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Institutional Context
Summary
Our mission at Bradford is to drive sustainable social and economic development through outstanding teaching, research and innovation. Our vision is a world of inclusion and equality of opportunity where people want to, and can, make a difference. We want to be known as the place to be to make that difference.
Our new Business and Community Engagement strategy governs our knowledge exchange activities. These will establish Bradford as a university city, which shares knowledge to improve health, wealth and confidence in the communities we touch.
Driven by values of excellence, inclusion, innovation and trust, we will build on the strengths described in these narratives to reduce health inequalities, grow knowledge-rich employment and develop leaders for Bradford and the world.
Institutional context
The University of Bradford was founded in 1966, with the motto “to give invention light”. With origins in the Bradford Mechanics Institute and located at the epicentre of the Industrial Revolution, our academic development has always been weighted towards applied and vocational subjects and a necessity to engage with communities outside academia.
The pioneering drive in the District’s culture is reflected in our institution’s history: we opened the UK’s first university business school and its first Peace Studies programme; we developed person-centred care for dementia patients as a concept for evidence-led improvement and care quality assurance. A more poignant link was the establishment of our Centre for Skin Sciences in alliance with the Bradford Royal Infirmary’s Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit following the Valley Parade disaster, initiating a scholarly legacy that continues to grow today.
Our current strategy reflects these connections with place and our institutional strengths. We want to enable people to make a difference; our District is rich with challenges to tackle, and our strengths in applied research and inclusive education represent capability and capacity to solve all manner of problems.
Over the last four years, our Institutional Knowledge Exchange Strategy (IKES) has provided a framework for knowledge exchange that focused mainly on developing relationships to stimulate innovation. We have deepened our local strategic engagement and grown operational partnerships across our three academic themes: Health and Care; the Engineered Environment; and Sustainable Societies.
For example, our alliance with local NHS and government has never been stronger. The Bradford Institute for Health Research at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is a research organisation of the highest quality and we are proud to partner with BIHR and the University of Leeds in the Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research. In digital and manufacturing innovation, we delivered as many SME-led projects for the Leeds City Region Growth Service’s Access Innovation programme as the other contributing HEI providers combined. Leaders from our institution have taken key leadership positions in the region, including membership of the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership Board and chair of the post-COVID-oriented Bradford Economic Recovery Board.
Thus, we are well-positioned to embark on a new Business and Community Engagement strategy to govern our knowledge exchange activities to 2025. These will establish Bradford as a university city, which shares knowledge to improve health, wealth and confidence in the communities we touch.
This strategy is centred on people and values of excellence, inclusion, innovation and trust. We aim to reduce Bradford’s health inequalities locally and share lessons learned globally; to create and fill knowledge-rich jobs, growing productivity and incomes; to show leadership and to develop future leaders for Bradford and the world, fostering pride in our city and the difference we make.
For further information, please send queries to Associate Director, Research & Innovation
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
Our new Business and Community Engagement strategy envisions Bradford as a university city, sharing knowledge to grow the health, wealth and confidence of all our communities.
The size and diversity of our communities are such that we achieve global impact, rooted in local engagement and local action, thanks to strong partnerships. These we have developed, nurtured and enhanced over the last three years under our Institutional Knowledge Exchange Strategy 2016-2020.
Our updated approach is centred on people and values of excellence, inclusion, innovation and trust: we aim to reduce health inequalities; to create and fill knowledge-rich jobs; to show leadership and to develop future leaders for Bradford and the world.
Aspect 1: Strategy
Bradford is a city with a large, young and diverse population, at the heart of West Yorkshire and the Leeds City Region. Our university’s approach to knowledge exchange (KE) for local growth and regeneration is mainly directed towards improving this part of the North of England.
That said, we are an institution that is international in outlook and activity, with a long history of applied research and KE supporting development across the UK and worldwide. Our international engagement is driven by individual academics and research groups. The institution’s strategic position is not to be directive in terms of geography, but rather to provide a supportive environment that enables freedom of engagement.
Our academic provision – both research and education – is a mix of largely applied and vocational subjects, which translates into significant problem-solving capability; most of our externally-funded research activity involves non-academic partners. This profile explains our high levels of intellectual property (IP) commercialisation activity relative to research.
This is the context for our new business and community engagement strategy and its ambition to make Bradford known as a university city. This is rooted in the strength of our interactions with health and care systems, industry (especially digital and manufacturing sectors) and civil society in Bradford and beyond. It builds on our Institutional Knowledge Exchange Strategy (IKES) 2016-2020, which prioritised the development of good relationships as the key to innovation.
Through our partnerships, we have identified shared goals of improving health, wealth and confidence in Bradford. These align with the growth and regeneration agenda through collaborative research, inclusive workforce development, enterprise and entrepreneurship and IP commercialisation, with the implications of the coronavirus shock front-and-centre in our planning.
We identify specific needs within this agenda per programme and per project, such as West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s (WYCA) Access Innovation, our ERDF-funded Project CAYMAN, the NHS-led Bradford District & Craven Digital Programme or our Digital Health Enterprise Zone (DHEZ).
Aspect 2: Activity
IKES provided the framework for HEIF-financed activities over the last three years. We aimed to drive innovation by growing capacities for partnership development and by commercialising our IP. Our partnership development has four dimensions: business development; themed innovation hubs; research groups and centres; corporate engagement.
Other KE activities with impact on local growth and regeneration took place independently of HEIF, including enterprise and entrepreneurship training and continuing professional development (CPD) education in our themes of healthcare, engineering and sustainable societies.
Around 70% of our graduates find employment in West Yorkshire, with 76% of those entering at professional and managerial level. A vital part of our offer to students and the regional economy is our engagement with employers.
Partnership development:
Our business development efforts delivered a high proportion of our HEBCIS-monitored contract research activity over the last three years, much of which met local growth ambitions. For example, Access Innovation, a WYCA-run subsidy programme for SME-commissioned innovation projects, saw Bradford undertake as many projects as the other HEI contributors combined. Such activity – also including non-subsidised contract research, collaborative research, KTP and consultancy – met local growth needs insofar as contractual agreement and delivery with local firms represent validation of the same.
In IKES, we described DHEZ as our archetypal themed innovation hub: a location for convening communities of interest and practice around a theme. It was a model for developing analogous capacity in other domains. Impact in relation to both business benefit and academic development has fallen short of ambitions to date, but the concept resonates. We have reimagined DHEZ as a community of innovation, with less reliance on physical space. We sold one of its two buildings to Bradford Council; the anchor tenant has recently secured accreditation as Impact Hub Bradford.
At least three analogous communities are now taking shape. Our School of Management has established an Innovation Hub for community organisations and student entrepreneurs, featuring a Faculty Community Fellowship programme and Amazon Web Services training accreditation. Our Analytical Centre has secured ERDF investment in Project CAYMAN, providing access to and training on “Chemistry Assets for Yorkshire MANufacturers”. Our Computing Enterprise Centre delivered many of our Access Innovation projects.
Our research groups and centres attract partners on the basis of quality and capacity; several contribute to local growth and regeneration. We highlight three here.
Visualising Heritage applies 3D data-capture, VR processing and anthropological interpretation strengths to digitise landscapes, buildings and artefacts, preserving heritage and culture in accessible ways. We captured the long-derelict local landmark, the Bradford Odeon, at the outset of its regeneration into the Bradford Live venue, for example, and we have similarly catalogued many sporting venues across the District.
The Centre for Pharmaceutical Engineering Science (CPES) is highly-regarded in the fields of crystal engineering and powder processing, applied to pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and other formulations. CPES has supported local manufacturers to improve their own processes and to translate university inventions into commercial use.
Alongside Bradford Institute for Health Research and University of Leeds in the Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research, we undertake pioneering work in patient safety, elderly care and child health. More than 10% of Bradford’s 540,000 residents are participants in research of international importance. We continue to develop methods for engaging the communities of our “city of research” in co-producing studies that address stark, local health inequalities and the associated economic disadvantages.
Our corporate engagement includes strategic partnership and careers and employability work. Working with, for example, the Bradford District & Craven Digital Programme on our People First Digital First strategy aligns us within one of the most progressive health systems in the country. Such connections enabled our coronavirus response, as healthcare students started careers early, our Advanced Materials Engineering team ramped up PPE production with local partners and our digital media students provided communications collateral to the Bradford NHS and beyond.
IP:
Our ambitions for commercialising inventions are limited by modest scale as a research institution. Our technology transfer pipeline handles ~2x the disclosure and patenting activity of the EU average, leading to one spin-out and 3 substantial rights deals in the last three years.
We prioritise local growth impacts in formulating our IP deals. For example, one of our new licences is with a local CPES client. A 10-year first-option deal with our spin-out Incanthera on selected Institute for Cancer Therapeutics research underpinned their February flotation; the revenues fund a doctoral centre in the Institute. Our most recent spin-out, SarGard, is to base itself in DHEZ.
We are partners in the HEIF CCF programme, Grow MedTech, which supports innovation in Leeds City Region’s medical technologies sector. Only the lead partner has developed more translational projects than us through this programme.
Enterprise and entrepreneurship:
Our enterprise and entrepreneurship activity, while small in scale in recent years, features two initiatives of some distinction that impact on local growth and regeneration.
The Bradford Graduate Entrepreneur programme aims to attract overseas talent to support the development of our region. Bradford is the first UK university authorised to endorse overseas entrepreneurs for all relevant visa types: Start-up, Innovator and Settlement. The programme builds on the Accelerated Student Enterprise Programme which took over 100 home and international students from enterprise idea to investment-readiness within 4 months.
The Working Academy (WA) brokers web design and multimedia content production projects with mainly public-sector partners for delivery by students. WA has worked on many NHS projects over recent years, with 2020 products including the People First Digital First website and several communications tools to support the NHS pandemic response. The holistic project delivery experience prepares students for their likely careers as free-lancers or in small agencies in West Yorkshire.
CPD, networks:
We provide post-registration education and training for clinical staff across Yorkshire and Humber, including specialist skills and Advanced Practitioner programmes. For example, our Advanced Practice Radiographic Reporting programme attracts radiographers nationally to study with the originating researchers; our critical care team provided on-line learning and face-to-face training for hospital staff during COVID-19 preparations; Health Education England’s national programme of on-line dementia care training was created by the Centre for Applied Dementia Studies and we continue to maintain and develop this provision.
The School of Management undertakes wide-ranging business engagement activities. The Knowledge Transfer Network, for example, offers monthly networking opportunities, peer-to-peer learning and access to Bradford’s capabilities to thousands of members.
Our CPD offer in engineering extends beyond Bradford to the global advanced manufacturing sector. Our long-standing contribution to Jaguar Land Rover’s Technical Accreditation Scheme, through which we train scores of engineers p.a. in quality systems, gives us international profile in this area. We are now to adapt this provision for an international consortium of automotive and aerospace manufacturers.
Employer engagement
Our Career and Employer Services offer an extensive range of free services for employers. Our vacancy service promotes 2,500+ jobs every year and provides a tailored recruitment service to many local and regional employers. We organise 6,500+ placements across the region each year. Employers actively engage in our weekly programme of employability workshops and curriculum activities, supporting students to develop their understanding of career opportunities, business sectors, and their skills and networks. Many employers participate in our Bradford Mentoring Programme as part of their staff CPD activities.
The Service proactively participates in strategic developments. For example, the SkillsHouse Partnership focuses on enabling the economic recovery of Bradford by providing services to business and the unemployed and the One Workforce project addresses the workforce needs of the health and care sectors across the District. We are central to the Inclusive Employer Network, developing and sharing best practice in inclusive approaches to workforce recruitment and development.
Aspect 3: Results
Outcome and impact monitoring and attribution is highly challenging in the field of local growth and regeneration. We monitor project outputs closely, but only rarely draw explicit links between outputs and wider impacts.
Under our institution’s first-ever business and community engagement strategy 2020-2025, we will address this by choosing a small number of local macreconomic indicators to monitor as gauges of Bradford’s progress towards our vision of recognition as a university city. These will include measures of health inequality and employment profile. We will consider how our future activities should affect such indicators and test those logic models when reviewing project benefits.
Over the last three years, the outcomes and impacts of our activities have been reflected in: the stories we tell about them; the progressive strengthening of our partnerships across the city and region and the improvements made to our business processes.
Our direct impact on the local economy was estimated earlier this year by UCU at £120m p.a. through employing 1,260 people and underpinning an additional 840 jobs in the District.
Our news pages contain many stories that highlight our influence, such as engagement with local firm TF Automation, new businesses created by student entrepreneurs, or our impact on renewable energy in Nigeria.
Almost all of our REF2014 impact case studies referenced the city, a pattern that is likely to be repeated in REF2021.
Our progressively stronger engagement is evident at senior level in the appointments in the last year of the Vice-Chancellor to the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership Board, as Chair of Yorkshire Universities, and as co-chair of the Bradford District Health and Social Care Economic Partnership (HSCEP) Board. Furthermore, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Innovation and Quality) has become Chair of the Bradford COVID-19 Economic Recovery Board. Operationally, the planned location of the HSCEP delivery team on the University campus adds to our similar support for the UNESCO City of Film office, BBC Radio Leeds and the Bradford Literature Festival organisation.
Finally, in learning lessons from our activities, we have improved the processes and systems that support engagement with partners. This includes the introduction of a new project development process, implementation of a Research Information System, and a review of our consultancy procedure over the last two years.
All-in-all, we are a university that sets out to make a difference. The results of our last three years of local growth and regeneration activity position us well to launch our new business and community engagement strategy, in the pioneering, proud, productive, university city of Bradford.
For further information, please send queries to j.bridgeman@bradford.ac.uk
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
Our public and community engagement (PCE) has taken various forms over the last decade, from an original focus on lifelong learning targeted at local deprived communities, to increasing dialogue between different communities and, latterly, a collaborative and reciprocal approach in delivering festivals, events and campaigns to create opportunities to share our knowledge and expertise for the betterment of our civic partners and communities.
The intended outcomes are to enthuse communities on key themes such as STEM and health; increase understanding on key values such as equality, diversity and inclusion; and improve social mobility. Our University’s aspiration is to be central in creating health, wealth and confidence for all and to improve our profile and interactions amongst key communities.
Aspect 1: Strategy
The University’s Business and Community Engagement strategy is a pillar of the new University Strategy 2020-2025. PCE features in the strategy’s priorities, objectives and associated key performance indicators. Its vision is that Bradford becomes a university city, where we share knowledge to strengthen health, wealth and confidence across the communities in which our staff, students and alumni participate.
The strategy’s consultation process (both within the university and external) has enabled varying forms of interactions reaching the public in a refreshed approach. Consulting with civic institutions (NHS, Council, 3rd Sector) as well as community representatives has consolidated PCE to be at the heart of the University’s strategic direction. PCE plays a central role in senior leaders’ and academics’ remit which will be reflected in workload allocation and performance objectives.
A strategy implementation plan is being developed which will provide clear governance and planning structures as well the appropriate resources to ensure activity can happen. Central to the strategy is a gateway for the public so that engagement is more porous. Currently the route into the University is through key relationships, whereby activities or opportunities are cascaded to relevant departments. Furthermore, there are engagement opportunities through the programmes and services we provide such as Law Clinic, Eye Clinic, Physiotherapy Clinic and Management School programmes open to the general public. These services are promoted in different ways through outreach, promotional and referral mechanisms.
Aspect 2: Support
The University has accessed the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement and the Civic University Network for support over recent years, which have provided benchmark information as well as insight into best practice. The University is participating in the Engage Academy and is part of the Public Engagement Professionals Network, accessing learning opportunities, mentor and advisors to improve effectiveness in PCE. The University is a signatory of the Manifesto for Public Engagement pledging our support and commitment to public engagement at Bradford.
The Conversation works with the University to support academics to write for the general public. We have training courses on communication skills, media training, presentation skills which also aid the development of public engagement skills.
It is recognised that the University’s PCE virtual presence through social media and web is limited and this is being rectified. However, internally, the value of PCE is being elevated through the Vice-Chancellor and senior team’s promotion of it through dedicated university talks on community engagement. Recognition for staff and student contribution to PCE is becoming more frequent, with annual awards for Excellence and for Outstanding Achievement.
Finally, the University involves the public more formally in its advisory groups and governance roles by having lay Council members who participate in high level committees, community representatives in University Court, Community Fellows in Faculty level activities, and industry partner representatives who sit on our industry advisory boards. The number engaging with PCE is therefore sizable. This, together with the financial support we provide to sponsor key city campaigns and initiatives (such as Tech Week, Manufacturing Week, Bradford Science Festival, Bradford Literature Festival and Bradford 2025), constitutes a strong commitment to PCE.
Aspect 3: Activity
A diverse range of activity comes under our PCE banner which centres on collaboration and reciprocal engagement. Some activity is project based such as our enterprise development programme (called Amaze Yourself) in enabling young unemployed people to set up their own businesses, whereas some activity is service based such as the facilities we provide for the community in the Digital Health Enterprise Zone (Eye clinic, Physiotherapy clinic, Phlebotomy lab) and the Law clinic and Innovation Hub. The University also has a long history of public lectures and seminars that creates platforms for difficult conversations or complex research activity made simple. Our Theatre in the Mill is a hub for creative practice based on representation, diversity and inclusion giving a voice to less heard communities which transforms their creative practice.
One example that is driven by our University vision of a world of inclusion and equality of opportunity where people want to, and can, make a difference, is the world leading work in our Centre for Applied Dementia Studies (CADS). Its research improves the lives of people affected by dementia and has been named as one of the UK's 100 best breakthroughs for its significant impact on people's everyday lives. Person-centred dementia care has formed the basis for the observational tool and practice development methodology, Dementia Care Mapping (DCM). It provides practitioners with a common framework and language to record the experience of care from the perspective of the person with dementia. CADS deliver public events for enhancing public understanding, patient involvement in designing and developing research, stakeholder and international advisory groups and outreach activities such as the Dementia Detectives.
The Building Resilience Through Heritage project (BReaTHe) harnessed virtual reality (VR) technology to help Syrian refugees in Jordan connect with their homeland. Syrian heritage and culture has been under threat because of the conflict in the region. Through BReaTHe Syrian refugees were able to contribute their ideas about places they consider are part of their heritage including historic sites, market places and a typical Syrian house. The University digitally captured and recreated some of that heritage using VR and delivered festivals in two camps that provided the refugees with the opportunity to experience the VR technology. The impact has involved running focus groups and public engagement activities around the UK.
We also work in partnership on large scale city initiatives or campaigns as mentioned in Aspect 2, all of which are based on reciprocity, mutual benefit and value for all. The University uses its assets in terms of facilities, academic expertise, and student body to support these initiatives which engage the wider public to participate in life enhancing experiences.
Finally, we have leading academics who play a role in promoting PCE, one in fact runs their own radio programme ‘Research Matters’ on local community radio stations showcasing our research activities in simple and authentic ways.
Aspect 4: Results and learning
The outcomes we intend to make vary but include enhancing knowledge and understanding, changes in attitudes and values, increased capacity and confidence in participating publics. A number of examples evidence this:
The University hosts a Service User and Carer Group in its Health Studies Faculty which consists of 47 members, all of whom are living with a range of health conditions and represent the diverse communities of Bradford. The Group is embedded in faculty activity from curriculum development, delivery of teaching, assessing learning, developing research to overall governance of the faculty. Their involvement gives students real life understanding of health conditions and how they affect patient and carers’ life and wellbeing. This group contributes to research design and content of proposals, ensuring that patient experiences capture the essence of a research theme. This was the case with a research project on Breast Cancer which was redesigned based on patient experience. The Group itself regularly reviews its role and captures feedback which informs its action plan, the Faculty’s annual report and audits with regulators.
The University is a partner in the Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research with Bradford Institute of Health Research and University of Leeds, exploring themes of Healthy Childhood, Healthy Ageing, and Quality & Safety of Healthcare. As part of this initiative, academics are also associated with the NIHR Yorkshire & Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (YH PSTRC), one of three national centres set up to translate research from different academic disciplines into healthcare quality and safety. All projects are developed and underpinned through effective patient involvement through extensive use of panels and advisory groups. Recently we have used pilot funding from UKRI’s Enhancing Place-based partnership scheme to trial ways to engage better with people who live in areas of multiple deprivation by developing trust to support engagement with research as co-producers and advisors. A particular aim was to facilitate greater involvement from seldom-heard groups who are currently under-represented in our public engagement activities. This project has produced a portal to facilitate involvement in research, has directly led to the priority setting for the NIHR YH PSTRC, provided evidence to the development of university strategy, along with a toolkit for university academic staff to engage better with existing community assets (e.g. community centres, their staff and their clients) for co-production.
The Pharmacy programme is committed to include patients and public members in teaching throughout the curriculum. The teaching team’s educational research suggests that the authentic voice of patients and the public allows students to develop reflective practice, empathy, communication skills and clinical practice, and evaluation of the programme has allowed aspects of the engagement with public to be tested and published. Students are explicitly engaged in community work, for example supporting Bradford Metropolitan District Council’s Self Care week activities.
University academics are part of a large community-based health programme ‘Born in Bradford’ (BiB), a cohort study that is tracking the health and wellbeing of 30,000 Bradfordians, including 13,500 children from birth to adulthood. BiB is hosted by the Bradford Institute of Health Research and brings together NHS researchers with University academics on a wide range of programmes to understand determinants of health and carry out interventions to address health inequalities and educational outcomes. The programmes and priorities are explicitly co-designed through public engagement with children and families that include the BiB festival, where research outcomes are discussed in the public arena, an example of open science. Much of the current research is based in schools, with extensive public engagement, one example of a major project led by a University of Bradford academic is JU:MP (Join Us Move Play) funded by Sports England, which is to design and implement place-based programmes to promote physical activity in children and determine its effect on health, cognitive performance and educational achievement. This programme has been co-designed by the participants, (i.e. families), as this framework has been demonstrated to achieve more successful outcomes in preventative health that fit with specific community needs compared to ‘top-down’ approaches.
Finally, the University undertakes strategic reviews of its partnership activities, such as our sponsorship approach and collaboration with regional festivals and campaigns. This is to ensure that we give the right level of academic engagement, and resources, assets and capacity, to make such initiatives a joint success.
Aspect 5: Acting on results
The University has been very proactive in disseminating its new university strategy and will be doing the same with its emerging Business and Community Engagement sub strategy. For example, events designed to engage the public were delivered within the Vice-Chancellor’s first year to enable her to showcase the pillars of the University’s new strategy. Events such as A conversation with the Vice Chancellor, University Court, and a stakeholder event between the University and the local Councillors were strong examples of this.
There is a growing movement of creating a better interface with our communities and this is evidenced by the sharing of city-wide evaluations of events such as the Bradford Literature Festival and the Bradford Science Festival, in which we participate (where academics and Professional Services staff chair and deliver sessions). The Doctoral Training Centre on Improving Transitions in Dementia, which has public and patient engagement at its heart, produces a 6 monthly evaluation report and produces a periodical newsletter for the public to access updates communicated in layman’s terms.
Regular work is undertaken to ensure the focus on PCE is sustained within the University: for example, staff surveys to capture who is engaging in the city and in which networks and boards. This information is useful for those who sit on professional or thematic boards or networks and can therefore disseminate and share the way in which the University plays a role in the city and region.
In May 2020 the University completed the EDGE Tool assessment as part of Engage Academy programme, and the assessment identified that the institution is mainly described as having a Developing approach to supporting engagement. However, we are more advanced in Leadership, with our leaders championing PCE.
The University is developing its focus, contribution and commitment to PCE and the future of Bradford’s activity here is one of considerable growth.
For further information, please send queries to j.bridgeman@bradford.ac.uk