Institutional Context
Summary
Edge Hill University is based on an award-winning, 160-acre campus in the market town of Ormskirk, Lancashire, with additional sites in Manchester and across the North West.
Founded in 1885, Edge Hill delivers a broad disciplinary mix, recently expanding provision into Engineering and investing in a new £17m STEMM building with £5.8m of funding secured via OfS, while remaining one of the UK’s largest providers of teacher-training.
Named Times/Sunday Times Modern University of the Year in 2022, the university returned our best ever REF results in 2021 with 62% of its outputs rated world leading/internationally excellent. Following submission to the KE Concordat in 2021, Edge Hill has now invested in an enhanced KE infrastructure and adopted a new KE strategy.
Institutional context
Edge Hill is in the market town of Ormskirk in West Lancashire. It sits on the fringes of the Liverpool City region, within the Lancashire LEP area, and extends its KE reach throughout the North West via a satellite campus in Manchester, and via regional collaborations.
Edge Hill University’s Knowledge Exchange mission is to be the anchor institution in West Lancashire. Underscored by an intellectually stimulating, creative and inclusive environment and teaching and learning of the highest standard, we will leverage our world leading and internationally excellent research to address the local manifestations of global challenges, to diversify the University’s sources of revenue, and to burnish our brand and reputation.
Following its submission to the KE Concordat and arising action plan in 2021, our focus on Knowledge Exchange has been reimagined to include:
A new KE strategy, focused on growing HEIF-qualifying income in the areas of CPD, consultancy, and commissioned and contract research. This is supported by investment in a new KE function and the promotion of Senior Engagement fellows to champion KE within faculties and departments.
An ongoing commitment to student-led KE facilitating the application of knowledge through work in non-academic settings. Our flagship programme Tackling the Blues (TtB) is an award-winning, student-led, sport and arts-based education programme directed at mental health and funded by the Office for Students (OfS) and Research England (over £500k) with support from the Premier League Charitable Fund.
Enhanced local economy interventions led by a dedicated SME-facing unit, ‘the PIC’. This includes Leading Lancashire, part-funded by the European Social Fund, supporting the upskilling of employees of Lancashire based small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially from under-represented groups. To date this has engaged approx. 400 SMEs and 760 learners.
A renewed focus on innovation, increasing KTPs to 8 since KEF 1
Furthering our KE strategy, particularly on the local and regional scale, through engagement with local authorities, business, driving creative enterprise collaboration (through our in-house production company), and developing emerging strengths in policy evaluation and community-based/community-led interventions.
A drive to improve public engagement activity through a new strategy, embedded within our widening participation ethos, that cuts across disciplines, engages with current issues, and has a strong focus on co-creation and inclusivity across the private, public and third sectors.
The University predominantly serves a mixed rural and urban hinterland, characterised by:
Relatively low business density in the immediate area but a larger, more diverse pool of businesses in the Liverpool, Manchester, and Preston conurbations.
Low population density in the immediate area but access to large population centres, (Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Preston).
A region with major strengths in key sectors but lagging best performing regions of the UK on measures including output, GVA, employment, business density, productivity, innovation.
As such, public policy and investment emphasizes:
Key sectors (including digital, arts and culture, engineering and manufacturing, food production, transport, logistics, and healthcare).
Key competencies including digital capability leadership, innovation capacity and behaviours.
Regeneration of urban areas, and
Tackling labour market disadvantage.
For further information, please send queries to keo@edgehill.ac.uk
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
Our central location in the North West of England affords partnership working and local economic interventions within our immediate West Lancashire area, the Liverpool City Region, the wider county of Lancashire and region. Edge Hill’s approach to local growth and regeneration is based on responding to local economic development priorities through partnership working and the development of strategic relationships. Regional collaborations in partnership with both the public and third sector, utilise our strong tradition of student-led KE and educational partnership interventions, alongside emerging expertise in policy evaluation, creative enterprise, and community-based solutions. Specifically
Business Performance & Key Sector Growth – action on productivity, innovation, leadership, and SME growth.
Strengthening communities through community-led/research informed responses and interventions.
Aspect 1: Strategy
Edge Hill University is active across the UK and beyond, but its strategic approach to local growth and regeneration is focused on Lancashire, the Liverpool City Region, and the wider North West. This includes:
the West Lancashire district, which includes the market town of Ormskirk, Skelmersdale (with significant areas of deprivation and large manufacturing and logistics sectors and villages within a predominantly rural setting).
the wider county of Lancashire, where small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) dominate the business base of 40,000 companies, including aerospace supply chain companies that are predominantly family owned.
The Liverpool City Region, with a population of 1.5m people and a large and diverse industrial base including professional services, arts and culture, advanced manufacturing, maritime and other logistics, tourism, retail, cultural and public administration services).
The wider north west, stretching from Cheshire to Cumbria and is home to over 7 million people and around 3.5 million jobs. The region has both established economic strengths and emerging specialisms including science and technology industries (including food production) and contains some of UK’s most visited tourist destinations (the Lake District, Blackpool).
Edge Hill is an active partner in the development and delivery of local growth and regeneration strategy, and this has informed our needs assessment. This is demonstrated through our:
Membership of the Skills and Employment Advisory Panel Board of the Lancashire LEP
Active role in the development of strategic plans at LEP level, including Local Industrial Strategy documents
Co-founding of the Lancashire HEI Innovation Forum, through which we work with Lancashire County Council and other HEIs to bring together the innovation capabilities of the region. We have jointly-funded an innovation development post at Lancashire LEP
Work with Liverpool Health Partners, a collaboration between HEIs and NHS organisations to unify clinical and academic strengths within the region to improve population health outcomes and economic productivity
Role within Boost, Lancashire’s Business Growth Hub, a key co-ordinating mechanism for SME business support
Membership of the Universities Economic Development Unit, and our active participation in the BEIS North West – Lancashire HEIs forum.
The development of an in-house media production company Twenty-One Media now providing DWP supported film and media industry training and employment opportunities for Edge Hill graduates and young people in the West Lancashire and Merseyside regions.
Early years intervention programmes delivered in partnership with the DfE Accelerator programme; Every Child Counts
An ambitious collaboration with Wigan Council and other local partners focused on skills development in health, social care and education delivered through a range of actions including collaborative policy research, labour market studies and work with schools and colleges.
Collaboration with Wigan Chamber of Commerce and Liverpool Investment Group to provide digital marketing skills to SMEs.
Community-based/research-led programmes, including community-wealth building Creating Sustainable Futures in Skelmersdale, West Lancs in consort with West Lancs CVS and local CICs.
Curation of exhibitions, performances and exhibitions with regional cultural partners including Liverpool Museums and Galleries, Storyhouse Chester, The Atkinson, Southport and Shakespeare North, Prescott, contributing to and investing in our regional cultural and creative enterprise
Aspect 2: Activity
1. Business Performance & Key Sector Growth – action on productivity, innovation, leadership, and SME growth.
SME Productivity & Innovation Centre ‘the PIC’.
As the key gateway for businesses at Edge Hill, the PIC connects SMEs with academic business support, facilities, and knowledge assets to assist them in achieving profitable growth, job creation, innovation, and business technology adoption.
PIC business support has been established against four themes, aligned to the requirements of scale-up potential SMEs:
High Growth Innovation Sprint which supports market penetration, product development and market development growth strategies. The programme has been funded under ERDF Priority 1 and Priority 3 schemes since 2017 in Lancashire, and ERDF Priority 3 since 2020 in the Liverpool City Region (LCR) as part of the LCR High Growth Programme. The LCR High Growth Programme is a collaboration between Edge Hill, LCR Growth Platform, and St Helens Chamber of Commerce.
Workforce resilience supports and brokers access for SMEs to student placements and projects. This work has been funded since 2018 via the ESF Up Skilling Lancashire project, a collaboration with the University of Central Lancashire and several Lancashire FE colleges.
Leadership growth develops management skills in existing and aspiring managers and leaders. This work has been funded from 2019-2023 via the ESF Leading Lancashire project, a collaboration with the University of Central Lancashire and several Lancashire FE colleges.
Technology adoption acceleration supports SMEs to address challenges and barriers in the adoption of new business technologies. This work has most recently been funded via the BEIS and Innovate UK Business Basic 3 scheme, under the Manufacturing Connect project. This project was a collaboration with the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre NW (University of Sheffield) and Manchester Metropolitan University.
In line with Edge Hill’s focus on supporting scale-up potential SMEs, the portfolio of ESIF and Innovate UK-funded projects respond directly to the strategic priorities of regional partners, led by LEPs, directly addressing a business, social or economic need.
In addition, 8 new KTPs have been secured across the computer science and business management disciplines, taking Edge Hill to being one of the most KTP-active universities in the Northwest.
2. Strengthening communities through community-led/research informed responses with a focus on youth.
Partnership with Wigan organisations - A new collaboration with a focus on boosting educational, health and economic prospects. In 2020 this launched a newly validated part time programme in Primary Education with Qualified Teacher Status, enabling Teaching Assistants in the Wigan Borough to access degree level study and professional status in the local community, in partnership with Wigan and Leigh College. This is now in its second year of recruitment with applications having doubled between 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. Edge Hill has also advised on the development of the outdoor classrooms, forest school locations and learning hub that will be incorporated into the £20 million award from the Levelling Up fund to develop Haigh Hall .
Creating Sustainable Futures: A collaboration with Wigan Council, CLES and several local social enterprises, including Wigan and Leigh Community Charity, Embrace Wigan and Leigh, and Made in WN8. It employed a community wealth building framework and photovoice methodology to provide training to marginalised young people on social enterprise and to explore their experiences of work, worklessness and community. This was extended via QR-SPF funding via ‘Growing the Small Local Enterprise Sector in Skelmersdale’. to create resources for community-based interventions to assist young people back into work and/or training.
Social Prescribing: Edge Hill-led consultancy on the Wakefield Culture Cures (2018) project has led to a successful annual seed-corn grants scheme (2019 and ongoing) for community projects and an arising successful AHRC research network grant for the Everyday Creativity Research Network. The network was launched in the House of Lords on 13 March 2023.
Policy Evaluation: The Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit (EPA) was commissioned to conduct an evaluation and impact analysis of the Blackpool Opportunity Area Programme, with a specific focus on conducting a Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis. The Programme was funded by the Department for Education and aimed to improve the experience, engagement and employment outcomes of young people transitioning from compulsory education into Post 16 education, employment, or training (NEET). This found that the tools to engage NEETs were effective but recommended better processes to identify NEETs for interventions, which have now been operationalised.
Creative Enterprise: In 2021-22, in-house production Twenty-One media provided CPD short courses in filmmaking and creative entrepreneurship in conjunction with Liverpool City Region Authority and the DWP, as part of the government’s Plan for Jobs. The short course How to Develop Your Creative Digital Business short course, attracted £22.5K of funding. While the Digital Filmmaking short course brought in £35K.
Student-led KE: Digital Marketing Ambassador Programme (DMAP), was developed in 2021 in collaboration with Liverpool City Investment group and council representatives from Sefton, Wirral, St Helens, Knowsley, Halton. The aim is to help independent retail and service businesses develop, maintain, and enhance their digital marketing capability and enable university students to gain practical experience of marketing communications strategy within a business.
Tackling the Blues: Established in 2015, Tackling the Blues (TtB) is a multi-award-winning collaboration between the Faculty of Education, the Department of Sport and Physical Activity at Edge Hill University, Everton in the Community and since 2020, Tate Liverpool. TtB is a unique sport and arts-based education programme supporting children and young people aged 6-16 who are experiencing, or are at risk of developing, mental illness. Since 2015, the programme has received annual support of over £50,000 from the Premier League Charitable Foundation, and over £570,000 funding from the Office for Students and Research England in 2020 from the Student Involvement in Knowledge Exchange programme.
Aspect 3: Results
Outcomes are monitored by the newly established (2021/22) Knowledge Exchange Committee, a sub-committee, reporting to the University Research and Innovation Committee. Major projects are monitored and reviewed by dedicated groups/funder-led feedback. As projects are varied by the expertise offered within the university, there is no one-size fits all approach implemented for project evaluations.
Currently, all monitoring and evaluation is expected to, as a minimum:
Assess (continuing) strategic fit/contribution.
Engagement levels: e.g., the number of business or CPD assists, projects, income levels.
Qualitative assessment of feedback on the extent to which the event met its stated aims from:
Project team.
Beneficiaries, partners.
Outcomes: A wide variety of outcomes may need to be tracked according to the logic chain within the project. These include:
New products, services, processes developed.
CPD attainment.
Adoption of specific recommendations
Client/ stakeholder feedback.
Awards
1. Business Performance & Key Sector Growth – action on productivity, innovation, leadership, and SME growth.
During the period since KEF1 we have undertaken an internal evaluation of the PIC using our in-house Policy Evaluation Unit (EPA).
Key findings from the independent Evaluation of the Productivity and Innovation Centre report 2021 established that, “…[the] project has met its targets and has significantly exceeded its target for [New to Market Products] C28… More than three quarters (77%) of all businesses reported that they expect new job opportunities to be created in their organisation as a result of the support… the majority of businesses (81%) reported that they had now improved processes for effective innovation… [and] the Net Promoter Score for the project was 67… a very high score and is indicative of a positive customer experience.” The Estimated Net Additional Jobs created through programme was 222.
A further independent summative assessment found in its interim findings (February 2023):
A benefit cost ratio of £5.30 for every £1.00 of public investment, representing high value for money.
87% of SMEs have seen an improvement in both their turnover and productivity.
Profitability increases generally range between +25% to +45%
88% of SMEs have seen an improvement in their resource allocation.
80% of SMEs have improved their ability to utilise data-driven decision making.
62% of SMEs have developed further collaboration with the University for student placements.
A further report from KADA SME Productivity and Innovation Centre performance in Lancashire, demonstrated the following:
For the technology adoption element of the PIC, Manufacturing Connect Lancashire (MC_L) has supported 109 manufacturing SMEs and included a randomised control trial methodology to test the efficacy of the project to influence technology adoption rates. The independent evaluation found the level of confidence in adopting technology “…clearly increased over time, by a sizable 13 percentage points” and that 27 new technology adoptions had arisen or were in progress at the time of completion of the project. Within this evaluation the report concluded “of the 53 firms interviewed, almost half had moved rapidly to adopt or to progress their plans for adoption. In value for money terms (in relation to promoting adoption) it appears that MC_L can claim significant success.”
In addition, 34 SMEs have been supported by Edge Hill through the workforce resilience project, and Leading Lancashire has supported 924 participants from 392 SMEs, with 433 completing formal qualifications. Over 69.8% of participants within this project were from under-represented groups. High Growth Spirit has supported 225 SMEs, generating 248 new jobs, 103 new to firm products/services, 32 new to market products/services and a reported 29% average growth rate.
A key output are arising Business Case Studies which showcase the impact on individual organisations engaging with this priority area. These case studies were uniquely viewed 503 times over the reporting period.
2. Strengthening communities through community-led/research informed responses with a focus on youth
Results have been varied within strategic focus two as we currently have no single evaluation framework. As we open our dedicated Knowledge Exchange function in March 2023, how we evaluate the impact of our local economy intervention will be reviewed and streamlined further.
In July 2022, ICE was nationally recognised for its Twenty-One Media Kickstart scheme with the presentation of the innovative employment for young people award at the DWP Kickstart Awards. In future productions, Twenty-One Media will draw on the roster of 42 trained individuals from these programmes across pre- and post-production departments and audio-visual specialisms.
For Social Prescribing, our emerging expertise, embedded in regional partnerships will impact how the methodologies derived from our previous project work, are adopted nationally in the medium term. Cumbria LINK Barnados and Edge Hill (including the in-house policy evaluation unit EPA) have started a three-year learning partnership to provide evidence of the service’s positive impact and to encourage further rollout of social prescribing throughout the country via local authorities and organisations.
The Digital Marketing Ambassador Programme (DMAP) has grown from 5 students participating in 2021 to attracting interest from over 30 external companies and SMEs in 2023 demonstrating the impact and value student-led KE initiatives have for the local business community.
Tackling the Blues. An independent evaluation of EitC’s work in 2020-21 revealed TtB generated a social value of £7,354,000, representing 10.9% of the organisation’s overall social value of £64,254,000, or an estimated £29.86 for every £1 invested (Real Worth, 2022).
As with the business growth priority, a key measure of the impact and engagement with our regeneration and local growth activities are the engagement metrics from media communication channels. For the strengthening community’s priority area, there is not one central point of information given the diverse beneficiaries of the project outputs. In terms of media, the outputs and impact of these projects was disseminated in the following publications:
Wigan Post online (690k reach)
Wigan Observer in print (9k reach)
In Your Area (528k reach)
The Ormskirk Advertiser (700 reach)
The Champion (26k reach)
Q Local Ormskirk and Skem News (5k reach)
Educate (90k reach)
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
As an anchor institution in West Lancashire. Edge Hill takes a dynamic, inclusive, and widening participation approach to public engagement, using our award-winning campus and on-site Arts Centre to maximum effect. With our growing reputation for world leading and internationally excellent research, we place particular emphasis on activity linked to research outcomes, that driven by our inter-disciplinary research institutes, alongside activity which responds to current events (i.e. war in Ukraine) and engagement with national awareness activity including Black History Month and International Women’s Day. With a focus on co-creation with private, public and third sector partners, our activity takes many forms including exhibitions, workshops, webinars/seminars, demonstrations, public lectures, podcasts, festivals, and a University blog.
Aspect 1: Strategy
Established in 1885 as the first non-denominational teacher training college for women in England, Edge Hill has inclusivity and widening participation at its heart. We have an over-arching strategy to seek ever closer working relationships with our stakeholders and to further enhance the cultural and intellectual life of our local and regional communities through public engagement. As we open our new dedicated KE function in March 2023, we will reimagine our Public and Community Engagement (PCE) strategy in the next KEF cycle to enhance our practice with a stronger focus on quality, co-creation and further enhancements in EDI, adding to our widening participation ethos.
In this reporting period, our focus for PCE has been on three areas:
That which communicates the findings, outcomes and implications of our world leading and internationally recognised research, and impact on core constituencies;
That which responds to, and reflects current events;
That which reflects the national conversation around awareness and inclusivity – for example Black History Month and International Women’s Day.
In all cases we seek to co-create activity with our research partners, respondents, students, and key stakeholders, be they public, private or third sector. We employ our award-winning campus including our on-campus Arts Centre and our inter-disciplinary Research Institutes, to deliver most of our public engagement activity.
Our approach also involves the identification of multiple publics and specific communities, allowing us to target and tailor our work to widen participation through needs identification. These include:
Communities of place: these include the local communities of Ormskirk, West Lancashire, wider Lancashire, the Liverpool City Region, and areas of the north west where we have strong ties. They also include other geographical communities in which we engage in specific initiatives (Skelmersdale, Wigan).
Communities of interest: these reflect the range of disciplines at Edge Hill and the topics and challenges to which our work is applied. Our academic staff are rooted in these communities through the co-design and co-production of knowledge. Our three research institutes – the Health Research Institute (HRI), the Institute of Social Responsibility (ISR) and Institute for Creative Enterprise (ICE) –facilitate, support and enable work with these communities. They provide a focal point to bring together communities outside and inside the University.
Communities of practice: particularly in our Faculty of Education and Faculty of Health, Social Care & Medicine our work is directly relevant to the needs of large communities of professional practitioners. Our staff are rooted in these communities (often as current or ex-practitioners, membership of professional associations and working groups) and engage with them through co-design and co-production of knowledge, outreach, and dissemination.
Like all HEIs Edge Hill is on a journey to improve its accessibility and inclusivity and its EDI outcomes. We seek to engage as many user groups as is practicable in curating events to offer EHU students, schools and colleges, and members of the public a vibrant and enriching experience of the University. Research-led public engagement is co-created, ensuring that the content reflects the publics to be engaged. Moreover, University-wide events that directly pertain to EDI – International Women’s Day/Black History Month – are co-curated with the EDI steering committee to provide oversight re inclusivity and staff/student/public involvement. To widen access to PCE, we have retained (since the pandemic) the use of online and hybrid events, and schedule events – particularly multi-session events such as the Festival of Ideas – at different times of the day/week. Alongside, most of our public engagement is free to attend, or heavily discounted. This includes a free mid-week film screening for students at the Arts Centre. A sense check is also built into all applications for PCE support to ensure representation on for example roundtable panels, exhibitors etc.
The engine of our PCE led by academics are our inter-disciplinary research institutes, who work with faculties, departments, and the wider University to deliver PCE activity of high quality. They are supported in a variety of ways including professional service support for events promotion, press and web presence, and the University’s IKEF fund. Central support for larger events, particularly those around awareness days and the annual Festival of Ideas, is also available. Oversight of PCE activity is undertaken where it is most appropriate; Research Institutes, Faculty/Department, or in the case of national/international commemoration days, the EDI Steering group.
We recognise and celebrate PCE activity, ensuring that it is understood as an important, valued activity through the University blog, message boards, website, and weekly bulletins. We recently established a formal knowledge exchange-based career progression track, which includes recognition for PCE.
Aspect 2: Support
Practical support for PCE is provided through:
Strategic partnerships arrangements, collaborations, and relationships with key stakeholder organisations: To design and deliver effective PCE with maximum impact and reach we continue develop strategic relationships with a wide range of partner organisations including local authorities, professional associations, cultural institutions.
Funding: Internal funds for the priming of research and impact can be used to meet the costs of public and community engagement, primarily through the Research Institutes.
Event management support: dedicated professional events management support.
Access to University spaces: Venues (for example, The Arts Centre and Rose Theatre), lecture theatres, open air spaces and specialist facilities are made available. We ensure that residential events can be held on campus during summer.
Centrally programmed events, creating opportunities for colleagues to bring forward activity e.g., our activity around national events on awareness and inclusivity.
Engaging with the media: our press team provides one-to-one support for researchers engaging with the media, training events and other resources. We provide training and opportunities for researchers seeking to write for a lay audience, including via The Conversation.
Production of digital/social media and use of YouTube channels via our media team.
Research impact support: identifying the potential impact and users of research insights, mapping out routes to impact. Where impact can be achieved via PCE we work, the Edge Hill research function works with academics to develop and bring forward activity, signposting, facilitating, or brokering in support from across the University.
We recognise and celebrate PCE activity, ensuring that it is understood as an important, valued activity through the University blog, message boards, website, and weekly bulletins. We recently established a formal knowledge exchange-based career progression track, which includes recognition for PCE.
The research institutes: these are the engine for research informed PCE and have the own budgets to work with departments and research centres to assist in the delivery.
With the establishment of a University-wide EDI steering group (2019) – policy and practice pertaining to the intersection of PCE and EDI is managed, monitored, and resourced through this group.
Further support and a re-imaged PCE strategy will be delivered through the opening of a new KE function at Edge Hill in March 2023.
Aspect 3: Activity
Our research led PCE is driven by our research Institutes, Centres and departments, with a strong focus on co-creation. The Research Institutes with their own PCE budgets, are the hub through which the majority of this PCE activity is supported and promoted. The Institutes work in tandem with departments and faculties to curate, finance and promote events. Each Institute also has its own ‘flag ship’ PCE vehicle, specifically ICE, the Lonely Arts Club podcast, ISR, the Good Society public lecture series and HRI series of events at the practice interface – exchanging knowledge between practitioners/academics across the health disciplines. Alongside this the research institutes support and promote research-led PCE.
The Research Centres adopt a similar model of operation and engagement. An illustrative example is the Centre for Human/Animal Studies Changing Landscapes: A programme of storytelling to engage disadvantaged groups in decisions. Funded by AHRC and working with Burscough Community Farm CIC to capture the voices of marginalised communities to inform participatory decision-making about landscape. Public engagement activities included;
A public guided tour and workshop in partnership with Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and the Multispecies Storytelling Network.
Online and touring public exhibition – From the Land to the Sky - hosted at five sites across Lancashire, supplied for free by partners Natural England, RSPB, Wigan Council, Art Gene and included as one of the events in the 2022 Festival of National Nature Reserves to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first NNR.
Other examples of research-led PCE include
Collaborative exhibitions between the Atkinson Southport and EHU19 including We Are Not Amused!, an exhibition on Victorian Humour as part of Work in the digital humanities within AHRC's Being Human Festival. Dr Jekyll’s Study drew on work in medical humanities supported by Alcohol Research UK, to engage audiences with the medical advances of the 19thC and how literature responds to scientific progress.
Practitioner/research engagement seminar series hosted by the Centre for Protection and Safeguarding in Sport.
The use of arts the treatment of depression stakeholder events hosted by the Arts and Wellbeing Research centre and supported by AHRC.
An annual Festival of Ideas, curated by our research institutes, including our 10-minute ‘Edge Talk’ series, showcasing our world-leading research, applied to contemporary life.
Current events PCE; the pandemic led to an evolution in our approach to PCE to capture links between events and how they link to our research and associated constituents. The key driver for this was the emergence of the ISR Covid-19 blog, launched in April 2020, as a place for academics to reflect on the pandemic vis-à-vis research interests and potential impact thereon. As a public document – converted to an e-book – this rapidly became a publicly accessible living history of the pandemic. This was followed up in March 2021 with an anniversary online ‘Edge Talks’ where bloggers reflected on the pandemic a year on.
Pivoting to PCE that corresponds to current events is now part of our approach. Correspondingly we have continued to curate events with such resonance. Edge Hill’s research network SustainNET for example, curated a week-long Sustainability Festival to coincide with COP26 in November 2021. This was co-created and co-delivered by regional partners, including community groups and public sector representatives including Zero Carbon Liverpool and South Port Eco Centre, taking a thematic approach across 5 days. We have also reflected the impact of the war in Ukraine through blog pieces and expert contributions to local radio.
PCE linked to National commemoration of awareness and inclusivity.
During the reporting period, Edge Hill has also significantly increased its PCE that reflects national conversations around awareness and inclusivity. Since 2021 part of our emerging approach to PCE has been linked to national events around awareness and inclusion. Curated by the Research Institutes, Centres and the EHU EDI group, PCE around Black History Month and International Women’s Day (IWD) has grown since KEF1. This has taken range of different forms including film screening led by the International Centre on Racism and student-led/informed events, and public lectures from notables such as ISR visiting fellow and TV presenter Dr Onyeka Nubia on decolonising the curriculum. This has had more than 4500 views on the ISR YouTube channel. PCE on IWD has been led by emerging strengths in gender-centred research at Edge Hill, and supported by ISR, linked both to local partnerships, research centres and national events. Examples include an interviews with Rachel Denhollander – the gymnast who exposed the USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar – in conjunction with the Centre for Safeguarding and Protection in Sport, and local entrepreneur and CIC director Paula Gamster. These events were recorded, and available online via the ISR YouTube channel.
Widening Participation cuts across all the University, however the Arts Centre takes a leading role on this aspect with respect to PCE. The major organising principle behind The Arts Centre’s programme is to provide a high-quality, culturally diverse programme to offer EHU students, schools and colleges, and members of the public a vibrant and enriching experience of the University. The Arts Centre endeavours to bring work from companies and artists who speak to a diversity of experiences within both a national and international context. The Arts Centre works with the Widening Participation team to engage with several different student focus groups to inform and gather feedback and will convene focus groups with local schools and colleges in 22/23 to further inform future programming, to make it reflective of both curriculum and the needs young people.
Aspect 4: Enhancing practice
Public and community engagement activity is reported through the University Knowledge Exchange Committee (itself reporting to University Research and Innovation Committee) to identify and share good practice. Where public and community engagement is developed by research centres/ research institutes the review of results is undertaken via their strategic and management groups, with input from external steering groups. That led by the EDI steering group will also reflect on impact and feedback obtained from user groups. The HEBCI survey is used to record attendance and time spent.
The corporate communications and conference teams within directorate, communicate areas of best practice within PCE to the wider university as part of their regular communications bulletins.
Since KEF1 we have also trialled the use of a range of feedback mechanisms including padlet, ‘sticky note’ walls and graphic artists to both capture outcomes and feedback from events and to inform how these are shaped in the future. An example is the ISR led, co-created ‘how to do socially distanced social responsibility’ workshops. Regional third sector groups including Liverpool Blue Coat, Youth Focus North West, the APLE Collective and the Huyton Deanery shared adaptation to practice during the pandemic.
Graphic capture of workshop
The learning from these workshops was captured graphically and shared with workshop participants from which further feedback on these techniques was obtained.
As we re-imagine our PCE strategy, a more systematic approach to evaluation and impact of PCE, alongside KPIs will be realised to standardise EHU’s approach to PCE performance evaluation and impact. This will be informed by the good practice vis-à-vis consultative needs identification undertaken by the Arts Centre. This includes evidence gathering from staff and students in University departments across all three faculties, via consultation with students, gathering information via surveys, focus groups and meetings is undertaken systematically to inform programming decisions. The Arts Centre also collates systematic feedback on its programming including audience numbers. In 2019/21 attendance broke down as follows
2019 - 2021
EHU Students5797
External3620
Secondary schools1410
Total10827Aspect 5: Building on success
As part of our new KE function, opening March 2023 we will be reimagining our strategic approach to PCE.
This will include drawing from pockets of good practice that have emerged organically across EHU, vis-à-vis feedback, co-creation, engaging publics and assessment of need. This strategy will continue to be embedded within our broader widening participation ethos and reflect our world leading and internationally excellent research.
Stronger accountability mechanisms will be built into this new PCE strategy that will report through the newly established (2021/22) Knowledge Exchange Committee, and be managed through newly established, faculty-based KE and enterprise working groups (22/23). The research institutes and centres will continue to play a strong role in delivering this, but a stronger, central theme of enhanced quality, co-creation and inclusivity will pervade our PCE approach. We will also seek to embed the principles arising from the NCCPE EDGE Tool into our work.
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)