Institutional Context
Summary
The University of Leicester is a research-intensive university focussed on world changing research and impact. Knowledge exchange is critical to realising economic, social, health and environmental impact from our research and academic knowledge. The university is an important driver of our local economy with a decisive role to play in increasing levels of regional productivity, innovation, skills and talent retention. Through knowledge exchange we seek to optimise our response to long-term issues and challenges reflecting global (Zero Carbon, Health & Healthy Ageing, Inclusivity), national and local concerns (R&D, Productivity, Trade & Investment). We focus our activity through strategic platforms, including Health partnerships, Space Park Leicester, Heritage and the University of Leicester School of Business.
Institutional context
Knowledge Exchange, Innovation and Enterprise are core to our University’s mission and civic responsibility in ensuring our research and teaching has meaningful positive impact: boosting productivity, jobs and wellbeing in our region, bringing benefits to society, within a robust ethical framework.
Our approach arises from our University Strategy, Citizens of Change, and its three themes: Research-Inspired Education, World-Changing Research, and Our Citizens. Our knowledge exchange aligns closely with key government priorities (including Net Zero and Levelling Up) and our regional context and local economic geography (relatively low levels of R&D investment, productivity and graduate retention).
Our knowledge exchange is enabled through key pillars: our Knowledge Exchange Platforms, Research Institutes, Research Centres, Health Partnerships and the School of Business. We nurture partnerships with industry, the third sector, government and agencies delivering a range of outcomes. We harness the talent of our staff and students by investing in an enterprising culture, developing skills, showcasing and celebrating success and ensuring that knowledge exchange and entrepreneurship are open to all.
Our knowledge exchange platforms align with core research strengths:
Health: major collaborative initiatives include the National Institute for Health & Care Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, the East Midlands NIHR Applied Research Collaboration, Leicester Real World Evidence Unit and the Centre for Ethnic Health Research, and we are leaders in patient and public engagement. In 2019 we established the Leicestershire Academic Health Partnership with our local NHS partners helping to accelerate research into healthcare improvements across the region. We intend to extend our capacity through a new Health Technology Accelerator.
Space: Space Park Leicester is a collaboration environment of co-located industry and academics, delivering research, innovation, training and public engagement. SPL is the beacon of Leicestershire’s place-based recovery, working to increase regional business R&D and productivity. It is at the heart of plans to promote Leicester as “Space City” providing a regional centre of excellence. The fully realised vision promises up to 2500 jobs and an economic boost of £750m per annum.
Heritage: The Leicester Heritage Hub will be a physical space to deliver social change through the discovery, creation and sharing of stories of heritage that belong to people and places. The Heritage Hub will amplify and celebrate the nuanced histories and voices of diverse heritages by providing access to world-leading research and expertise. The Hub will be a partnership between Leicester City Council and the University of Leicester and deliver on the University’s strategy to deliver positive impact in our local community through education and research.
Our five interdisciplinary Research Institutes (Digital Culture, Environmental Futures, Precision Health, Space, and Structural and Chemical Biology) complement our Knowledge Exchange Platforms by addressing global challenges through excellent, engaged research with our non-academic partners. These are complemented by specific projects (student placements, internships and start-up support) and focused Research Centres addressing specific challenges, such as the Centre for Hate Studies. Across the institution we are embedding knowledge exchange and co-creation with non-academic partners into our research to increase the scale and reach of our impact.
For further information, please send queries to Red@leicester.ac.uk
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
The University of Leicester is focused on world-changing impact and positive change. As an anchor institution in our region, we have a decisive role to play in increasing levels of regional productivity, innovation, skills and talent retention. Our work aligns with our world-leading research strengths in Health, Space and Heritage, and we work closely with our local partners. Significant initiatives include the establishment of the Leicestershire Academic Health Partners, the opening of Space Park Leicester, our new home for the School of Business at the Brookfield Campus, as well as supporting businesses through the Leicester Innovation Hub and the Help to Grow management programme.
Aspect 1: Strategy
Local growth and regeneration form an important part of our University’s strategy, Citizens of Change, launched in 2021. We aim to drive ambitious innovation and enterprise, drawing on our world-leading research strengths, to boost productivity, jobs and wellbeing. Our local growth and regeneration activity focuses on our local area of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, as well as the wider Midlands region. Our strategic approach includes driving knowledge exchange to benefit our local area through major initiatives that link to research strengths (including space, health, heritage and business).
Our relevant strategic aims and objectives include:
Driving clinical research and healthcare solutions, including leveraging our NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and strategic relationship with the Leicestershire Academic Health Partners.
Implementing a distinctive programme of community engagement, including a new Civic Universities Partnership, in collaboration with key partners to address local priority needs.
Delivering our ambitions for Space Park Leicester, through working with partners to create a common vision and plan for the Enterprise Zone.
Strengthening our external engagement and partnerships, including with large and small business, and local strategic partnerships.
Supporting our city and region through contributing to regional economic plans, securing funding from central government, and promoting opportunities for inward investment and relocation.
Establishing a Heritage Hub with civic partners to facilitate collaboration and engagement with partners and the public, and to investigate and celebrate the rich heritage of our city and region.
Fostering social impact projects and facilitating links between university experts and local communities and organisations.
We work closely with our partners (including the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership, our local authorities and the Midlands Engine) to establish priorities for local growth and regeneration, including through contributing to and aligning with local economic strategies and national policy. Leicester and Leicestershire have a number of identified priorities for growth and regeneration, including raising investment in infrastructure, productivity, innovation, sustainability, and addressing economic, social and health inequalities. Partnerships with our Local Innovation Board, Enterprise Zone Boards, Innovate UK, Midlands Innovation, East Midlands Development Corporation, NHS and the HS2 Skills and Supply Board are of continued importance for identifying need, solving problems and driving regional recovery.
Aspect 2: Activity
The University of Leicester’s local growth and regeneration activities align with our strengths in Health, Space, Heritage and business innovation.
Health Partnerships
We draw on our world-leading research and extensive partnerships with the NHS and industry to drive growth, regeneration and improved health in our area.
Established in 2019 as a partnership between the University of Leicester, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (mental health services) and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, the Leicestershire Academic Health Partners (LAHP) accelerates transmission of research into healthcare innovations, providing health and wellbeing improvements across the region. LAHP groups collaborate with local strategic partners to translate their unique research insights into real-world impacts and drive innovation in the regional life sciences economy.
The University leads the National Institute for Health Research Leicester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), in partnership with University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Loughborough University and the University Hospitals of the Northamptonshire NHS Group. The NIHR Leicester BRC seeks to translate scientific breakthroughs into diagnostic tests, preventions, and life-saving treatments for our patients. In 2022, we were awarded a further £26.1m to enable
this vital work to expand.
The University is part of the East Midlands NIHR Applied Research Collaboration providing applied health and care research that responds to local populations and local health and care systems, including the Centre for Ethnic Health Research and the Leicester Real World Evidence Unit. We are a regional hub of Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) and participated in the hub for respiratory disease (BREATHE), in collaboration with industry.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery, the University of Leicester worked with external partners to drive local and regional recovery and address the challenges our region faces. This includes membership of multiple local recovery groups within LLEP and leading the regional COVID Taskforce.
Our £2m Medical Research Council Confidence in Concept award has driven innovative medical ideas to commercial reality. We are board members of the Charnwood Life Sciences campus Enterprise Zone and supported the development of its status as a DIT High Potential Opportunities site.
Our ERDF-supported Leicester Life Sciences Accelerator (LLSA), established in 2020, provides small businesses in the life sciences and healthcare sector with subsidised innovation support, enabling them to access academic and clinical expert knowledge, developing collaboration opportunities and supporting them to navigate funding, IP, regulation testing and validation. A team of innovation professionals supports collaborative innovation projects to accelerate development and creating a clear route to market and funding for new products and services. To date the project has engaged 77 businesses, with 22 innovation projects completed or in delivery.
Space Park Leicester
Space Park Leicester (SPL) brings together researchers, businesses and communities in one transformational physical space. Now home to more than 20 businesses, SPL provides support in Earth Observation, high performance computing and space engineering to commercial partners of all sizes. SPL also hosts a major collaborative research programme to dramatically reduce cost and build-time of satellites with the aim of developing capability to manufacture on site for the first time.
A 2022 report by the Satellite Applications Catapult identified ‘the commercialisation of space-related academic excellence’ to be a key market opportunity in the East Midlands region. Leveraging academic space-related research is a key proposition of Space Park, and we have delivered several programmes facilitating industry-academic knowledge sharing, including the Leicester Innovation Accelerator (European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) focusing on Earth Observation, Data Analytics, Materials & Advanced Manufacturing, and Marketing & Management, the Space Industries Accelerator, the ERDF-funded Space Technology Applications from Research (STAR) Accelerator, European Space Agency Business Incubator Centre (ESA-BIC), and the highly-successful SPRINT (SPace Research and Innovation Network for Technology) programme. In total we have secured £12m in public investment through grants to support this activity.
SPL is playing a key regional role in the Levelling Up agenda in partnership with our Local Enterprise Partnership, Local Authorities, Midlands Engine, Department of International Trade, UK Space Agency, STFC and Satellite Applications Catapult. New partnerships supporting space sector regional growth include: UK Space Agency funded Midlands Space Cluster; establishment of the Space Applications Catapult Earth Observation Commercialisation Accelerator; and a partnership with the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce to make SPL the home of the Leicestershire Manufacturing Network.
Heritage, Cultural & Creative Partnerships
Heritage and culture play an important role in economic and place-based regeneration and our University continues to drive this.
The discovery and identification of Richard III brought together researchers across archaeology, genetics, history, linguistics in partnership with external stakeholders including Leicester City Council, to yield an economic impact on the city assessed to be ~£59m.
Our ‘Life in the Roman World’ programme for schools which introduces teachers and pupils to the complex, diverse communities of the Roman world through the prism of local heritage, making Roman-era history, culture and language accessible to c.9,900 pupils, many of disadvantaged backgrounds.
Research by our School of Archaeology and Ancient History (SAAH) and the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) is underpinning the £15.5m refurbishment of the Jewry Wall Museum as an immersive visitor centre, which will bring to life the stories of citizens from Roman Leicester.
The University’s new Research Institute for Digital Culture works closely with city and regional partners including the Leicester Creative Business Depot to support research on creative sector development.
We are developing a new Heritage Hub in partnership with Leicester City Council that will leverage the University’s local, national and global arts and heritage research and partnerships for the benefit of the city and region. 2021-22 saw significant scoping and development work, which is now progressing to formal agreements and joint funding bids.
Innovation and business support
The University established the Leicester Innovation Hub in 2017 as a physical base for engaging with business, part funded by the ERDF. Business innovation support is provided via specialist Fellows, supported student project opportunities, enterprise education and graduate start-up activity as well as supporting SMEs to achieve sustainable operations. The Leicester Innovation Accelerator programme links to expertise in marketing / management; data; earth observation and advanced materials. Through the Community Renewal Fund, we have delivered sustainability audits to local businesses working with trained teams of students, in partnership with De Montfort University.
The University of Leicester School of Business has developed and expanded its support offer for businesses across the region including delivering government funded programmes through its membership of CABS and its Small Business Charter accreditation:
Leading to Grow (2020) – 40 businesses.
Small Business Leadership Programme (2020 to 2021) – 168 businesses.
Help to Grow: Management (2021 to 2025) – 170 businesses to date.
In January 2022 the School of Business opened the Brookfield campus, a £15.8m restoration offering state-of-the-art learning and teaching spaces. This includes the Mary Seacole Graduate Startup Workspace, supporting graduate entrepreneurship and complementing linked workspaces at the Leicester Innovation Hub and Space Park Leicester.
Aspect 3: Results
Our focus on delivering regional innovation and regeneration is reflected in the University of Leicester’s ranking in the top 5 of all UK HEIs for regeneration and development income (HE-BCI, 2020-21). The University commissioned an assessment of our local economic and social impact published in June 2020. The report shows that locally, the University contributes £360m annually to Leicester and Leicestershire and supports 1 in 23 (4.3%) jobs in the city.
Evidence of quality and impact in key strategic programmes is discussed below.
Space Park Leicester
Space Park Leicester is already the 2nd largest campus-based cluster with a dedicated space focus in the UK. The Park generates direct GVA of £44m and stimulates an additional £55m in indirect and induced GVA, for a total GVA effect of £89m. It is now at 90% business occupancy including global space sector leaders (Airbus, Northrup Grumman, Kleos Space and Rolls Royce), computing giants (HPE and AWS) as well as a range of SMEs. Space Park Leicester was awarded the title of “Place Based Initiative” of the year at the PraxisAuril KE Awards in 2021.
Impact includes:
Inward Investment: SPL is designated by Department for International Trade (DIT) as a High Potential Opportunity Zone. Foreign direct investment into Leicester includes Omnidea, Airbus, AST, Maxar and CGI, all of whom who have established a presence at SPL. SPL was granted Manufacturing Zone status and we have developed the case for investment in a manufacturing facility for Low Cost Access to Space (LoCAS).
Innovation: There have already been successful spin-outs from industry-academic collaborations, such as EarthSense, a joint venture between aerial mapping company Bluesky and the University of Leicester, that went on to win the Queen’s Award for Enterprise – the highest official UK award for British businesses – in recognition of its continuous 60% annual growth over several years and its market-leading innovations.
Local and national government support – In 2021, Science Minister George Freeman addressed the UK Parliament and praised Space Park Leicester as ‘absolutely integral’ and ‘a vital location in the UK space ecosystem’, noting that the park is ‘very well-placed to lead growth in the UK in low-cost satellite production’. Delivering the Space Park Leicester site was identified as a key pillar in the LLEP Local Industrial Strategy, and the LLEP allocated £13.2 million from its Local Growth Fund to support the infrastructure (£5m) and phase one development (£8.175m). Another £19.4m was awarded from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund to develop Leicester’s Pioneer Park (the wider innovation hub surrounding the Space Park), which will further complement Space Park developments.
Health Partnerships
The University of Leicester has accelerated the recovery, growth and development of life sciences across the region, particularly through our comprehensive innovation support programmes, NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, the Leicestershire Academic Health Partners and provision of expert advice to both local and central government bodies. We have supported industrial partners to develop new biomedical devices, diagnostics and therapeutics, with health and economic impacts.
The University was awarded Medical Research Council (MRC) translational funding from 2017 and renewed in 2022, supporting translational research and industrial partnerships including a joint engagement programme with life sciences businesses at the Charnwood Campus in Leicestershire. Outcomes have included engagement activities/showcases; SME support projects, including Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs); Co-development of a novel TB diagnostic (PDB Biotech – of direct relevant to Leicester’s local population which has a high incidence of latent TB); and successful ISO accreditation of University diagnostic facilities and delivery of genetic tests to local NHS patients. Much of our activity is delivered through partnerships with global healthcare businesses such as Astra Zeneca, Sanofi and GSK.
The ERDF-Funded Leicester Life Sciences Accelerator has interacted with 77 businesses since project inception in 2020. By the time it finishes, the programme will have completed 46 innovation projects, creating new innovations and products.
Heritage, Cultural & Creative Partnerships
The economic impact on the city of the discovery of Richard III was assessed by Focus Consultants to be upwards of £59m and continues to attract visitors to the heritage quarter of Leicester. The School of Archaeology and Ancient History established a partnership with North Northants Council at the Chester House Estate, a £17m National Lottery Heritage Fund and Council funded heritage project that opened in 2021. SAAH research underpins the site interpretation, learning and public engagement programme. The site has exceeded all targets for footfall and income generation, with c 200,000 visitors in the first year. The partnership with North Northants Council has inspired new collaborations; for example, in connection with a tourism hub at Rushden Lakes (a retail and leisure complex attracting 6m visitors/year). The recent discovery and excavation of a villa and mosaics in Rutland was key (alongside the Rutland Water Ichthyosaur) to a successful levelling up funding bid for Rutland County Council for £2m investment in the creation of a mobile, digital visitor experience for Rutland Museums. Our heritage local impact will be further developed with the upcoming partnership with Leicester City Council on the creation of a new Heritage Hub for the region.
Innovation and Commercial
The University has engaged with hundreds of local businesses supporting them through innovation development, making a significant impact in our local economy. Key outcomes delivered through the Innovation Hub team and facilities since 2017 include:
202 innovation projects supporting product, service and process development with SMEs, leading to 114 new innovations and 17 new jobs;
30 start-ups supported;
901 participants at technical workshops;
Over 1000 enquiries, 450+ business engagements and 2180 participants at Innovation Friday events.
The School of Business has delivered leadership and management training to nearly 380 businesses through the Leading to Grow, Small Business Leadership Programme, and Help to Grow Management programmes. Evaluation evidence has shown that participants develop strategic leadership skills and the confidence to make informed decisions to boost business performance.
The University of Leicester provided vital support to secure the UK’s only inland Free Port in the East Midlands which is set to deliver more than 61,000 jobs and generate in excess of £9 billion for the regional economy over the next 30 years.
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
Public and community engagement (PCE) is a key part of our university strategy. It informs and enriches our research and education endeavour and enables mutual benefits for our city and region. Specialists in PCE are found across our university and we support good practice through staff, resources and major initiatives, such as our sector-leading community engagement in health, Space Park Leicester, and a new Heritage Hub. We partner with our communities to support their needs. Examples include: extensive community engagement and involvement projects through our Centre for Ethnic Health Research; bringing archaeology and classics to new audiences; inspiring the public with space science; and working with children with profound learning difficulties (Attenborough Arts Centre).
Aspect 1: Strategy
The University of Leicester’s approach to Public and Community Engagement (PCE) is underpinned by our strategy, Citizens of Change, launched in 2021 after extensive consultation with community partners. Our vision is to provide inspiring education and research, working in partnership with our communities, to become a truly inclusive university. PCE features throughout the strategy, including specific objectives for research, education and citizenship. Our approach is distinctive to our strengths and local communities, including sector leading patient and community engagement in health and clinical research. Specific objectives include:
Strengthen public engagement, maximising its opportunity as a route to research impact. Includes engagement through key knowledge exchange platforms, including our NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Centre for Ethnic Health Research, Space Park Leicester, a new Heritage Hub, five Research Institutes and Attenborough Arts Centre.
Implement a distinctive programme of community engagement, including
a new Universities Partnership for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, in collaboration with key partners that addresses identified needs and shared strategic priorities.Foster a growing culture of volunteering and further develop opportunities to engage more students, staff and alumni in supporting community groups, charities and organisations.
Ensuring every student, each year, has the opportunity to take part in activities that connect them with our world-leading research, businesses and our local community.
We engage with the Concordat for Engaging the Public with Research, and have committed to the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement’s Manifesto for Public Engagement.
Leadership, governance and resourcing for PCE are integrated into institutional governance structures:
Public engagement with research, led by our Pro Vice Chancellor for Research & Enterprise, with governance from the Research & Enterprise Committee and the Research Impact & Knowledge Exchange Steering Group.
PCE by students, including through volunteering and placement opportunities, led by our Pro Vice Chancellor for Education, with governance through the Education Committee.
Institutional engagement as a civic university, led by our Deputy Vice Chancellor, with governance through the Our Citizens Board and the Universities Partnership for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Board and external Steering Group, including five local authorities.
Aspect 2: Support
We support PCE with specialist staff, internal and external networks, training, resources and funding, informed by external partners’ needs.
Our Professor of Public Engagement champions and supports PCE and leads strategic engagement events. Three College academic impact & knowledge exchange leads support PCE, with additional dedicated roles in major knowledge exchange initiatives, including the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Space Park Leicester, the developing Heritage Hub, and the Attenborough Arts Centre. The Centre for Ethnic Health Research provides support and training for inclusive public involvement and engagement in research. Professional services support includes a Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Public Affairs Team, External Relations Team and a full-time Public Engagement Manager. Our Careers Development Service supports students engaging in volunteering and placements in the community. Our Social Impact Team supports staff and students to deliver impactful community engagement. A network of academic Impact & Knowledge Exchange coordinators in every School and Department meets regularly to share practice. Resources to support engagement are available on our staff intranet, with a staff forum for public engagement practice on our internal social network. We jointly fund (with National Space Centre) an outreach and engagement officer for Space and STEM.
We enable engagement through facilitating external networks. These include: monthly Innovation Fridays with the local business community; Cosmic Coffee at Space Park Leicester; the Universities Partnership for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland; and the Leicestershire Academic Health Partners, with our local NHS trusts. We organise festivals and events to enable staff and students to engage the public, such as the Festival of Social Sciences and the Literary Leicester festival. In our centenary year of 2021, we organised a significant programme of public engagement events, on and off campus, including ChangeMakers: Centenary Festival and public debates titled Difficult Conversations.
Our Doctoral College delivers training on public engagement and provides opportunities for postgraduate research students and staff to present to non-specialist audiences. Our Doctoral College Week includes a poster fair where PhD students present their work and its real-world implications to an audience including representatives from local government, the media and commercial businesses.
We support PCE with internal funding (including Knowledge Exchange and Impact funds, the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund, several research council funded Impact Acceleration Accounts, interdisciplinary Networks and Tiger Teams). External community voices help shape our approach. For example, before launching a funding call for Centenary Community Engagement projects, we organised a workshop with over 30 leaders, managers and practitioners from 25 charities and third sector organisations to co-create priorities. The results included a published co-authored working paper and six university funded projects.
Public Engagement is part of the Leicester Academic Career Map informing appraisals and promotion criteria. Our annual Citizens Awards include categories for Research Excellence and Impact Champion, both featuring winners and nominees in PCE. We promote PCE in news and communications, including our email newsletter The Citizen, and showcase projects on our website.
Aspect 3: Activity
We deliver a significant portfolio of PCE, aligning with strategic priorities and community needs. Examples include:
We are leaders in meaningful patient and public involvement (PPI) with 600 current contributors and expertise in impact assessment, testing novel approaches and sharing good practice. Our PPI strategy is adopted by other organisations, and our Centre for Ethnic Health Research runs training courses in Effective Community Engagement and Cultural Competence. Our approach is tailored to needs of our specific communities, addressing diversity and inequalities. Leicester has a high ethnic diversity and larger underserved communities. Led by our Centre for Ethnic Health Research and Biomedical Research Centre, we have spent many years building links with communities across the city.
During the COVID-19 pandemic our researchers were first to discover the link between people from ethnic minority communities and increased susceptibility to the disease. We worked closely with our communities, adapting our approach to address health inequalities.
We led national studies on COVID and ethnicity and Long COVID. We recruited over 29k people to clinical studies, more than double any other centre, giving greater access to the latest advances in treatment (over half of patients hospitalised with COVID-19 at UHL were enrolled into interventional research (13% national average), and 95% entered into at least one observational study).
Despite our high-risk populations and high disease rates, the mortality rates of our city were some of the lowest in the UK and Leicester was held up as a national model of excellence by UKRI and DHSC and in the NHS Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) Clinical Practice Guide for Improving the Management of Adult COVID-19 Patients in Secondary Care.
Post-Hospitalisation (PHOSP) Covid Study – we rapidly established a COVID public involvement group successfully deploying peer support, adapting the traditional model of co-production. The group has drawn on the personal experiences of 10,000 people to identify patient and community priorities for future long/COVID research, synthesised in an accelerated James Lind Alliance research priority setting exercise with close engagement between the consortium, patients in the study and the public.
The Centre for Ethnic Health Research leads extensive community engagement in addressing health inequalities. CEHR worked alongside academics at the Leicester Diabetes Centre to develop a Community Champions programme: Empowering Communities, to ensure key community leaders can screen for type 2 diabetes risk and raise the awareness of diabetes, signposting for further support.
Arts Based Engagement Projects – Partners from the ‘Dance and Diabetes' project are engaging a diverse group in PPI using a community investment model, raising awareness of diabetes and respiratory health in a wider range of communities and all ages across multiple ethnic backgrounds.
In Space Science we continue to work in partnership with the National Space Centre (NSC), the UK’s largest visitor attraction dedicated to space, set up between the University and Leicester City Council in 2001. Through NSC we engage hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, contributing to exhibitions, delivering presentations and special events and supporting Undergraduate Science Communication placements. Our academics work with the NSC’s National Space Academy, including teaching on its unique Space Engineering course. We regularly engage the public through public lectures (e.g., Our Space Heritage), outreach and resources for schools (e.g., James Webb Space Telescope). We jointly fund a STEM outreach and engagement officer to support this work.
Our leading heritage and culture research includes major PCE projects, such as our ‘Life in the Roman World’ programme for schools, introducing teachers and pupils to the complex, diverse communities of the Roman world through local heritage, making Roman-era history, culture and language accessible to c.9,900 pupils, many of disadvantaged backgrounds. The discovery and identification of Richard III brought together researchers across disciplines with external stakeholders including Leicester City Council, to yield an economic impact on the city assessed to be ~£59m, including an award-winning visitors centre. Research by our School of Archaeology and Ancient History and the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) is underpinning the £15.5m refurbishment of the Jewry Wall Museum as an immersive visitor centre, which will bring to life stories of citizens from Roman Leicester. Community archaeology and engagement is integral to our approach, including for example when uncovering a Roman villa in Rutland, bringing in members of the Young Archaeologists Club and the local community, and through digital lectures.
We hold numerous public-facing talks and events, e.g., through our Unit for Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement, Festival of Health, Pint of Science, Soapbox Science, and our annual Literary Leicester festival. We contribute to national festivals including the British Science Festival, Being Human Festival of Humanities, and the Festival of Social Science. We broaden engagement through eight free Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) and podcasts for the public covering topics from ‘The real Star Wars’, to ‘King Richard III: analysis of the remains’, and a specialist arts podcast series.
We provide opportunities for students to engage the public and our communities, including placements and volunteering, encouraged through the Leicester Award. Examples include a Free Legal Advice Clinic for the community, and the Street Law project, run by volunteer law students. Significant numbers of postdoctoral researchers in Life Sciences have become East Midlands STEM ambassadors, working with schools across Leicestershire. Undergraduates can become “science interpreters” presenting to visitors at the National Space Centre.
Our University Attenborough Arts Centre runs performances, exhibitions, open workshops and funded community projects. The Centre has a focus on inclusion and runs multiple projects for people with disabilities. Our Botanic Garden’s mission is to explore and explain the world of plants, running community events, workshops and courses and a 900-strong Friends of the Garden.
Aspect 4: Enhancing practice
Our KE & Impact Development team and specialist staff members provide informal support and training to support PCE evaluation, without mandating a single institutional approach. We advise that aims, objectives and evaluation questions are specified in advance, with an appropriate monitoring and evaluation methodology from the outset. We offer tools and processes to support evaluation, including theory of change and logic model approaches, to consider expected outputs, outcome and impacts of engagement and measurement methods, for instance through pre and post intervention surveys. We signpost to evaluation resources published by the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement and the National Institute for Health Research.
Many individual programmes and projects have rigorous assessment/evaluation frameworks. Examples include:
Our Centre for Ethnic Health Research are leaders in improving equality analysis, practice and outcomes for community engagement in health research, including developing a toolkit for conducting Equality Impact Assessments with NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East Midlands.
The NCCPE’s triggers of change were used as guiding principles for the PCE strand of our Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund programme and monitored by our Public Engagement Manager, executive group and board.
Evaluation was embedded in the Creative Engagement Fellowship scheme led by the Attenborough Arts Centre and published on our institutional research repository.
For the UKRI funded project Raising community voices in future health research, we trained and recruited community researchers, who spoke to their communities to identify 10 areas for future health research. Not only did this project create a clear set of health priorities from the perspectives of the communities engaged, it allowed close scrutiny of the institutional processes that hinder truly equitable partnership working between institutions, such as universities, and communities which led to a range of methodological insights for future approaches to community-led research and engagement.
Space School UK (SSUK) is a summer residential programme for secondary school students, held at the University each year. An evaluation of its impact concluded it provides critical opportunities for participants to establish careers in STEM and the space industry.
We benchmark ourselves against external frameworks, including the Times Higher Impact rankings (ranked 23rd of 766 universities worldwide, 4th in the UK). Our Impact Case Studies for the Research Excellence Framework 2021 also included numerous examples of PCE with significant impact.
From early 2022 we created new roles for Knowledge Exchange (KE) & Impact Development, including a network of KE & Impact champions across every School and Department to share best practice. We are now offering training from external experts to develop our practices in engagement and evaluation, while extending shared resources.
Aspect 5: Building on success
Our University Strategy is monitored through internal governance structures, including Executive Board, Council, Senate, the Education and Research & Enterprise Committees, and the Our Citizens Board. The Universities Partnership for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland has a board including the three universities, and an external steering group with local authority partners. Progress is monitored in every academic school and department, including in PCE. Our major knowledge exchange initiatives (including Space Park Leicester, the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and the developing Heritage Hub) report on public engagement activities and progress against agreed objectives. We self-assess our support through the KE concordat.
We continually assess and improve our approaches and support. After evaluating support for research and knowledge exchange, in 2022 we created a new network of impact and knowledge exchange roles, including an Impact and KE steering group, with responsibility for monitoring PCE for research, with representatives of our NIHR BRC, heritage hub and Space Park Leicester. A review of professional services support also led us to create new dedicated roles for knowledge exchange, bringing together previously separate functions, meaning PCE support is integrated with related engagement activities.
We build on success by developing new initiatives to push forward engagement in priority areas:
Our NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre is nationally leading on patient and community engagement and in 2022 has been renewed with a more than two-fold uplift in funding (£26m), and extending from 3 to 6 activity themes, enabling us to build on and extend this successful activity.
In 2022 we established the Universities Partnership (partnering Leicester with De Montfort University, Loughborough University, and the city and counties of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland).
Through 2021-22 we began scoping a new major public engagement initiative, the Heritage Hub, working in partnership with Leicester City Council, to engage the University’s heritage, arts, culture, and social science research and education with the city and people of Leicester, Leicestershire, and the region.
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