Institutional Context
Summary
The University of Essex (UOE) is committed to excellence in education and research for the benefit of individuals and communities.
UOE’s impact has grown substantially after doubling the size of its research community since REF2014 with five subjects in the UK’s 'research power' top 10 according to Times Higher Education's REF2021 analysis.
Local, national, and global communities benefit from our research strengths which extend across social sciences, arts and humanities and science and health.
UOE is the UK’s number one institution for active Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with 40+ projects, while investing £77.9m in its research and technology park, establishing the new Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing with associated health hubs, and developing unique regional and international partnerships.
Institutional context
UOE is a growing, dual intensive university with one of the most internationally-diverse academic communities in the world, equally committed to excellence in education and research.
It boasts a growing community of world-class researchers tackling established and emerging challenges that are shaping the present and the future, with a proven track record in developing high-impact research that informs policy and practice, shapes public understanding, and improves lives.
UOE is committed to knowledge exchange (KE) and sharing expertise with government bodies, businesses, and charities from regional to international levels.
KE is integral to UOE’s University Strategy 2019-2025 with a dedicated Enterprise and Innovation sub-strategy and vision:
To catalyse an enterprising culture that fosters innovative and creative disruption, building collaborative communities, and creating transformative opportunities for our staff, students and society as a whole.
UOE contributes over £619m to the national and regional economy annually and plays a vital role regionally to deliver economic growth and address social challenges.
UOE has strong links to start-up and SME businesses, reflecting the regional demographic and our role in developing new high-innovation clusters, and promotes the public policy impact of its research and evaluation. Institutional strengths include:
Institute for Analytics and Data Science: An inter-disciplinary centre of excellence connecting academics and businesses, health trusts, local authorities, and government incorporating its UNESCO Chair in Data Analytics and Data Science and links to its world-renowned Human Rights Centre.
Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing: Launched in 2022, committed to better health and wellbeing for all, researchers are building local, regional and international connections to generate world-class, high impact research that shapes policy, practice and improves lives.
Institute for Social and Economic Research: Its world-class team of research and survey experts specialise in the production and analysis of longitudinal data and provide evidence to government and NGOs on how lives are changing over time.
UOE works locally participating in county and borough enterprise, innovation and business bodies; regionally with South East LEP, business-led groups and other universities; nationally in areas where its research expertise is world-leading; and internationally through strategic education and research links.
Key achievements include:
With partners, UOE has invested £77.9m into its Knowledge Gateway research and technology park in Colchester, which forms a regional hub for innovation.
A portfolio of 40+ active Knowledge Transfer Partnerships worth £10m+, involving 70+ academics across 10 departments, delivering substantial value to business.
A top 100 ranking in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which recognise universities progress on UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Angels@Essex, the UOE’s private equity investment platform developed with University Enterprise Zone funding, has assisted 360 businesses, registered 120+ investors and facilitated £21m of investment for 39 innovative start-ups.
A unique £500k partnership with an NHS Foundation Trust connects clinical expertise with UOE’s academic excellence in public health, data analytics and artificial intelligence.
Consultancy with UOE’s world-leading academics has doubled since 2019 delivering bespoke solutions for businesses.
UOE researchers are working with the UK Government, European Union, World Bank, United Nations and UNHCR.
For further information, please send queries to innovation@essex.ac.uk
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
The University of Essex (UOE) is committed to driving economic growth and enhancing the cultural environment. It applies world-class research for societal and commercial benefit to make the world a better place.
Knowledge Gateway research and technology park is a local economy gamechanger, becoming the location of choice in the East for knowledge-based science, technology and digital creative companies. The Southend Campus includes The Forum, co-created with Southend Borough Council to incorporate a library and art gallery.
UOE was awarded University Enterprise Zone funding in 2019 and has been the UK’s number one institution for active Knowledge Transfer Partnerships since 2021. It works closely with local authorities and regional business to support innovation and joined-up regional strategy development.
Aspect 1: Strategy
The University of Essex’s (UOE’s) mission, as set out in its strategic plans, is excellence in education and research for the benefit of individuals and communities.
UOE strategy makes clear its commitment to supporting growth of the regional economy, with knowledge exchange (KE) integral to its mission, making the University an asset for the regional economy (as set out in the East of England Science and Innovation Audit).
Its dedicated Enterprise and Innovation sub-strategy, developed to support UOE’s University Strategy 2019-2025, commits to working collaboratively to provide by 2025 all the University’s communities with opportunities to engage in innovation, enterprise, and entrepreneurial activity with meaningful societal, economic, and cultural impact.
Across its three campuses (Colchester, Southend and Loughton), UOE has directly created over 2,600 jobs, and a further 3,807 jobs across the region. It has over 19,000 registered students and contributes over £619.5m to the regional and national economy annually.
The geography of Essex has great diversity in economic activity, with affluent communities existing alongside some of the most disadvantaged in the UK. The University’s strategy seeks to address these different areas of the economy, for example, by establishing the Centre for Coastal Communities in Clacton and supporting Freeport East to unlock jobs, training and investment in Harwich, both areas of high deprivation.
UOE is driving growth and innovation in the Eastern region through its Knowledge Gateway (KG) technology and research park at its Colchester Campus. It is already stimulating the creation of innovative businesses, building capacity, infrastructure and support systems, which are key to its core objective of embedding business engagement across the University.
KG has been developed through partnership, working with local authorities and the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) to understand the requirements of the region and this has led to a step-change in regeneration income returned to Higher Education Business and Community Interaction survey (HE-BCI) in the last five years.
The Essex business landscape is characterised by SMEs with proportionately few large employers, benchmarking low for productivity and growth. Despite Essex being a very enterprising economy, with many business start-ups (ONS data shows 22,345 SMEs in the East in 2020), evidence suggests smaller businesses experience a number of constraints developing into more substantial, high-productivity enterprises, which includes relatively low skill levels and difficulty in finding suitable premises for development and expansion.
To optimise its impact in this context, UOE’s strategic ambitions include:
Continuing to expand our Knowledge Gateway research and technology park, which is set to be home to more than 2,000 high value jobs when fully developed.
Using its research expertise to support business innovation within the region to improve productivity and achieve impact.
The KG has been growing since 2010, with its first phase of Parkside business units opening in 2014 followed by its Innovation Centre in spring 2019. The latest £10.7m phase of Parkside will offer 20,000 sq ft of high-quality office space in 2023.
The KG aims to contribute to the regional economy by providing a hub for a growing cluster of high-value businesses and fast-growing SMEs which will also benefit from employing student and graduate talent and engaging in research collaborations with Essex academics. Business tenants are active members of the University community, enjoying the full range of campus facilities. KG is also a focus for collaboration and innovation for the wider region, bringing companies and organisations together to connect with university expertise.
The Innovation Centre, run in partnership with Oxford Innovation, acts as a catalyst for business creation by delivering flexible space and business support for start-up and early-stage businesses. The Innovation Centre also houses a state-of-the-art digital creative space, Studio X, a base for UOE’s business start-up programme for students (Essex Startups) and its business engagement team.
Student and graduate entrepreneurship activities have been integrated within wider KE activities to broaden the benefit from business relationships and commercialisation initiatives, such as i-Teams. This has led to higher levels of engagement (over 3,000 students in 2021-2022), increased numbers of start-ups returned in HE-BCI and improved commercialisation outputs including the successful acquisition of UOE spin-out UltraSoC by tech giant Siemens.
The second priority of its KE strategy supports regional businesses to innovate and grow by developing new products, driving efficiency, and increasing productivity.
With the universities of Kent and East Anglia, UOE has established the Eastern Academic Research Consortium (Eastern ARC) to build on complementary research strengths that enables new and innovative projects to emerge and extends beyond research into an integrated approach to KE.
Recognising UOE as a key economic driver within the region, UOE is working with partners to reframe the University’s 2015 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tendering District Council, Essex County Council and Colchester Borough Council as a Civic University Agreement. The aim is to improve the prosperity and wellbeing of communities through partnership working across North Essex on shared objectives focusing on economic growth, health and wellbeing, inclusion, reducing inequality, supporting sustainability and improving the local environment.
To support its wider business engagement, UOE offers a range of support for start-ups, micro-businesses, SMEs and large businesses, including Innovation Vouchers, Enterprise Project Funding, a Corporate Partnership Fund, consultancy and collaborative research opportunities, as well as dedicated support for Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) and other UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding opportunities as they launch.
In 2019, UOE was announced as one of 20 new University Enterprise Zones (UEZs), which drew major funding of £800,000 from Research England and the UK Government towards UOE’s £1.3m Accelerating Innovation at the Knowledge Gateway project. This looked to nurture and support new digital and creative businesses at the Colchester Campus, including the launch of UOE’s equity investment platform Angels@Essex and “Space to Grow” business support and webinar programme which supports businesses get investment ready with help to commercialise ideas and secure investment.
As part of its KE strategy, UOE embeds external advisors within committees and steering groups to provide business and social perspectives on activities and enable innovation that is problem-led. It has three external members on its Enterprise Board, providing experience of large corporates, the regional economy and technology investment. Drawing on this problem-led approach, UOE has developed a facilitated workshop approach (Challenge Labs) to bring together regional businesses and local authorities with Essex researchers to identify priority challenges and co-produce solutions.
Aspect 2: Activity
The Parkside Office Village and Innovation Centre at the Knowledge Gateway (KG) are already at high occupancy, housing more than 40 tenants. Many businesses have achieved significant growth thanks to collaborations with the University of Essex (UOE). These include Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) partners Mondaq, Above and Industrial Robotic Solutions, plus research collaborators Willis Palmer, award winning Arma Karma and regional business body Essex Chambers of Commerce. It is also home to the UOE’s Institute for Analytics and Data Science, Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Business and Local Government Data Research Centre.
UOE works in partnership with a range of regional business bodies including Essex Chambers of Commerce, East of England CBI, Agri-TechE, Tech East and The UK Innovation Corridor, running and supporting events and collaborations with business to benefit local and regional economy.
UOE has a strategic collaboration with Essex County Council (ECC), underpinned by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which includes an innovative joint appointment of a Chief Scientific Advisor, tasked with helping researchers and policymakers work together to identify needs and improve public services across the county. It is committed to supporting partners from Essex Police and local authorities to businesses and NHS Trusts.
It also has a data partnership in place with East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust to support improvement in efficiency of healthcare delivery, and a partnership with Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils to deliver Innovate to Elevate, a new initiative offering local businesses and organisations access to UOE academic and research staff to help find solutions to business challenges.
The UOE is represented on two South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) federated area boards (Success Essex Board and Opportunity South Essex) due to its campus locations, and also works closely with Colchester City Council (CCC) through senior quarterly partnership meetings and joint working on local strategic projects.
SELEP has a focus on growth of the creative sector along with Southend Borough Council and CCC. Broadening links with the creative sector and embedding cultural experience across UOE teaching and research forms part of its Cultural and Creative sub-strategy and led to the University’s successful partner role in a £4.3m Arts Council England Cultural Development Fund (CDF) bid focusing on development of the Thames Estuary Production Corridor.
UOE helps businesses develop products and services. This includes its collaboration with Cerium Visual Technologies (based in the SELEP region) benefits the business partner via a licensing deal, which enables it to have a competitive advantage around the world on the sale of their new product, the Curve Colorimeter, based on intellectual property discovered at UOE.
In 2022 UOE signed a MoU with the Institute of Directors (IoD) in the East of England launching a new partnership providing opportunities to students and benefitting regional businesses. It commits to working together and pursuing a range of joint projects including internship and placement experiences for students, visiting guest lecturers, training, mentoring and professional development.
In December 2022, UOE joined a £8.25m drive to support creatives in the East through its innovative investment arm, Angels@Essex. It’s one of a consortium of partners that has secured vital funding from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to launch Create Growth South East. It will increase the number of investors willing to back creative businesses outside London by educating and developing investor networks.
In January 2023, UOE welcomed the news that Freeport East received final Government approvals allowing it to move forward into the delivery phase. The University is a key regional partner supporting the milestone project, which is expected to create up to 13,500 new jobs and will be boosted by £25m in Government funding to support infrastructure enhancement.
More widely, UOE tailors its offer to industry needs, including a series of Knowledge Transfer Partnership projects supporting the agri-sector with partners including Wilkin & Sons, G Growers and Soil Moisture Sense.
UOE’s Research and Enterprise Office supports companies to access its expertise and co-ordinates a programme of research-informed training.
Regional productivity has also been improved by the £4.7m UOE-led Enabling Innovation: Research to Application (EIRA) project that transformed the business and economic landscape in the East of England. By creating a university network supporting business innovation in Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Kent it was a step change in the way knowledge exchange was delivered.
The EIRA project worked with over 190 regional businesses, delivering over £2million in business support and involved 186 students in the creation of innovation. This funding helped over 2,000 businesses and contributed £8.3m GVA to the region. The programme was tailored to meet the specific needs of the type and scale of businesses in the region and used University capability to create growth. The map shows the level of engagement with businesses in the Eastern region enabled by EIRA. As lead institution, UOE helped ensure all institutions benefited from a legacy of heightened business engagement, sharing of best practice and continuing networking links.
Aspect 3: Results
The University of Essex’s (UOE) strategy for Knowledge Gateway (KG) has resulted in a substantial increase in regeneration and development income returned in HE-BCI in the last three years, consistently reaching more than £1.5m per year. This growth results from its focused engagement approach with local and regional partners, such as South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) and Essex County Council (ECC).
The growth in scale of work with regional businesses has increased leverage of Innovate UK funds with the UOE being the number one institution in the UK for active Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) since October 2021, with more than 40 live projects. To reinforce this network and foster long term links with partners, UOE holds an annual Celebration of Innovation awards event, inviting companies from across London and the South East to celebrate and recognise these successful partnerships. The infographic details active KTP partner locations:
The University’s collaborations also extend to clusters in the east of London and along the Thames Estuary Production Corridor.
UOE plays an active strategic role in the regional economy at all levels, with its Deputy Vice Chancellor chairing the Creative Colchester Partnership and being co-Chair (Essex) of the South East Creative Economy Network.
Analytics and data science are a key part of the University’s strategy, maximising the opportunities for businesses to benefit from the value of their data. Researchers in its Institute for Analytics and Data Science (IADS), and more widely across UOE departments, seek to have a positive impact on the world through partnerships with, for example, multinationals such as BT through to key regional organisations including Suffolk and Essex county councils, Essex Police, East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust and Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust.
The ESRC-funded Business and Local Government Data Research Centre collaborates with private sector, public sector and not-for-profit organisations to wield the transformative power of data to benefit communities. By supporting its partners in implementing best practice, it creates real-world impact, shaping both policy and ways of working.
The agricultural sector and public health are the newest priorities for UOE’s knowledge exchange (KE) strategy. The East of England’s large rural areas and substantial crop growing industry make agriculture crucial, and UOE is delivering projects with local agricultural businesses that apply robotics and AI applications to the likes of strawberry farming and pest detection.
In 2019, it launched the Essex Plant Innovation Centre (EPIC) at an event, which brought together academics and the agri-tech industry from across the East of England to foster relationships for future collaborations and KE. Being at the forefront of plant productivity research, a unique £3.5m Smart Technology Experiment Plant Suite (STEPS) will open in 2023 to create a new state-of-the-art indoor crop growth facility on UOE’s Colchester Campus with the Wolfson Foundation pledging £1million to support.
2022 saw the launch of UOE’s Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing (IPHW). Its world-class research, health sector collaborations, internationally recognised infrastructure, community facilities and researchers working across disciplines enable UOE to help shape public health and wellbeing policies and practice.
Within in its first year, the IPHW has developed its first international partnership with the World Heart Foundation, partnerships with Essex based LEPRA and regional healthcare providers Provide, and established a new Centre for Coastal Communities.
UOE’s effectiveness in supporting business innovation within the region to improve productivity and enable growth is exemplified by the success of EIRA, where Essex as a delivery partner alone has engaged with over 200 business and is actively worked with more than 30 innovation projects ranging from internships to full-scale R&D grants. This infographic details the regional impacts of EIRA and the legacy it has left.
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
The University of Essex (UOE) believes universities should be inspirational places that have a transformational impact on society. UOE helps people to understand the value of universities and how their work directly benefits day-to-day lives. It achieves this through a programme of events, interventions and research with the aim of establishing Essex as a national centre for expertise in methods, capacity-building and leadership in public engagement. UOE’s Centre for Public and Policy Engagement (CPPE) provides a hub for its engagement plans and activities, sharing its knowledge and partnering with communities to tackle the problems that matter. The CPPE is central to the University’s Research Strategy (2019-2025) that aims to grow the reach and scope of this activity across all disciplines.
Aspect 1: Strategy
Public and community engagement (PCE) aligns with the UOE’s Vision “to tackle with rigour the questions that matter for people and communities, put ideas into action to improve people’s lives, and nurture and celebrate our shared commitment to social action”. "Communities" is a central pillar of the University Strategy 2019-2025, which sets out our commitment to:
Connect our researchers with our communities to realise the benefits of a world-class university for the region through sustainable partnerships.
Harness the power of co-production to maximise the effectiveness of our research in improving people’s lives.
Engage with the local communities in which the University and its campuses are located, to maximise our opportunities to have impact in the world.
UOE’s strategic approach links its unique research expertise with (i) local and regional public bodies, service providers and users, voluntary and community groups, ensuring our activities are relevant to local needs and deliver solutions; and (ii) policy challenges on a national and international scale, enhancing public accountability and improving outcomes for communities of both place and interest. These priorities underpin our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and drive our PCE objectives, which are incorporated into our Education and Research Strategies; operationalised through annual action plans at institutional, faculty and departmental levels; and embedded in our strategic partnerships, for example our Centre for Coastal Communities, co-located with a local authority in one of most disadvantaged areas of Essex, working directly with those who most need support.
Leadership is provided by the Pro-Vice Chancellor Research and the Director of UOE’s Centre for Public and Policy Engagement (CPPE), supported by Faculty Deans (Research) and Departmental Directors of Impact. Operational support is provided by UOE’s Knowledge Exchange, Research Impact, Communications and External Relations teams.
Activities are driven by local and regional partnerships at institutional level, and the public and community connections and networks of individual academics. UOE has well-established partnerships with its local County and City Councils and Health Authorities, including a Chief Scientific Adviser, jointly appointed by Essex County Council (ECC) and UOE, to help improve public services. Individual research staff actively engage with a diverse range of external stakeholders, from local communities to the United Nations.
Over the KEF period, UOE has embedded its Centre for Public and Policy Engagement (CPPE) as its central hub to grow the reach and scope of the University’s engagement activity across all research disciplines, and formalised policy engagement as an additional core objective. Drawing together expertise from across the University, the CPPE provides a focal point for the coordination of our engagement activity, founded on a five-year institutional plan to:
raise the visibility of engagement activity through effective communications.
identify, share and promote best practice.
strengthen academic leadership and internal networks.
embed co-production as an organising principle and support co-production activity with a wide range of external stakeholders.
build capacity through the development of resources, toolkits and training.
provide public facing leadership at local and regional levels.
Aspect 2: Support
The UOE’s campuses are at the heart of their local communities. Through a broad and varied outreach programme, schoolchildren come to explore higher education, businesses work and collaborate with us, visitors attend lectures to learn about our research expertise and audiences enjoy our full and varied arts programme. An extensive programme of student volunteering tackles a wide range of projects to meet the needs of our local communities, charities and schools, including innovative online projects during the pandemic.
UOE’s support infrastructure is focused on leadership, operational support, and ‘enabling mechanisms’ such as project funding, aligned with our strategic objectives and five-year plan. Academic leadership is provided by Pro Vice Chancellors and the CPPE Director. The Research and Enterprise Office (REO) has delegated responsibilities for the management of institutional PCE programmes and associated funding, for supporting the CPPE, for ensuring the highest standards of PCE ethical practice, and for coordinating staff training.
UOE has increased its investment to embed PCE in its research and education activities, for example:
allocating a central budget for the delivery of co-production projects, supporting Essex academic staff to explore opportunities to engage public and policy audiences with their research;
providing additional staffing to support the CPPE and monitor the outcomes of its activities;
recommissioning its partnership with HM Government Open Innovation Team to enable direct engagement with policy makers; and
developing a new online system for staff to capture their PCE activities and outcomes.
The University has appointed 15 Public Voice Scholars across all three faculties in the first such scheme in the UK. They will provide thought and practice leadership on public and policy engagement and research impact. The scheme will elevate the value of public engagement within the university, and the Public Voice Scholars will act as national and international leaders in public and policy engagement.
PCE is embedded in our staff development framework, with a specific programme of training and online resources to support development of excellent practice. This includes a new online toolkit providing guidance and links to case studies and external resources, and an expanded annual series of workshops on a range of topics at different levels from “Public Engagement 101” to “Evaluating Public Engagement”. UOE offers many opportunities for staff and students to engage with stakeholders, for example through regular programmes of public events that take place with, and within, local communities, such as Essex Book Festival; Festival of Social Science; Black History Month; Pint of Science festival; International Women's Day ; Holocaust Memorial Week; Café Scientifique, and Professorial Inaugural Lectures.
For staff, reward and recognition are embedded in permanency and promotion pathways, with clear expectations of a track record in PCE at every level; and through our annual Celebrating Excellence in Research Awards, celebrating excellence in PCE across a range of categories, including awards for Early Career Researchers. Student achievements are recognised through the “Big Essex Award”.
UOE showcases excellent practice through a range of communication channels and has developed a new web presence for its Policy Engagement activity with links to case studies.
Aspect 3: Activity
UOE’s strategic approach is to ensure our research expertise is relevant to stakeholders and co-delivers solutions to challenges, including policy challenges on an international scale. Our world-renowned Human Rights Centre, Institute for Analytics and Data Science, Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing and Institute for Social and Economic Research engage with national and international partners from NGOs and national governments to the European Union and United Nations.
UOE’s engagement programmes align with its strategic research priorities such as the climate and ecological emergency; public health and wellbeing; and human rights and social justice, which are also key challenges for our local, regional, and international stakeholders. The exchange of knowledge and co-creation of potential solutions are central to our engagement practice, and our programmes are designed to deliver this. For example:
Supporting our communities through events for schools and colleges, an extensive programme of student volunteering, and specific projects such as Human Rights Local, which shows how human rights are closely linked to everyday life; the Essex Law Clinic which offers free legal services to the local community; and our partnership with Democracy in Action, an award-winning collaboration with Citizens UK, through which final year students take on issues in our local communities through community based participatory action research.
Challenge Labs generating co-created projects addressing local and regional challenges identified by public bodies, voluntary groups and local communities; for example tackling climate change, and local challenges of COVID19 , and collaborative film making to explore teenage life during a pandemic with Essex County Council to inform and stimulate discussion about the future wellbeing of young people.
Partnerships with local and regional public bodies embed co-creation to develop effective policies and improve public services and local communities’ access to them. For example, the CPPE Director is chair of Essex Climate Action Committee and chair of the Essex Renewal Project which is identifying policies and practices for renewal in Essex following the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research expertise in data analytics and artificial intelligence is central to our partnership with Essex County Council (ECC) and the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT). UOE’s recently established Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing works with a wide range of partners, including building on UOE’s long-standing relationship with healthcare provider Provide, to improve health outcomes for local communities, including community facing health hubs comprising a range of co-located research, training and service facilities.
Co-production programmes support projects with an extensive range of project partners both locally and internationally, for example working with marginalised groups to increase resilience; with community organisations to improve access to, and take up of, public and community services; and with policy makers at all levels to deliver better outcomes for communities of place and interest across diverse spheres from health to public services to social justice, for example an oral history project revealing how Covid-19 impacted charities and volunteers.
Project funding is allocated through robust open competitions with clear criteria and assessed by panels to ensure that genuine co-production with stakeholders is undertaken, that a wide range of communities are engaged, and that value for money is delivered.
To showcase best practice, the CPPE has developed a new series of blogs, podcasts, and short films:
Louder Than Words: guided conversations with Essex researchers focused on “ideas that improve lives”; episodes have been listened to over 7,000 times and are available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts.
Brighter Futures: short film series showcasing Essex research and its impacts on policy across a wide range of topics including global public health, disasters, racial injustice in the workplace, social inequalities during lockdown.
Public and Policy Engagement Blog series: a wide range of topics, including patient involvement, indigenous voices, domestic violence, brain injury, Black History story-telling, saving the seas.
Aspect 4: Enhancing practice
Over the KEF period, UOE has substantially increased its investment in the monitoring and evaluation of its PCE activities, in line with its strategic objectives “to tackle with rigour the questions that matter for people and communities, put ideas into action to improve people’s lives, and nurture and celebrate our shared commitment to social action” (see above, Aspect 1), and to deliver better and more effective engagement activity. We have taken an institutional approach, which has focused on (i) providing improved support for tracking PCE activity and its outcomes; and (ii) building capacity to support the development of reflective practice and more robust processes for monitoring and evaluation.
Improved support has been delivered through both new systems and additional staffing. The former has involved the development of a new central online repository for academic staff to store and track information about their engagement and knowledge exchange activities, the outputs and outcomes of those activities, and the societal benefit generated by their collaborations with publics and communities beyond the academy. The records are maintained as live online documents throughout the research lifecycle, from engagement planning to activities undertaken, co-created outputs, feedback from participants in the process, and outcomes achieved. Departmental Directors of Impact and UOE’s Research Impact team are also able to access the records, for the purposes of identifying both opportunities to build on existing activities and identifying examples good practice that can be shared more broadly.
Acknowledging that PCE is an ongoing process, additional staffing has also been provided to gather, analyse and interpret existing data on UOE’s relationships with external stakeholders, to track the evolution of those relationships and draw learning from the effectiveness of relationships in generating societal benefit.
We have also been building capacity through delivering training, resources and sharing best practice. Following a review of its learning and development offer for researchers and survey of staff to identify their development needs, UOE has developed and implemented new approaches to building knowledge and skills in PCE. Our new online toolkit, with c.500 regular users, incorporates specific modules on the evaluation of public engagement activity, with links to both internal guidance and external resources that promote best practice, including the NCCPE website and other sector exemplars. An adaptation of UOE’s “Spotlight” (an online interactive tool that enables the design of tailored impact evaluations) has been developed to support staff in designing effective evaluation of PCE, with supporting workshops to encourage reflective practice. A new programme of workshops is in place, including training in PCE evaluation commissioned from external experts.
Aspect 5: Building on success
Over the KEF period, UOE has refined its institutional approaches to the review and evaluation of our PCE activity, to ensure that we are meeting our objectives and that the activities we deliver meet the needs of our stakeholders.
The organising principle of our PCE activity – co-production with communities – necessarily embeds the perspectives, needs and challenges of our stakeholders in the development and application of our research, and provides its own feedback loop in terms of relevance and appropriateness of the approaches and delivery mechanisms we implement. Stakeholder voices are present in the oversight, advisory, and operational structures providing the framework for our PCE activity. These operate at multiple levels, from departments, where Industry Advisory Boards inform the development of education curricula, to advisory boards for PCE programmes.
Reviews of objectives, activities delivered, the inclusivity of our programmes, and value for money are embedded within our established governance structures, which include standing committees with representatives from external stakeholders to provide assurance regarding relevance to need and appropriateness of engagement strategies. For example:
Programmes such as the ESRC funded Impact Acceleration Account are overseen by Advisory Groups with representatives of local communities to shape the design and delivery methods of our PCE programmes.
UOE’s Enterprise Board, which includes external stakeholders, has a broad remit, and plays a key role in, for example, reviewing the effectiveness of some of our formal partnerships (such as H.M Government Open Innovation Team); and reviewing data gathered from our monitoring processes to help us identify areas for improvement.
The assessment processes we have in place to make decisions on the allocation of PCE funds include external stakeholders, to provide robust and transparent assurance of the relevance, appropriateness, and value for money of the projects we fund.
At a project level, UOE staff carrying out PCE activities are supported to develop bespoke co-designed evaluation strategies for their activities using the UOE Spotlight toolkit (see Aspect 4).
Independent formal evaluation of our PCE is also an important part of our approach to continuous improvement. For example, we have recently commissioned an evaluation of our Challenge Lab programme, which will incorporate the views of all participants to identify what has worked effectively and where improvements can be made. We are particularly interested to see the relative strengths and weaknesses of our online labs – which broaden community engagement - and our face-to-face model, which provides an opportunity for intensive engagement over a shorter period.
The CPPE Director reports achievements against the five-year institutional plan annually to UOE’s Research Committee, which provides feedback and proposes actions to improve, extend and/or enhance the activities delivered.
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)