund for the regeneration of parts of the city centre. For the bid, academic input from the University was instrumental together with input from School of Architecture students via Live Works.
£20.5m for Sheffield City Council from the Levelling Up fund for the development of the Castlegate area including establishing Harmony Works with academic input from across the Departments of Music, English and the School of Architecture
The University of Sheffield’s AMRC Training Centre is part of a collaboration of educators and employers from South Yorkshire who have successfully secured over £12 million to establish a new South Yorkshire Institute of Technology (IoT) to help address some of the skills shortages in the region.
Over the past 12 months, students from the University of Sheffield have raised over £85,000 and volunteered more than 33,000 hours in the local community.
Since 2019, the RISE programme has worked with growing SMEs in the region to provide access to the region’s graduates (10 cohorts, 225 businesses supported, 438 graduate jobs advertised and 100 grants awarded).
Support for the Made Together programme amongst South Yorkshire partners is strong, and it is an effective mechanism for deepening collaboration in areas that are particularly important for the University e.g. across the four local authorities but with a particular emphasis on Sheffield City Council, as well as with other anchor institutions. It has also enabled us to initiate collaborations with partners that will be important for the future e.g. the Integrated Care Partnership.
The University is committed to its civic mission and every Faculty has plans for activity in this area for the next five years. The Made Together programme is refreshed inline with these Faculty plans, the region’s plans as well as through the ongoing civic leadership role.
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
The University of Sheffield’s (TUoS) approach to community and public engagement (P&CE) is designed in consultation with stakeholders across South Yorkshire (SY). Our public engagement (PE) activities are aligned to our research and through our festival programme, cultural strands and
UoS Player our sector-leading digital platform, we engage audiences on a regional, national and global level. We also work collaboratively with local partners and the cultural sector, informed by the voice of communities to develop projects to support social inclusion and capacity building, by using existing research or working to answer a challenge set by communities. We aim that this work will inform a co-created framework for future engagement which is strategically aligned to the region's priorities.Aspect 1: Strategy
Our commitment to and investment in P&CE is founded on our University Vision and Strategic Plan to undertake excellent research and innovation alongside our role as an anchor institution. TUoS has consolidated its regional engagement activities and matched these to the region’s strengths and priorities through the Made Together programme, using our excellence in research, education and Knowledge Exchange (KE) to play a leading role. Made Together activities focus on supporting the economy, the health/wellbeing of its people and its environment as well as cultural richness and diversity.
A dedicated Partnership and Regional Engagement (PRE) team embedded in the city offers a distinctive approach, with core university funding alongside HEIF, to deliver public engagement activities.
The delivery of P&CE has been overseen by the Vice-President for Innovation and the University Executive Board (UEB) ensuring accountability. Accountability is also achieved by steering groups overseeing individual festivals and Made Together activity, composed of academics, professional service staff and external partners. PRE delivers a varied portfolio selected against funding criteria, quality of research proposals and the drivers for external partners. PE is included in academic job roles, selection and academic career pathways, as one of the 10 essential criteria, and through public engagement with research and KE.
The Made Together programme (formerly Regional Engagement Work Programme) was new in the previous KEF narrative but has now been approved at UEB level. Made Together developed from a staff survey to understand how the institution works with partners. Then, with external stakeholders, we aligned that work with the biggest challenges facing the region. Its remit is to harness the power of our research for the greater benefit of our regional partners, stakeholders and public.
The model focuses on collaborating with regional cultural/creative industries, not as sponsors but as co-producers of engagement activities.
As Deputy Chair, our Director of City and Culture also provides leadership to the Race Equality Commission Legacy Group, led by Sheffield City Council (SCC). We work with this group to ensure Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is at the forefront of our method and practice. A public engagement workshop with SCC explored best practice in working with communities.
We supported SCC to run events in Event Central as part of the Future High Street Fund to engage diverse communities.
Aspect 2: Support
Facilitation and curation of activity on local networks and national platforms
PRE support our researchers through our University platforms, Research Council funded festivals and local festivals
University festivals funded through HEIF and core funding:
Pop Up University 2021: our public facing interactive activity designed for PhD and ECR to try PE through public interactions. Our mentoring scheme with academics experienced in PE supports their involvement
Festival of the Mind: (FotM) 2020 and 2022: our flagship festival where researchers collaborate with the city’s cultural industries/creatives to bring their research to life in exciting, innovative ways. Each 10-day city centre festival was free to all and included exhibitions, films, performances, workshops, talks. FotM 2020 and 2022 reached an audience of 151,156 online and in person.
Off the Shelf Festival of Words (OTS): our vibrant, diverse, South Yorkshire (SY) wide annual literature festival. Over 2019-2021 OTS reached an audience of 70,260 for live and online events, securing funding of £199,739 from Arts Council England. Increasing diversity of audience/programme is a priority: by 2021, 34% of festival events were diverse. To reach younger audiences/participants OTS partnered with HIVE SY on The Youth Word Up!
National festivals:
We support academics on platforms on a global, national and regional level through annual involvement in Pint of Science, Being Human and ESRC Festival of Social Science. With Research Council funding we deliver engagement activities, often partnering with the cultural sector.
Local festivals
In the region we provide support for local events e.g. Sheffield Doc/Fest, Festival of Debate, Migration Matters enabling academics and audiences to participate in research discussion and debate.
Training, upskilling online resources
We deliver practical support to departments on how to undertake engagement through our masterclass series, online resources and bespoke training.
University of Sheffield Player
Due to Covid-19 event restrictions, a bespoke web platform was developed to host Festival of the Mind 2020 sparking the idea for the University of Sheffield Player - launched January 2022. Our University of Sheffield Player is an interactive online content management system designed to maximise online engagement, create legacy content and remove barriers to use. With significant investment the project partnered our IT department with Joi Polloi to create a user friendly one-stop place for University public facing content - a unique platform delivering impact locally/globally.
Local Authority Partnerships
Our partnerships with SY local authorities enables our research, partnership expertise and community knowledge to achieve greater levels of funding, prosperity, equality for citizens. Partnerships have leveraged an additional £40 million for the local/regional economy:
The Future High Street Fund bid secured £15.8 million and an additional £5 million from SCCl for redevelopment of Fargate/High Street. Government feedback TOuS led stakeholder engagement and the idea of creating a community space was exemplary. Our stakeholder workshops in partnership with Sheffield City Council brought academic researchers experienced in urban planning/architecture to advise on workshops for city centre landlords, retailers, cultural groups, and the public. In 2021 workshops further developed ideas for the Front Door Scheme and an event/digital exhibition space.
TUoS is the engagement partner with Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council through the successful Cultural Development Fund Round 2 (ICDF2). This enables a three year partnership - Storying Barnsley - with the 5 principal towns starting with Storying Goldthorpe. TUoS research and postgraduate students will facilitate and embed young people's views on culture, its future role and its importance in their community. Initial research and workshops took place over summer 2022 with further activity planned in 2023 to fulfil the engagement strategy for the successful CDF2 bid
Castlegate Levelling Up Round 1 Gateway a £20 million project partnering SCC with TUoS Archaeology department. Through Professor John Moreland, SCC commissioned Liveworks, part of the School of Architecture, to deliver workshops on the design concepts for Castlegate. This project includes Harmony Works (a new home/hub for music education) an opportunity to regenerate heritage asset grade 2* listed Canada House for sustainable future civic use. School of Architecture masters students are involved through Live Projects and the Faculty of Engineering is using the project as a case study for Creative reuse of Heritage Buildings. TUoS is a member of the stakeholder Castlegate Group.
Enabling wider funding for community led projects
The ‘Building Stronger Communities’ fund is a TUoS scheme available to regional third sector organisations designed in consultation with anchor institutions, the SY Community Foundation and aligned to the results of the regional Vital Signs survey. An open call for projects to collaborate/benefit from TUoS research went to local community organisations. Sixteen were selected to create a feasibility report co-produced with an academic with five projects selected for two years of funding.
Aspect 3: Activity
Through our co-produced, collaborative approach the University’s engagement activities are
aligned to:
TUoS Vision & Strategy Plan (2020-2025)
each Faculty’s 5 year annual plans
our Made Together programme including our work on Building Stronger Communities with SY Community Foundation
link to
regional cultural vibrancy and creative ecology through membership and support of the Culture Collective, Culture Consortium, SY Creative Network, Sheffield Festivals Network
other regional and national partners priorities
lead to:
quality events showcasing world-leading research for public audiences
wide-ranging engagement with general audiences, practitioners, policy makers, third sector, community groups
platforms and opportunities for academics to engage with the public's needs identified through our co-collaborative approach
support and content to city festivals enabling academics to engage with diverse audiences with relevant debate
evaluations of activities to ensure content remains relevant
Activities have specific aims/objectives and when appropriate are produced collaboratively with partners and stakeholders. Value for money is considered when developing festivals, events and programmes of public engagement activity. Audience needs are met through a constantly responsive evaluation plan developed with academics, audiences, creative partners, funders. Partnership activities are delivered through:
Cross-cultural activities funded with the city from external bodies
Key public engagement activity through our core budget
City region activities through our department funds
Between 2019-2022, 147,746 people attended University-led events, a further 106,275 people engaged with online public engagement.
Alongside these activities the needs of specific communities or targeted audiences are supported through grant funding, e.g:
Roots and Futures: a place-based heritage project (funded by AHRC place programme, HEIF, NPIF and QR policy support fund) seeking to build connections between local policymakers in heritage strategy-making, local government and Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities in Sheffield. To understand which aspects of the past are most meaningful, how those perspectives are currently represented in the city's places and how cultural heritage can be made more accessible and reflective of communities underserved by current heritage strategy and policy - a future model for partnership work has been developed from this project
Migrant Youth Integration & Empowerment (MIMY): A 12-partner MIMY research project funded by EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme across 18 sites in 9 EU countries. The project focuses on services that support migrant youth facing challenging circumstances and how positive social relations can be built. TUoS research team, working in Sheffield and Barnsley, has had a direct impact on the lives of 48 young people in vulnerable conditions through direct engagement and co-founding two new youth-led groups: Becoming Us in Barnsley and Young People Together (YPT) (We Need Change) in Sheffield.
CiviAct: a multi-agency project, supported by Big Lottery Community Fund, that partners six grassroots activist organisations in the North of England: Kids of Colour and The Hideaway (Manchester), JENGbA (Manchester/London), DiverseCity Development Trust, MA Education CIC and Unity Gym Project (Sheffield). CiviAct seeks to support and realise the benefits of youth and community-led civic action by financially resourcing the work of partner organisations, connecting organisations with each other creating opportunities for co-learning, exploring new models of community-led university partnership.
TUoS was awarded £530,000 by Research England and the Office for Students for Transforming and Activating Places (TAP): a two-year Arts and Humanities led student knowledge exchange project. Undergraduate students from widening participation backgrounds undertook three-week internships with partners in Sheffield and across the UK. Students participating build on cross-disciplinary expertise in place and placemaking within the faculties of Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences to make a positive impact on communities and places.
TUoS Medical students participate in six-week Medicine Community Partnership Placements, volunteering with organisations/charities across SY providing support to the most vulnerable. The programme inspires student engagement with what it means to be a socially accountable health professional and encourages collaboration with community partners to co-produce learning/teaching, research/knowledge transfer activities that demonstrate a positive impact on the health and well-being of the region’s communities.
Aspect 4: Enhancing practice
Key outcomes from TUoS engagement activities include:
Curation of defined activities linking to research impact, KE and REF case studies
Adding to the cultural offer of Sheffield and its urban spaces through the provision, and support of, cultural projects and activities, which make Sheffield an attractive place to live, work and study
Enhancing the reputation of the TUoS as a civic university and anchor institution in South Yorkshire
Enhanced staff and student experience through the provision of volunteering and mentoring opportunities at festivals such as Off the Shelf (OTS), Festival of the Mind, Pint of Science
Acting as a conduit for further engagement by enabling community groups to take control of the narrative. E.g. we funded research and publication of the Joined Up Heritage Strategy to enable the UK’s first grass roots community led strategy
Evaluation and Learning
Activities are evaluated through bespoke evaluation plans
delivered by a dedicated Research & Evaluation Manager and, as
appropriate, external evaluators to meet funders’ requirements.
Quantitative and qualitative feedback from audiences, collaborators,
academics is collated through face to face interviews, web-based
surveys, questionnaires and iPad surveys. Evaluation is designed to
ensure objectives are aligned to strategic priorities with reports
produced after each 
*
festival/event and reviewed to inform future activity. Evaluation data helps researchers develop their skills in PE, is utilised in future funding applications and PE activity, and provides feedback to funders.
Through greater digital engagement, work is ongoing to establish key performance indicators and good practice for evaluation to ensure the achievement of high quality engagement with research. Google Analytics measures online engagement, gathering key metrics e.g. the total number of page views, users, location and device used to access the online content. We track interactions with our social media content via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook analytics.
We constantly refresh our approach to widen diversity and explore examples of conscious and unconscious bias in the process that cause barriers to academics seeking to engage or audiences who perceive restrictions. Data is used to enable growth in areas where barriers are perceived. For example, it is our ambition to ensure in OTS that 35% of the speakers reflect a wide diversity and cover all protected characteristics.
*We have included FOTM summary infographics above as examples - FOTM2022 falls outside of the KE3 timeframe but we wanted to include as comparison to FOTM2020 which was in lockdown.
Aspect 5: Building on success
The key to building success has been the continued investment in a dedicated Partnerships and Regional Engagement (PRE) team and expansion of the cultural vibrancy theme in the Made Together programme detailed above. Engagement activity is a core part of the University’s strategy and the portfolio of the then Vice-President for Innovation and is reported:
Internally to the UEB, Faculty Vice-Presidents, Heads of Faculty and Knowledge Exchange team and Impact leads across all Faculties
Externally to funders and research councils as appropriate
Through city leadership boards e.g. Sheffield Culture Consortium, Sheffield Culture Collective, SCC and sitting on city boards and panels e.g. Sheffield Visual Art Panel, the board of Sheffield Music Academy (supporting Harmony Works)
Evaluation is co-produced with city partners or fed back as appropriate to communities involved in the projects
Lessons learnt that shaped our activities from 2019-22:
COVID-19 greatly influenced our approach leading to the development of the FotM website to host online content. The success of this led to the development of the TUoS player, launched internally in January 2022, publicly in January 2023
Development of online content due to COVID-19 has resulted in broader engagement over geographical areas and diversified audiences. Online content will be produced in all our activities going forward to feed into the player. We will continue to develop a methodology of evaluating this content
Collaborative curation of festivals with city-wide partners is a more effective way of showcasing our research to wider audiences as opposed to the previous inherited model of direct sponsorship
Sharing and providing access to data with partners (within GDPR restrictions) to enable use of information and methodology for the good of the community and records. We recognise that partners do not necessarily have the means to collect the data we require and ensure that partners have the necessary tool kits, resources and software so data collection is part of the partnership not an additional add on.
Reports are co-authored, shared and publicly available to all parties
Evaluation data feeds into institutional evaluation and impact data, specifically HEB-CI return which is managed by PRE, Research Fish, the REF and impact repository
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)