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Institutional Context
Summary
The University of Greenwich is proud of its 125-year heritage and has a long history of providing vocational training. Currently, it stands as one of the larger Universities within its peer group, approaching 20,000 on-campus students and 2,000 staff, spread across three campuses with four faculties. It has a significant TNE activity, with over 17,000 off-campus students based at over 40 overseas partner organisations. Spanning London and Kent, the University is firmly embedded in its locale but also has global impact, evidenced through THE and Guardian Awards, and 5 Queen’s Anniversary Prizes related to knowledge exchange. Research & Enterprise income stands in excess of £30M/annum, with over half of its 800-strong academic population engaged in Knowledge Exchange activity.
Institutional context
The overarching mission statement of the University explicitly supports the external exchange of knowledge via both students and staff. This is expressed within four of the seven pillars of its overarching mission statement; (i) Changing student lives through outstanding teaching and learning, (ii) Enhancing science and society through inspiring research and enterprise, (iii) Enhancing student employability to optimise prospects for graduate employment and further study and (iv) Internationalising Greenwich so that we take our place in a global society, as expressed in “Making Greenwich Great”.
A university-wide Research & Enterprise strategy, further defines that the Research, Enterprise and Knowledge Exchange (KE) activity should be;
driven by its beneficial impact in society;
extend the global reach of our reputation;
strengthen our local roots in the region;
enrich the contents of our educational programmes.
The supporting framework for KE is weaved through the fabric of the University and reflects a myriad of touchpoints between KE and academic life, spanning curriculum development through to specific project-level activity which connects the University to a wide range of sectors across the UK economy.
As a University with a heritage around vocational training and applied subjects, the University is particularly proud of its impactful KE, and its engagement with a broad spectrum of businesses, charities, sectors and industry groups. KE occurs across the entirety of the three-campus, four-Faculty structure of the University. Academics and Professional Services teams work collaboratively to identify and facilitate opportunities for KE.
The University has also developed the Generator, which is a student focused facility based at the Universities first Innovation Hub, the Powerhouse, aiming to equip students with the knowledge and skills to start their own business or social enterprise.
To aid growth, a central Research and Enterprise Training Institute (RETI) has been created to broaden staff capability, providing mentoring to drive up the capacity of the University’s KE base.
Our 4 times Queen’s Anniversary Prize winning flagship, known as the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) delivers impact with both global reach and local relevance, most succinctly evidenced via its recent E3 award to consolidate four of its core themes - Climate Change, Food Loss and Waste, Sustainable Agricultural Intensification, and Food Systems for Improved Nutrition, as well as a Strength in Places award to enhance horticulture, food and drink industries in Kent and Medway.
Based on this success, a second Institute is one year into development - The Institute for Lifecourse Development (ILD) - that represents a new focus to develop effective and economically sustainable lifecourse solutions in partnership with external stakeholders and will tackle some of the most significant challenges society currently faces.
Overall KE varies across the four faculties, in line with different subjects. Across the University, as specific examples, there are strengths in agriculture, materials, healthcare, AI & information technology. Contemporary examples of activity include the impact of home drinking, nutrition, facial recognition, global warming, evacuation modelling of buildings, social networks, inequality and growth, whistleblowing and human rights within supply chains.
For further information, please send queries to J.Bonet@gre.ac.uk
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
The University of Greenwich dates from 1890 and is proud of a long heritage. This brings an ever-present focus towards local growth and regeneration.
The university-wide Research & Enterprise strategy, outlines the approach for the University as;
strengthening our local roots in the region;
extend the global reach of our reputation;
With 60% of our students joining us via our local boroughs, we further strengthen our local roots via our long-standing strong relationships with a broad range of external stakeholders relative to our campuses in both Kent and London. Our global presence is further represented by a strong network of national and international relationships. Our approach is to play our part in a strong ecosystem for growth.
Aspect 1: Strategy
The University of Greenwich has three campuses located in both London and Kent which brings a unique dimension to the institution in terms of geography. Locally, the Royal Borough of Greenwich plays host to two of the Universities campuses with Medway in Kent hosting the third. The surrounding London Boroughs of Greenwich, Bexley, Bromley and Lewisham and the county of Kent are key areas in terms of student recruitment.
Strategically the wider area of South East London is also important as it is well positioned close to the Square Mile, Canary Wharf and recent innovative tech spaces such as at Stratford. Whilst the immediate local area to Greenwich has a large base of micro, small and medium sized businesses, many companies are active in the food sector as the visitor economy represents around 20 million visits per year.
Medway in Kent, host of the University’s third campus, forms part of “The Universities at Medway” a unique partnership between the University of Greenwich, Canterbury Christ Church University, and the University of Kent. Established in 2004, it has grown to welcome more than 10,000 students to its campus each year.
Within Kent, most businesses are micro, small and medium sized with strong representation in construction, engineering and the scientific sectors, hence our Engineering and Science Faculty is located here. Kent itself forms a key part of the South East Local Economic Area. The local growth and regeneration need of the areas immediately local to the campus in Medway are also typified by those of micro, small and medium sized organisations.
In order to play a strong role in the ecosystem of the relevant areas and keep pace with the ever-changing needs, key stakeholder relationships have been formed and maintained.
Working closely with the councils at both Medway and Greenwich, the University is also a highly active member of the South East Chamber of Commerce, an active member of the Kent Invicta Chamber and a member of the London Chamber of Commerce. These key relationships generate continuous insight into the growth and regeneration needs of the areas. Additionally, the University participates in several Business Awards both in Kent and Greenwich, sponsoring a category via the Royal Borough of Greenwich in 2020. A further key activity is participation on the Board of Visit Greenwich.
As well as multiple other touchpoints into the local areas, the University actively networks with other Higher Education Institutions such as the U9 concentration of Universities in the South East Region and the University Alliance and Universities UK on a national level which provides insight into the broader growth and regeneration landscape.
As an active member of the U9 Universities in the South East, Greenwich also represents the HEI’s within this area on the South East Local Economic Partnership Accountability Board as the HE representative which provides a further conduit between the HEI’s and the Region.
Beyond the local and regional areas, the University of Greenwich has a strong national presence and partners with businesses and organisations located throughout the United Kingdom as part of its research and other commercial activities. Furthermore, around 20% of the student base originates from across the country, and we have a portfolio of apprenticeships across different sectors.
Greenwich also places strategic importance on international relationships and developing countries, for example, from its base at the Medway Campus, the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) engages in world-leading research and development projects across the globe.
This global presence is now being reinforced in Medway through a consortium project funded through Strength in Places, demonstrating the global to local synergy in much of our KE activity.
Aspect 2: Activity
The focus of our approach to local growth and regeneration and activities vary based on the needs of the geographic area,
Locally our focus has been to ensure we have strong relationships with our local councils, chambers of commerce, local economic partnerships, growth hubs and regional networks and to work alongside these to understand, develop and deliver support and solutions for external stakeholders as they aim to grow and develop.
Our approach in all our geographic areas of interest, has consistently centred around finding pathways and partnerships to apply research via the sharing, transferring and exchanging of knowledge. These pathways are often specific to the geography and sector in question.
The University has invested in these activities year on year in the form of a team of Enterprise Development Managers who act as the interface between the Faculties and their respective academics and the external ecosystem. These managers take their direction from the overarching Research and Enterprise Strategy. Furthermore, the University have invested in the training of both academic and Professional Services staff and additionally in the development of a built asset, an Innovation Hub known as the Powerhouse. This provides a space for student start-up businesses, enabling them to locate and grow in the area local to the University.
Resources have also been invested to provide workshops for local businesses and organisations to train and develop new business skills, such as in Social Media.
As the local geographic areas in both Medway and the Royal Borough of Greenwich are heavily dominated by micro, small and medium sized businesses, the University strategically targets those businesses to participate in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP’s). Investment has been made over the past several years to support this activity via dedicated resources.
The University has successfully secured significant funding and multiple grants to support its activities with many examples of successful academic knowledge exchange benefitting local growth and regeneration. A significant proportion of this funding comes from philanthropic sources, reflecting and underlining the nature of the funded KE driven research.
Aspect 3: Results
The outcomes and impacts vary across each type of intervention as University expertise is applied to supporting growth and facilitating regeneration.
Results are used to inform, and drive future research and interventions and communication channels are both above and below the line as appropriate, delivered to a wide audience including project stakeholders.
Outcomes are often realised in one locale but developed further to benefit another.
Reflecting the complex geography of our regions of interests, the following are examples of outcomes and impact generated by the University; local, national and international;
The University has facilitated multiple successful Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP’s).
Transforming Systems was a company started by three people in the Royal Borough of Greenwich in 2010. With support from the University, two KTP’s and Keep Plus funding, the company developed a suite of software applications, which integrate data from multiple agencies in health environments, including several category 1 responders (such as ambulance service and acute hospitals). Transforming Systems played a role during COVID-19, to identify a solution in order to reduce the load on the UK health care system. When acquired in 2020 by a Canadian Corporation (VitalHub), the staff base had grown to over 40 people, who remain in Greenwich.
A two-and-a-half-year long KTP funded project with London Mutual Credit Union (LMCU) and the Business Faculty, concluded in May 2017. LMCU is a not-for-profit savings and loans cooperative and wanted to add a new mortgage product into their product range, and required the development of the infrastructure for risk assessment and the regulatory compliance capability to support housing finance business, sales of mortgages and attract deposits from new and existing members of LMCU. Tailoring its provision to offer innovative and regulatory compliant products, it was able to promote home ownership & inclusion in local communities. Since the project ended, LMCU staff now train other credit unions on quality regulatory compliance practices throughout the Southeast region, has seen increases in its membership by some 50% and 20% in its loan book.
On a national scale, literacy aspirations of young school populations need to be raised, especially when English is not the mother tongue and learners are being educated in English. Teachers need training to address issues rooted in language difficulties and there was a need to understand the interface between history, society and literature. A range of activities delivered impactful research to address these needs including public symposia, festivals, and continuous professional development (CPD) sessions.
Similarly, another local issue but a national problem is domestic abuse, gang culture and county lines relating to the movement of drugs by vulnerable youth from urban areas to county towns. The County Lines Professional Training Programme was launched in 2018 which focuses on indicators to identify vulnerable children targeted by gangs, and on how multiple agencies can deal with this important issue – the work continues to have significant national impact.
Within Kent, construction is one of the primary sectors. Processes were developed to manage the reaction of CO2 with reactive minerals, to produce engineered materials with value for use in construction. This example of the application of research has had significant success via commercialization of innovative low-CO2 technology to produce carbon negative construction materials, involving a number of successful patent applications and ultimately spinning out a multi-award winning company (Carbon8 Systems – C8S; and Carbon8 Aggregates - C8A, now rebranded as OCO, with 90% ownership by Grundon Waste Management (GWM)). Impact was worldwide as the significance of the innovation, it’s benefits to the environment, and its commercialisation opportunities have been recognised. This example demonstrates the value of spin outs from academic research and is communicated through several channels and Business Events in order to encourage industry - academia partnerships.
One multi-geography project had several aims:
encourage social enterprise and entrepreneurship in geographically and socially isolated regions in Northern Europe, which require non-typical economic models informed by local people, who understand the problems. The University designed an easy-to-access, friendly-to-use and simple-to-navigate pedagogically innovative learning toolkit; and
investigate ways of improving the competitiveness of traditional markets as well as their role in enhancing the tourism destination attractiveness of their host towns and cities in the south and east of England (e.g. Basildon, Gravesend, Great Yarmouth, Canvey Island, Castle Point, Hadleigh) as well as northern France (e.g. Amiens, Caen, Lumbres). This includes the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on these markets, their customer base and visitors to their host town centres.
As part of the wider regeneration strategies currently under way in these locations, the reach of this project will extend further to all of England through collaboration with one of the project’s key partners – NMTF (formerly known as National Market Traders Federation). A suite of business support resources (online and face to face) has been created for traditional markets, including customer service training (online and face-to-face workshops), online and social media marketing, finance management, and tourism promotion (online and physical) interventions. Impact was shared with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Markets at the Houses of Parliament in November 2019. Public and community groups served by this project include traditional market traders, disadvantaged groups in society who are often loyal customers of traditional markets, residents of relevant towns and cities, local businesses within a 500-metre radius of the market and visitors to town centres.
The Natural Resources Institute (NRI) of the University of Greenwich is a leader in natural resources research. NRI's presence and partnerships in developing countries, and its training and capacity building programmes, provide the platform for the Institute to develop and disseminate key technologies and knowledge. This has resulted in substantial impact at farmer and community level and has made significant contributions to the international research community. Much of the work also involves interaction and application in the developed world as evidenced by a Strength in Places award in 2020.
NRI’s mission is rooted in promoting economic growth in vulnerable and deprived communities in Africa through agricultural development. The approach is to apply science in the context of demand – demand from those who produce (smallholder farmers in the main) and consume (the market). Cognisant of the nutritional and social impact of our activities, we have developed an approach which combines physical with social science. Working in teams, with partners overseas, we promote change through community mobilization. This is best seen in our world-recognised work on roots and tubers, mainly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, since 2008.
For further information, please send queries to vice-chancellor@gre.ac.uk
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
The University of Greenwich is proud of its 125-year heritage and our civic role influenced by impactful knowledge exchange and research that reflects the needs of the public in our local, regional and global communities.
Our civic commitment is core to three strategy layers - Making Greenwich Great II (2017-22), the Research and Enterprise Strategy (2016-21) and the Communications and Engagement Strategy (2018-22). Together, this framework guides an approach that seeks input from community partners and ensures that outcomes and impact are shared back into our communities.
We further drive impact by a series of activities, events and interventions around the application of our research, a key contributor to a strong and engaged ecosystem.
Aspect 1: Strategy
The Communications and Engagement Strategy (2018-22) outlines our civic responsibility to deliver multi-sectoral, multi-channel community and public engagement with specific reference to knowledge exchange:
Community and Public Engagement Objectives
To raise awareness of the University’s research and enterprise work to demonstrate the impact that we are making within our communities.
To build long term relationships with key stakeholders including schools, colleges, charities, employers, businesses and alumni so that the University of Greenwich is embedded as part of the community ecosystem. This includes working with our communities to understand their needs and build knowledge exchange activity around these, as well as building social capital that is collectively able to solve societal challenges.
These high-level objectives are delivered through a range of key activities which include:
Knowledge sharing; via our network of knowledge experts, including alumni, to contribute to, and share their expertise and insights, that outline community need.
Promotion and delivery of a wide range of community events: inviting stakeholders, including relevant communities into the university to foster knowledge exchange opportunities as well as celebrating success.
Presentations, workshops, lectures and advisory meetings take place regularly with the public as well as interest groups.
“Local” community groups, particularly schools, are also identified for focused activity to understand and address their needs and open a pathway to and from the University, whether those local communities are situated in London or Africa.
Public relations work to profile our knowledge exchange work and partnerships so that they are featured within local, regional and sector specific press, and our communities can share our pride in the impact of our work.
Driven by the overarching principles of the Making Greenwich Great, the University of Greenwich has deployed its internal resource to:
Facilitate opportunities for sector experts to ensure that their knowledge exchange activities are founded upon local, regional and national needs, often facilitated by our active involvement in advisory groups, professional bodies, funding opportunities and working with councils, local economic partnerships and the chambers of commerce.
Ensure that projects undertaken are informed by the needs of the sectors they represent.
Proactively recruit academic staff that are committed to the application of their research including their potential to contribute to wider societal needs, for example, in food security or climate change.
Formal internal processes at an institutional, project and individual level helps us to identify, prioritise and allocate resources (including staff time) to scholarly activities and projects.
Our primary knowledge exchange activity is managed and monitored by the university’s Research and Enterprise Committee which ensures that our work is fit for purpose and in line with our strategic goals.
Aspect 2: Support
The University of Greenwich provides a range of practical support to ensure that our knowledge exchange activity is inbuilt to our wider strategic goals.
Stakeholder mapping and analysis at corporate level is provided by the University’s Communications and Recruitment Directorate. University Leaders are aligned to strategic partners including community groups, local councils, the chambers of commerce and the local enterprise partnerships.
The Communications and Recruitment Directorate conducts surveys, analyses feedback and takes part in national research to understand the needs of young people, including their desire for enterprise related skills and demand for sector specific qualifications or skills.
Our Public Relations team works on a business partner model to foster relationships internally and matches these to media or local community activities.
A team of events planners produce an annual schedule of lectures, seminars, talks, events, festivals, conferences, community partnerships and interaction with community groupings such as schools, business and our alumni.
Each Faculty works directly with stakeholders to create and deliver continuous professional development programmes and short courses, often cocreated with external partners, for example, enhanced clinical skills work for the NHS.
Strategic Advisory Boards operate at Faculty level with representation from external stakeholders such as NHS Trusts, the Royal Engineers, businesses and FE providers.
A team of Enterprise Development Managers has been created to connect with local community stakeholders and link our academic expertise to relevant partnership funding opportunities.
The University works alongside the European Enterprise Network (EEN) and their Growth Advisors seeking to maximise the impact of University/external stakeholder partnerships.
Our public and community engagement is also delivered via the application of research and the University provides support to its academic staff to succeed in this in the form of a team of Research Development Officers, with capability enhancing activities arranged through the Research and Enterprise Training Institute.
The University holds a series of Awards and Competitions to recognise and reward success, such as the Enterprise Challenge for Students within the Generator which has a Social Stream category.
Furthermore, the University’s career progression pathways explicitly recognise and incentivise KE activity where public and community engagement is linked to career promotion.
The University also operates an award-winning Legal Advice Centre. Trained student advisers work closely with volunteer lawyers to provide free legal advice to clients.
Members of the community can access our broader expertise via our website.
In addition, we communicate via social media platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn which see high levels of engagement. For example, our LinkedIn account has almost 130,000 followers.
Aspect 3: Activity
Our academic and professional services teams have worked in tandem to ensure that all our engagement programmes are co-created based upon the needs of the relevant community or academic interest group, are promoted extensively and participation levels are monitored by both faculty leadership teams, project sponsors and project managers. University-level performance indicators have seen notable growth in areas such as levels of funding and number of collaborators, new partnerships, output generation and staff engagement with KE.
Examples include, spanning from local and international reach:
GREat Talks, which are free public lectures, held once a month by the Faculty of Engineering and Science on the Medway Campus.
The Pint of Science event involves academics giving short, interesting presentations on their work in a pub, aimed at the General Public.
The Big Picture Seminars are a series of free public guest seminars, given by industry professionals from a variety of fields. They share their expertise on a range of topics – from entrepreneurialism, leadership and management to financial forecasting, the economic climate and the media today. The programme has attracted local communities as well as students.
Our Generator (previously known as the i3 centre) aims to inspire and encourage students and graduates, nurturing entrepreneurship. The centre regularly runs events to engage with students and alumni community who are interested in developing entrepreneur skills and starting up their own businesses.
The University has an ongoing Community Partnership with a local Football Club, Charlton Athletic and the Community Trust. This involves research, student-focused enterprise events, subsidised tickets, student internships and volunteering.
A strategy exists to support and engage with local schools and the Greenwich Governors Initiative supports the local community in South East London & Kent to recruit and support school governors, through events, community engagement and training.
A significant annual event is The Greenwich Book Festival, inclusive, diverse, welcoming to all ages and affordable with open access to the site, free activities and low-cost events as part of its rich mix of programming. The site is fully accessible to those with disabilities. The Friday schools programme is fully sponsored and works with state primary schools across the Borough of Greenwich at no cost to their school or parents.
The Open European Societies project led to a co-produced Conference in September 2018, which engaged 120 people. The Project (extended for 24 months) works with 8 other countries and 11 other organisations to look at migration and its impact (rise) of xenophobia and racism.
Employees in healthcare laboratories, were identified as a community who needed evidence of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for state registration to be maintained. CPD training needs were identified by meetings with a consortium, members of which were bound by an agreement to manage Intellectual Property. A long list of training courses was identified from which 7 courses were selected for development over the period 2017-2020. Nearly 80 professionals benefitted from the training.
Supporting policies and practice aimed at mitigating at-risk drinking within the communities of Greenwich Borough and beyond. Since 2016, a Greenwich academic has been collaborating with the Royal Borough of Greenwich Public Health department to assist in incorporating his research into at-risk drinking to the borough’s Alcohol Strategy and applying it to mitigation approaches.
Stimulating public awareness, understanding and interest in super-recogniser facial identification and its role in effective application of the law. Research into face recognition in CCTV footage initially on Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officers, focused on testing for those individuals who are classed as super-recognisers (defined by exceptional unfamiliar face memory and matching ability). The aim was to apply the skills of such officers to enhance suspect identification and increase the rate of accurate prosecution and sentencing. The establishment of tests and protocols for identifying super-recognisers in the police was subsequently extended to a number of international police forces, as well as members of the general public for the purposes of further research and public engagement.
Developing an understanding of human behaviour associated with evacuation modelling continues to save lives through use in design of safer aircraft, ships and buildings, and relies on strong engagement with the public. A critical element is around educating the public on the risks associated with fire and evacuation. These public engagement activities have also included a number of TV and radio programmes - to inform future industrial partners, relevant fire-safety advisers and practitioners, as well as policy makers.
Delivering benefits from a myriad of activities is a key focus for the University.
Aspect 4: Results and learning
Strategic objectives are defined in the Making Greenwich Great strategy, further quantified in several regularly reviewed KPIs. Public and community engagement activity is reviewed through a variety of reporting structures at both project, faculty and University levels. Each stage reviews whether the strategic objectives have been achieved, and incorporated into subsequent, tangential and peripheral activity.
Reflecting the KE incentivisation ethos of the University, successful projects are celebrated at University level with regular profiling on internal communication channels, annual awards and are frequently recognised through career progression of the colleagues involved. The Governing Body receives annual reports on Research, Enterprise and KE activity in its broadest sense, set into the context of the University’s KPIs and wider aspirations. These KPIs iteratively reformulate the underlying strategies that shape resource allocation and aspirations at the level of the individual.
Operationally, the Communications Teams provides reporting on the coverage secured by knowledge exchange projects on a weekly basis and work with partners to maximise our media coverage and associated impact.
External indicators of success are aggregated from the project level reviews, in terms of the entire body of knowledge exchange and impact generated, most easily measured in terms of traditional “hard” parameters – publications and other outputs, citations, conference attendance, income – as well as more recent softer parameters such as web traffic and social media profiles.
Many lessons are being learnt in pivoting to a more agile KE-rich institution. Internal resource has been refocused to specifically obtain closer oversight of University-level impact, set in context of the wider research and education ecosystem, as shaped by national priorities. This is an area where Greenwich seeks to develop further.
Aspect 5: Acting on results
The University of Greenwich has a diverse portfolio of KE-generating activity. Appropriately aggregated, this performance is reviewed through the Governing Body and used to inform the future overall strategic direction of the University, as well as at a Faculty level. Such interventions typically operate over a 5-year cycle.
Results of individual projects are shared with relevant stakeholders and our external communications are delivered via multiple channels.
Alongside this, the University constantly and organically evolves its projects and activity to reflect the needs of its communities, driven to a large part by the changing national environment, in turn shaped by Government policy. Drivers such as the Industrial Strategy, or societal influence e.g. provision of non-degree learning opportunities, will continue to shape the outcomes and benefits Greenwich delivers.
For further information, please send queries to vice-chancellor@gre.ac.uk