Institutional Context
Summary
UCL is a large, comprehensive, research-intensive university ranking in the global top 10. Its interdisciplinary approach and breadth of subject areas gives fresh perspective, developing solutions to some of the world’s most complex challenges.
The main campus, in London’s Bloomsbury district, is well placed to foster collaboration and partnerships with leading research, cultural and healthcare institutions and knowledge-based companies. UCL’s new campus, UCL East, is heavily involved in public and community engagement, delivering benefits including jobs, apprenticeships and cultural engagement to surrounding residents.
Knowledge exchange is overseen by the Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement), and the team works to create an environment that enables researchers to deliver profound societal and economic benefits to the world outside the University.
Institutional context
UCL is a large, comprehensive, research-intensive university, ranked 8th globally. In 2020-21 UCL was the second largest English university by staff (~15,000 FTE), and third-largest by research income (£477M). UCL’s mission is to be ‘engaged with the wider world and committed to changing it for the better’. UCL’s KE strategy 'Transforming Knowledge and Ideas into Action (COVID-19 and beyond)' builds upon the UCL Strategy 2034 positioning UCL as ‘Accessible and publicly engaged’ and ‘Addressing global challenges’.
UCL’s main campus is in London’s Bloomsbury and part of the vibrant Knowledge Quarter, a consortium of academic, cultural, research and media organisations including the British Library, British Museum, Crafts Council, Francis Crick Institute, Google, Institute of Physics and Wellcome.
UCL East, UCL’s new campus, sits within East Bank, the growing cultural and education district on the QE Olympic Park, alongside organisations including the BBC, Sadler’s Wells, and the V&A. This campus focuses on local engagement and partnerships, alongside world-class research and teaching, for example, launched in 2022 with UCL as a founding partner, the SHIFT inclusive innovation district is the UK’s first living urban testbed of its kind, focusing on projects that include local communities and individuals in their design, testing and delivery.
UCL Innovation & Enterprise, overseen by the Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement), supports a full spectrum of KE activities and academic disciplines, engaging both students and staff. Specialist teams support strategic innovation partnerships and networks, innovation policy, KE funding, consultancy, commercialisation and social enterprise, entrepreneurship, public engagement and public policy, creating a comprehensive support environment.
UCL works with the broadest range of innovation partners to deliver its KE strategy. From leading cultural organisations and local authorities to multinational companies, UCL works alongside others deploying its expertise and networks to create real economic and societal benefit.
UCL celebrates the variety of KE activity it undertakes. Its 394 spin-outs and graduate start-ups in 2020-21 had turnover of nearly £120M, received investment of £830M, and employed 3,500 people. UCL has significant licensing activity, with >2900 licences granted in 2020-21, both commercial and free of charge, During the COVID pandemic we issued >1,900 licenses for free in 105 countries for the UCL Ventura CPAP breathing aid. In 2021-22 UCL undertook almost 500 consultancy projects, almost a third of which were with non-commercial organisations
UCL influences public policy, e.g. leveraging digital technologies for more effective government, and, with our GovTech network, hosting a workshop on growing leadership in human-centric Algorithmic Governance, alongside the Cabinet Office and other organisations.
Companies emerging from UCL include Freeline which, in 2020, raised $162m in an IPO on NASDAQ. Students are supported to develop entrepreneurial ideas, many creating exciting businesses such as ZNotes, providing online study materials for students globally, and Afrocenchix, developing natural hair products for afro hair.
KE is delivered across all our academic disciplines and through formal collaborations such as UCL Partners and informal networks. The Translational Research Office and UCLB provide specialist support for staff and access to funding.
For further information, please send queries to innovationpolicy@ucl.ac.uk
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
As a large, multidisciplinary institution with a staff and student population of >65,000, UCL’s economic impacts on local businesses and social activities are substantial; and with world-leading research, UCL’s impact goes further, delivering significant societal and economic benefits through local knowledge exchange.
UCL has several strategies covering local partnerships and innovation outputs with local impact. Through relationships with governance bodies and non-profits, UCL’s work addresses and informs local societal concerns, while extensive work with the NHS and healthcare bodies further impacts on health and wellbeing.
Contributing to economic growth, UCL supports SMEs and start-ups, encouraging both internal and local businesses with programmes specifically geared to developing networks and entrepreneurial skills.
Aspect 1: Strategy
Through UCL 2034, UCL aspires to be ‘London’s Global University’ – contributing to London’s economic and social landscapes while seeking global impact. The ambition to ‘enhance creation of societal and economic value from our research and innovation and contribute to the intellectual life of London’ speaks to utilising our position to attract investment in London and strengthen our alliances with business, industry, local government, schools and not-for-profits.
UCL’s Bloomsbury campus sits within the London Borough of Camden, while UCL East is based on Olympic Park, at the intersection of four east London boroughs. These two locations define UCL’s locality, although our outputs regularly address regional, national and international issues.
Alongside UCL 2034, UCL’s ambition for supporting and working with London is articulated in several internal strategies:
UCL’s Strategic Plan (2022-2027) sets out our overarching intention to continue growing and delivering our contributions to London and the UK through economic impact and excellence in teaching, research and innovation.
The London Framework, developed by the Pro-Provost for London, seeks to ‘create purpose, connect people and celebrate place’, outlining how and why UCL engages audiences in London.
The Innovation and Enterprise Strategy commits to ‘use our position in London to benefit London, the UK and the wider world,’ encouraging enterprise, developing relationships with local businesses and impacting policy and decision-making for London and beyond.
Launched in November 2022, UCL East is part of our ongoing regeneration of higher-deprivation boroughs to increase access to education and enable community-led knowledge exchange. Local engagement is at the heart of UCL East, with the delivery of jobs, apprenticeships and cultural engagement central to the campus.
UCL is closely involved in other organisations across London seeking to achieve local growth and development across the city.
UCL has Memorandums of Understanding with LB Camden and LB Newham, outlining how we will work together to achieve a joint vision including around climate change, homelessness and inequality through collaborative bids, KE and student placements. By enhancing our strategic engagement with LB Islington, UCL aims to develop long-term strategic relationships to support local people, communities, and place.
UCL has contributed to the Greater London Authority (GLA) London Plan, with UCL staff working alongside the GLA to input into the development process and London’s Data Strategy.
East Bank, the location of UCL East, aims to be a ‘new powerhouse for innovation, creativity and learning’ and is crucial to the London 2012 regeneration legacy. We are creating a new model at East Bank of how a university campus can embed itself within its locality, working with local and public community groups, local councils and local industry.
To further understand local needs, UCL’s Institute for Global Prosperity, with partners, developed a London Prosperity Board exploring the meaning of prosperity to local communities in East London. The Board prioritises local voices, undertaking citizen science research approaches to inform and engage with local policymaking and planning.
Aspect 2: Activity
UCL fosters a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation, promoting local growth through economic outputs, social investment and development in wide-ranging activities carried out across the institution.
UCLB supports academics taking their discoveries to market, generating spin-outs and providing entrepreneurial advice. Staff spin-outs typically remain local, in 2020-21 generating £38.5M turnover and raising >£750M in external investments.
UCL’s Innovate UK EDGE team supports SMEs to raise investment, manage innovation assets, and internationalise their businesses, with 77 SMEs supported in 2021-22. Innovate UK EDGE provides access to the Enterprise Europe Network, helping UK SMEs access markets in >65 countries.
UCL’s entrepreneurship training programme supports PhD students and early career researchers to develop entrepreneurial skills and turn ideas into business opportunities.
BaseKX, a start-up incubation space supported by UCL and LB Camden, offers business support for students and local residents in the Hatchery and provides entrepreneurial event space. In 2020-21, BaseKX and our Entrepreneurship team supported:
>1,000 students through training and entrepreneurial skills development.
66 graduate start-ups, generating £81.3M turnover, raising £77.5M of external investment, and supporting >1900 new jobs.
In 2021-22, a new mentoring scheme to accelerate development of UCL student and graduate start-ups, attracted 100 mentors including alumni and entrepreneurs from across London, supporting 40 start-ups.
UCL start-ups and spin-outs often address societal challenges, bringing benefits not just economic, but through improvements in health, wellbeing and quality of life that are critical to local growth and development.
Sustainability and the Environment
Environmental factors, increasingly linked with social and health concerns, are vital in supporting local growth and wellbeing. LB Camden and UCL’s partnering has led to several initiatives to improve the local environment.
The Camden Clean Air Partnership identified stakeholders across the borough to develop an Air Quality Plan, and UCL academics led Camden’s Citizen Assembly on Climate Action bringing together diverse groups responding to the climate crisis.
Working with partners on the Olympic Park, UCL has developed a business case for a workspace and innovation hub, ‘The Loop,’ at UCL East. The space aims to serve 20 local firms developing circular economy products and services over the next five years.
UCL East’s Marshgate building has been designed with sustainability at its core; with rainwater harvesting, low energy LED lighting, and heating and cooling technology supporting health, wellbeing and local sustainability.
Healthcare
UCL’s work on healthcare benefits London and the UK, providing employment that improves health and social care. The breadth of work carried out, often in partnership with the NHS, impacts people from diverse backgrounds with differing needs.
UCLPartners is a London-based health science partnership coordinated by UCL’s Vice-Provost (Health) between the NHS, partner hospitals, Department of Health and over 40 HEIs. It facilitates healthcare improvements through clinical and academic outputs, giving partners access to >5m NHS patients and enabling world-leading clinical studies. Research is often patient-led, focussing on local residents and their healthcare needs.
UCL start-up, MindHug, supported through BASEKX Hatchery, uses both digital content and face-to-face therapy sessions to deliver accessible mental wellbeing therapies. Of his Hatchery experience, CEO of MindHug, Raj, said “The biggest benefit for us was the mentor network UCL introduced us to.... one of our mentors has now come on board formally as an advisor.”
UCL’s contributions to research during COVID-19 aided scientific and social knowledge of the virus, informing and equipping decision-makers and practitioners to benefit people locally, nationally and globally.
UCL Ventura, an adapted breathing machine (CPAP) reducing the need for ventilators, was developed in collaboration with Mercedes-Formula1. The designs are available online with a free license with the machines in use in >100 NHS hospitals, with requests from >100 countries and 30 teams manufacturing them across five continents.
UCL Healthcare Engineering adapted existing ventilators for NHS use and Mechanical Engineering identified ways to increase the rate of production of ventilators.
UCL’s Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose launched a Renewal Commission with LB Camden to spark policy and practical solutions to level-up inequalities exposed by COVID-19.
Inclusive Innovation
The Global Disability Innovation (GDI) Hub explores inclusive design, assistive technologies, and cultural participation as an East Bank collaboration. Originally London-focussed, the project has gone from a local initiative to delivering global impact, working with 70+ partners in >40 countries, including supporting the World Health Organisation as their first Global Collaborating Centre on Assistive Technology.
The AT2030 programme improves access to Assistive Technology: reviewing manufacturing processes, evaluating technology economics, supporting emerging innovations and facilitating community-led activity.
UCL’s East London Inclusive Enterprise Zone (ELIEZ) creates a space for disabled entrepreneurs, designers and disability-focused start-ups, encouraging a productive enterprise ecosystem.
Launched in 2022 with UCL as a founding partner, the SHIFT innovation district focuses on projects that include local communities and individuals in their design, testing and delivery. Committed to supporting entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds, it provides access to training, skills programmes and job opportunities for people living locally.
Schooling and Development
UCL’s Institute of Education (IOE) trains >1,500 UK teachers annually, providing world-leading contributions to education. KE activities augment this, with start-ups and engagement in local schools occurring across the faculties and professional services.
UCL Academy, the school founded by UCL as a core partner, has been working for a decade to develop pupils' skills and social capital. Through UCL’s Pro-Provost London Office, strategic agreement with the school supports monthly lectures for students, the Brightside mentoring programme, and tours of UCL’s campus to inspire and showcase the partnership.
With support from the IOE and BaseKX, Musemio launched an EdTech app and headset to deliver educational games and digital experiences in collaboration with international museums and cultural organisations. Musemio has received >£150,000 in grants, scholarships and equity investment and won several awards, including Innovate UK's Fast Start competition for cutting-edge startups.
ZNotes, a UCL graduate founded education technology start-up, aims to provide education for school-aged children through online content and revision notes. It received support from UCL’s Entrepreneurship team and is resident at the BaseKX Hatchery. Since launching, ZNotes has reached >3.8 million people, with >160,000 active users. In 2021 the founder, Zubair, received The Diana Award, one of the highest accolades a young person can achieve for social action.
The UCL School Governor Network supports and trains staff volunteering as school governors, increasing the effectiveness and confidence of governors while improving access to ground-breaking UCL research for local schools.
UCL research has contributed to professional development intervention for early-years teachers in Newham, instrumental in improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged young children in the borough and a Money and Pension Service study into early-years financial literacy.
Investing social capital in our local community
UCL contributes social capital across London with staff and students providing knowledge and experience to improve the local environment and share the benefits of UCL’s assets.
UCL Integrated Legal Advice Clinic addresses social welfare issues in east London, with law students, supervised by experienced solicitors, supporting clients pro bono. In 2022, it won the Legal Aid Firm/Not for Profit Agency award at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards, the first university law clinic to win the award.
UCL chairs the Knowledge Quarter (KQ), a consortium of >100 organisations engaged in knowledge creation and dissemination around Kings Cross, creating a hub of excellence on UCL’s doorstep and bringing regeneration to the area.
UCL’s Pro-Provost (London) sits on the CBI London Council, and serves as Executive Chair, London Higher Research Excellence Network, supporting research across London.
Colleagues at BaseKX are supporting the re-development of Camley Street Natural Park, advising on how to integrate activities with the Knowledge Quarter (KQ) and identifying opportunities for graduate start-ups, grow-on space, and the potential for local job creation.
With around 400 partner organisations across London, the UCL Volunteering Service supports >2000 student-volunteers annually. The Student-Led Volunteering Programme allows students to establish their own partnerships with local organisations; while the Community Research Initiative enables masters students to work with London’s voluntary and community sector for their research projects.
UCL facilitated placements with LB Islington where students trained through UCL’s Social Data Institution applied data science skills within a local context to shape policy. One placement contributed to a public exhibition highlighting Borough inequalities, and analysis from others fed into an impact report on the People Friendly Streets programme, identifying priority areas for development.
UCL academics have been engaging with LB Southwark’s older BAME residents through our Ageing Well Platform. In collaboration with LinkAge Southwark, they developed consultation mechanisms to facilitate engagement with residents and are exploring opportunities to reach even more older adults across the borough.
UCL's Institute for Global Prosperity collaborated with LB Camden, Lendlease, and Camden Giving on ‘Good Life Euston’, an 18-month research project to develop a prosperity and well-being index for the Euston area. The project explored support for prosperity in local communities, incorporating local residents’ voices in regeneration planning.
Aspect 3: Results
UCL 2034 sets the tone for UCL’s aspirations as ‘London’s Global University’, with activities measured through KPIs and an annual review of progress. Additional strategies address UCL’s intentions for local impact, focusing on economic benefits and effects, and social and wellbeing improvements in UCL’s locality.
A report commissioned to evaluate the impact UCL has on both its local and national communities found that in 2018-19 UCL’s activities on the UK economy were worth £9.9bn.
The research found that UCL's expenditure leads to the development of jobs and economic impact, contributing £2bn to London’s economy annually. UCL works through partnerships to enhance its impact, contributing rising employment numbers within the areas it operates in and creating an attractive environment for businesses to invest.
In 2020-21, UCL reported 394 active staff spin-outs and graduate start-ups, with 3,500 staff employed (FTE). The provision of jobs, predominantly in the London area, provides opportunities and benefits for both local and regional employees.
The relationship with LB Camden benefits areas around UCL, with improvements in air pollution and traffic control demonstrating the value of the relationship.
Cross-pollination of ideas with the GLA through secondments into the Mayor’s Office has fed into the new London Plan, setting strategic direction for London in the coming years.
In spring 2022, UCL commissioned research with core London partners and 1,250 Londoners to better understand perceptions of UCL across London and assess our success against the ambition of being a good neighbour, as reflected in UCL’s London Framework. The research confirmed that collaboration between UCL and LB Camden supports the health, wealth, and wellbeing of those living in the borough and that UCL is a significant employer creating real opportunity for young people and local residents.
UCL’s contribution to improving quality of life across Camden and, increasingly, east London is measurable through the impacts made in a range of disciplines.
Partnerships with North London hospitals and ongoing research with health organisations facilitate health improvements across the borough. Through patient research, many benefit from advances in healthcare and involvement in patient-led research.
Responding to a LB Camden request, UCL implemented a pro bono Rapid Evaluation and Learning Service (REALs), pairing LB Camden staff evaluating modified (due to COVID-19) services with UCL volunteers with relevant expertise. By implementing REALs, UCL mobilised staff to effectively contribute to local needs.
In 2022, 1,175 UCL students volunteered across Camden, giving 42,653 hours in the borough supporting regeneration and helping establish sustainable communities.
Further UCL research has contributed to the local area, from working with TfL to upgrade transport to collaborating with housing associations to improve residents' quality of living.
UCL East opens its doors for public engagement, developing accessible ways to engage with research and creative outputs for residents that support the local community.
In 2020/1, UCL’s pro bono legal service in Stratford received >700 enquiries and supported 123 cases involving local residents.
UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose provided evaluation support to Hackney and Newham Councils around their social welfare services, making recommendations that enhanced the capacity of frontline staff.
Throughout 2022 local residents constituted >30% of the construction workforce at UCL’s Marshgate building, enhancing local growth.
Our Disruptive Discoveries campaign used the hoardings surrounding the UCL East site to showcase UCL research in a highly accessible way to engage local communities and visitors to the surrounding area, estimated to have reached 15,000 people daily.
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
UCL is a large, comprehensive, research-intensive university ranking in the global top 10. In its strategy, UCL 2034, UCL commits to being ‘Accessible and publicly engaged’, valuing collaboration, partnership and dialogue with the local community as key to building UCL’s reputation.
UCL Engagement was established in 2008 with the core idea that engagement is a mutually beneficial two-way dialogue connecting university research and teaching with the outside world. It provides leadership, training, funding, advice and support across UCL – supporting colleagues to embed public engagement in research and educational activities across all academic disciplines.
A UCL Engagement Strategy (2020-2027) builds on provision over the past decade, further embedding engagement within UCL.
Aspect 1: Strategy
UCL’s strategy, UCL 2034, commits to being ‘accessible and publicly engaged,’ encourages dialogue with ‘society and our local community,’ being ‘permeable to, and interactive with, the public,’ and ‘to enhance our leadership position in public engagement.’ Our 5-year Strategic Plan (2022-2027) highlights UCL’s mission to be ‘engaged with the wider world and committed to changing it for the better.’ Public engagement (PE) is critical to UCL’s goals, enabling greater understanding and dissemination of research, addressing societal needs, and improving routes to inform and influence public discourse.
Since 2022, PE is overseen by the Vice-Provost, Research, Innovation and Global Engagement (RIGE) with a dedicated team responsible for delivering PE and setting strategic direction for activity. Additionally, UCL East’s Cultural and Community Engagement (CCE) team provide dedicated support through grant-funding, network building, advice, training and public programming, building a culture of community-university engagement.
UCL’s Engagement Strategy sets out our vision to ‘be the global leader in socially responsible engagement practice and research’ aiming to ‘ensure communities – internal and external – feel listened to, valued and represented.’ This consolidates the breadth of engagement across UCL and provides a coherent approach to working and delivering alongside the public and communities.
PE is further integrated into other UCL strategies.
UCL’s Research Strategy aims to ‘Cross Boundaries to increase engagement’, ‘deliver impact for public benefit,’ and take research ‘beyond traditional boundaries,’ pioneering PE through co-production, co-design, citizen science and patient involvement in research, ensuring reciprocal engagement to enrich research.
UCL’s Innovation and Enterprise strategy seeks to ‘transform knowledge and ideas into action;’ sharing knowledge beyond institutional boundaries. This empowers individuals and communities and co-creates partnerships with community and third-sector organisations.
At UCL East, engagement is a core ambition, with an open, accessible and locally engaged campus, including spaces for local communities. The UCL East Community Use Strategy links use of the space to academic vision, teaching and research with researchers and communities working together on themes, e.g. sustainability and biodiversity, climate crisis, urban landscape and social justice. The campus aims to be a test-bed for new activities and ideas.
Identifying communities or public groups to engage with is informed by dialogue with academic communities, which are supported to create meaningful ways of engaging. UCL East stakeholder mapping identified key players in the local area, including residents, industry, schools, artists and voluntary community sector organisations (VCSOs).
UCL’s Engagement Strategy embeds considerations of EDI to attract and develop diverse staff and students, address non-inclusive culture and practices and nurture engagement leaders. EDI is strengthened through use of forums, e.g. Race Matters forum to ensure alignment, and engagement with external experts. UCLs Co-Production Collective (CPC) supports culture change and breaks down barriers to research.
Aspect 2: Support
UCL’s Engagement team are funded centrally with additional funding for project delivery, primarily used for internal grant schemes. EPSRC IAA funding also supports relevant engagement activity. UCL East’s CCE team receives an annual budget to deliver programmes through the central UCL East Programme Office. Additional programme resource comes from EPSRC, AHRC, Foundation for Future London, HEIF and LLDC funding.
Support for PE at UCL includes:
Training: Programmes for staff and students, covering project development, theoretical and practical skills for PE-based research, presentation of findings through Train and Engage and Find Your Voice, and Public Engagement: Skills and Practice. CPC offers co-production training and UCL East work with east London community stakeholders to deliver engagement, impact and evaluation training to staff and students. The Evaluation Exchange delivers training to PhD students and VCSOs, building skills and capacity in evaluation.
Funding: Including Beacon Bursaries and Train and Engage for researchers engaging with external communities to exchange knowledge, skills and perspectives; and Community Engagement Seed Funding for relationship-building in east London. Responding to issues arising from COVID-19, Listen and Respond grants were provided to meet the needs of London communities and the voluntary sector. CPC funded 9 pilot projects to learn ‘what works’ in co-producing research, service and policy.
Networks: The UCL Engagement Network encourages staff and students to share best practice. Creating Connections works with the Students’ Union Volunteering Society to support academics and postgraduates working with London’s voluntary and social sectors while Creating Connections East runs in partnership with University of East London and Newham Borough Council. Targeted networks include UCL East Engagement Network, and Community of Engagers within Life and Medical Sciences, Built Environment, Engineering Sciences and Maths and Physical Sciences. CPC is an international network of >2500 sharing experience and practice and the Trellis programme provides a range of networking and match-making activities for staff and local artists.
Recognition & Reward: The UCL Academic Careers Framework includes PE as a specialist activity contributing to promotion criteria. The Provost’s Public Engagement awards celebrate achievements of projects and people that make a positive impact with communities locally, nationally and globally. The Professional Services Community Spirit award recognises UCL staff going above and beyond their role.
Physical Resources: Bloomsbury Theatre aims to ‘bring ground-breaking discoveries to the stage, from art and design, science, technology and beyond,’ providing space for co-production and collaboration with external artists and specialists. UCL East’s campus has PE at its core, with public exhibitions, event spaces and cinema to support community interaction.
To encourage ongoing focus on EDI, UCL works with external community partners and experts around EDI, e.g. SHAPE, a disability arts group advising on the Trellis Programme. Engagement and Impact Training includes an Inclusive Practice module covering decisions on who to engage and making PE activities accessible and inclusive.
Aspect 3: Activity
Staff are encouraged to identify appropriate communities and innovative approaches to engagement, resulting in a wide range of PE approaches across UCL.
Co-production of research ensures that the needs and concerns of communities are considered from the outset, setting the focus and objectives of research, resulting in directly relevant and valuable findings for participants.
Co-Production Collective is a community of researchers, students, carers and practitioners from national and global communities, with funding provided for co-produced research alongside networking, training and support. It heavily involved the public from its formation, with co-creation of the principles and objectives of the community, particularly those less often heard from. The community are key to decision making for governance, strategy, and day-to-day activity. During 2019-22 CPC supported 35 projects.
Patterns of Perception brought researchers from the UCL Institute of Neurology together with individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD), English National Ballet, Central St Martins and an artist, examining methods to improve perceptions of living with PD and inform approaches in clinical and neuroscientific research. The research empowered individuals to communicate their experiences, informed neurology research and led to a public exhibition of the findings.
Citizen science is a growing field and UCL is committed to widening participation in academic endeavours beyond the university, providing training and resources to support academics. Examples include CITiZAN, a community archaeology project working in areas of England exposed at low tide, actively promoting site recording and long-term monitoring by volunteers. Citizen Science provides researchers with a wealth of subject-area experts, enabling academics to build knowledge, whilst conducting relevant research for their beneficiaries.
The Evaluation Exchange responds to needs identified by groups local to UCL East. It pairs PhD students with VCSOs, providing training and support for evaluation, enabling capacity building and two-way learning. The programme improved organisational evaluation capacity and delivery of services and is now being implemented in Camden. It has worked with 19 organisations in Camden and Newham, and 74 UCL students and researchers.
UCL Partner Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs) promote public and patient involvement (PPI) in research, offering training, grants and consultancy to aid design, development and delivery of PPI research. In 2022, UCLH’s BRC trained 274 researchers through 32 workshops, awarding £17,000 to 21 research projects. The BRCs at UCLH, GOSH, and Moorfields deliver regular events, including Play Street, where >200 patients, local school children, and the mayor of London visited GOSH, transforming the street into a play area for Clean Air Day. BRCs create public-facing resources, including UCLH’s online animations about trial participation hosted by Ted Ed, achieving ~1.3m international viewings.
Listen and Respond arose from local needs following COVID-19. UCL’s Engagement teams and Volunteering Service connected organisations with staff and students to identify COVID-19 impacts, develop virtual engagement tools, assist with networking and capacity building and aid rapid evaluation of services. Hackathons encouraged rapid solution development for local non-profits, with 100 students ‘hacking’ problems alongside organisations, with £1,000 grants awarded to implement proposed solutions.
UCL communicates and shares research by engaging communities with the development of messaging to make it accessible to wide-ranging audiences.
The Trellis Programme supported by EPSRC IAA funding, brings science and engineering researchers and artists together to create installations around UCL East. In 2019 a free exhibition of sculptures, drawings and films communicated UCL research in accessible and engaging ways and since 2018 there have been 15 collaborations and installations. EPSRC, AHRC and Foundation for Future London funding has been secured for two more iterations of the programme.
UCL Minds, showcases UCL’s ideas in accessible and engaging ways. A campaign encouraged the public to vote on and engage with research stories from across UCL. UCL Minds draws together PE activities and resources, sharing UCL’s research and teaching with broader audiences, including podcasts, lunchtime lectures, videos, performances and exhibitions.
UCL launched a Walking Tour, sharing its rich history with the public, highlighting how UCL’s teaching, and research has shaped UCL and the wider world.
Engaging students in PE has increased interactions with charities and local organisations:
Community Engaged Learning Service (CELS) trains and supports staff in developing experiential learning, where students collaborate with external partners to address real-world challenges. E.g. 40 MA Applied Linguistics students worked with foreign language schools to highlight benefits of child bilingualism. Teachers and caregivers gave insight into the topic, enabling students to create resources for teachers to use and develop for teaching.
Community Research Initiative for Students (CRIS) pairs postgraduate students with non-profits to write community-focussed dissertations. Students gain non-profit experience, whilst organisations receive research on their activities or outcomes. UCL works with local companies and government providing short courses and CPD. In 2021/22, we taught >53,000 CPD learner days.
Our museums and galleries: Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL Art Museum and Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology run events for public interactions with collections and exhibitions; from stand-up comedy to murder mysteries and film nights, focused on specific research areas. In 2021/22 UCL recorded ~370,000 attendees at lectures, performances and exhibitions.
Both new buildings at UCL East have dedicated spaces to enable and empower the public and community organisations to visit and engage in activities. Frames of Mind, a local arts organisation, and Output Arts, a Hackney-based artist collective, delivered workshops for UCL on how to creatively communicate impact.
UCL Institute of Making collaborated with UCL Engagement and several internal and community partners on The UCL Repair Café event series where expert fixers teach local participants how to mend their broken possessions.
UCL Community Engagement provided several placements through the Shared Training and Employment Programme (STEP) run by Create Jobs and Creative Access aimed at making the arts and culture sector more accessible to young east Londoners. The East Bank supported New Talent Future Leaders programme has seen work with the trainee’s develop and will support the programme until 2026, also implementing a programme of internships across the East Bank partners, directly impacting opportunities for young people and organisations.
Aspect 4: Enhancing practice
UCL Engagement undertakes and commissions evaluations to inform activities, projects and programmes, captures and shares learning and works with others to implement learning. Evaluation is core to UCL’s PE approach with training provided alongside tools, resources, advice and support. Our commitment to evaluation helps celebrate and share best practice across UCL and beyond.
In 2019-22, PE trained 3,513 staff and students through in-person and online sessions. 942 unique users accessed asynchronous online training modules. CPC trained 649 people over 29 workshops including UCL researchers and students, researchers from other universities, and people working for charities, local authorities and healthcare-related organisations nationally and internationally.
Independent evaluation of large-scale programmes (e.g. Trellis) is commissioned where resources allow, and programmes are updated considering evaluation findings. To improve inclusivity and accessibility of the Beacon Bursary scheme, UCL actively encourages applications from under-represented groups, including trialling new measures to develop and support bursary applications from the Black academic community. Learning is captured in comprehensive toolkits and resources, with evaluation as a key module within online PE training.
The Evaluation Exchange and CRIS were part of a large evaluative research project ‘Increasing and Evaluating Student Impact in Knowledge and Learning Exchange (ISIKLE)’. This UCL-wide project, led by Institute of Education experts in partnership with University of Manchester, demonstrated and evaluated effective practices in student engagement in KE activities to assess economic and social benefits to students, external partners and communities.
Relevant HE-BCI data is shared at faculty level and reviewed by faculty Deans and senior staff annually through relevant committee structures.
UCL Engagement measured performance through several KPIs relating to enhancing student experience, innovative and coordinated programming, developing transformative skills, reaching audiences and sharing knowledge and excellence in research and teaching.
UCL East monitoring and evaluation frameworks include the East Bank impact framework to meet stakeholder commitments, demonstrate long-term impact of the East Bank investment and reflect on activities to refine delivery strategies and achieve key outcomes. The community engagement evaluation approach is to “Explore methods to embed best engagement practice and an ethos of engagement across UCL East”.
Aspect 5: Building on success
UCL has benchmarked activities against PE in universities nationally. In 2020 UCL partnered with NCCPE on a report into strategic support for university PE highlighting challenges and limitations in the current system and practices outside HE which we should learn from. The report informed development of the UCL Engagement Strategy.
The UCL Engagement Network brings together those across UCL interested in PE, co-production and collaboration with communities and provides a key feedback mechanism to share best practice and network across academic disciplines.
CPC conducted extensive research on the value of co-production, including 100 interviews, a survey completed by 573 people and rapid systematic review of the evidence.
Much of the learning from individual projects and initiatives is shared publicly as case studies, often at Faculty level, in academic areas as diverse as Brain Sciences, Art History and Environmental Design and Engineering.
In 2019-22, 5,711 media stories on UCL’s ground-breaking research were reported in national and international news outlets including The Guardian, BuzzFeed, and BBC News. Developed by UCL academics, the first definition of ‘long Covid’ in children and young people was reported by seven news organisations, including BBC Radio 4.
UCL Engagement Governance is via RIGE senior leadership committee with escalation to Academic Committee and University Management Committee. For UCL East, there is a formal governance route for community and engagement activities.
Annual UCL East engagement reports are published alongside the East Bank Impact report, based on the East Bank impact framework. UCL publishes its annual review including how we share our work with the wider world and proactively engage with communities to ensure relevancy in our activities.
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