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Institutional Context
Summary
Newcastle University traces its origins to the 1830s, founded by the pioneers of the Industrial Revolution in the North East of England. We have a proud record of civic engagement, with a long-standing commitment to social justice (for example as the only UK university to grant an honorary degree to Martin Luther King during his lifetime). We exist to benefit society, with our research, teaching and innovation orientated towards the North East region’s maritime, industrial, cultural and agricultural heritage and healthcare needs. We also recognise our responsibilities globally as a research intensive university, focussing on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and at a national level through our National Innovation Centres tackling the Grand Challenges that affect all of our futures.
Institutional context
Our University vision (2018) places societal benefit at its heart, embedding Engagement & Place in our strategies for education for life and research for discovery and impact, building on our key strengths of Ageing & Health, Cities & Place, Culture & Creative Arts, Data and OnePlanet.
We have considerably increased our capacity, including building a team of cross-cutting Deans at University level and across our three Faculties to accelerate engagement across multiple sectors at a regional, national and international level.
To engage all of our diverse staff, we established the Policy Academy to increase the effectiveness of academic input to local and national policies; and the Enterprise Academy to increase networking between academics and industry.
We are a significant contributor to the regional ecosystem, working closely with Local Authorities, Combined Authorities, LEP, the NHS and local business/membership organisations, as well as the Cultural and Community & Voluntary Sector. This has been particularly important in our response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
We have made progress on our Civic University Agreement – “The Newcastle Agreement”, a partnership with Northumbria University and other local anchor institutions, linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Our partnership with Newcastle Hospitals was awarded Academic Health Science Centre status in 2020.
We have established a Social Justice Advisory Group which brings together academics, the VCSE sector, University professional services staff and Tyne & Wear Citizens.
Our VOICE network, hosted by the National Innovation Centre for Ageing, captures the opinions of end users and shapes the products and services of the future New ‘chapters’ being established in the United States and the Far East.
Long-standing partnerships underpin our successful technology transfer activity. For example, we were the first UK university to embed CRUK-employed business development managers in our team.
In the past three years, we have brought focus to our economic development role, through the Northern Accelerator programme, which has dramatically increased the quality and quantity of our spin-outs, and the Arrow programme, successfully connecting research expertise with innovative regional SMEs looking to grow.
In the 2020 THE Impact rankings we were placed 6th in the world for our work on sustainable cities and communities and our support for culture and heritage.
Our award-winning Helix site led as a joint venture with Newcastle City Council and Legal and General has allowed us to design new buildings for knowledge exchange. The ‘National Innovation Centre’ model, which co-locates research with its end users, has attracted major funding for three Centres to date – in ageing, data and rural enterprise, as well as the NIHR’s Innovation Observatory. Helix is also home to many of our growing portfolio of spin-out companies.
We are working closely with industry to build our portfolio of degree apprenticeships, CPD and Life Long Learning offerings, linked to local need.
Newcastle University is leading the £30m Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund wave 3 Driving the Electric Revolution challenge on a national basis, and the establishment of the NE Regional Centre as one of four regional centres making up a pan-UK network.
For further information, please send queries to engage@newcastle.ac.uk
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
Newcastle University was founded by the pioneers of the Industrial Revolution in the North East of England. We exist to benefit society through our research and teaching. Our engagement activities are wide ranging. We work closely with business, public sector, education and communities to address challenges locally, nationally and globally.
We are a research intensive university whose research has global impact, but acutely aware of our particular role in a UK region where R&D and innovation metrics are generally comparatively low.
We have always had an impact on our region through the provision of skills and direct jobs, but in recent years we have focused more explicitly on developing activities with specific intent to make a difference in our region.
Aspect 1: Strategy
Newcastle University has a very specific effect on our region. Our city centre campus is situated at the heart of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The University is the third largest employer in the City and has strong relationships with regional businesses, the voluntary sector and community organisations. It is a critical element of the region’s innovation infrastructure.
Newcastle itself has a population of only 280,000 but is the centre of a much larger Tyneside conurbation, with a population of an additional half a million people. The city is also the de facto economic capital for the North-East region, ranging from the Scottish borders through rural Northumberland to the Lake District to the West and Yorkshire to the South.
North-East England, one of the cradles of the industrial revolution, was defined for most of the 19th and 20th Centuries by heavy industry, particularly mining and shipbuilding. The decline of these industries in the 1970s and 80s, and subsequent socio-economic problems, is still reflected in the region.
Economically, despite significant growth in some sectors (notably the digital and creative sectors, life sciences and some high value manufacturing), there remains a low level of research and development; and subsequently a low level of innovation and business growth: we have the lowest level of Small to Medium Enterprises per head of population in the UK, around half of that in London (NESTA, 2020).
The North-East is second only to Wales as having the lowest per capita spend on R&D across the UK: £267 per capita compared to £527 across the UK as a whole (and £963 for the highest performing region, the East of England) (House of Commons library). The region is over-reliant on the Higher Education sector, which accounts for 38% of the overall R&D spend, compared to 48% by business and 13% by others: the UK averages are 24%, 67% and 9% respectively (ONS 2016 – the most recent available regional data). Newcastle University itself accounts for around 60% of the overall HEI regional research spend.
We are then, a disproportionately large driver of the economy in the region and take this responsibility very seriously. In addition to the core educational role of any university, providing talent for regional employers, our strategy is:
Providing linkages between academic research strengths and regional organisations
Supporting the creation and development of high-growth businesses
Working with partners on inward investment
Providing input to policies aimed at supporting sustainable and inclusive economic growth (The numbering here is solely to link to later sections of this document).
We have identified particular roles for the University in some key sectors, particularly healthcare (Newcastle Hospitals is the second largest NHS Foundation Trust in the UK, with more supra-national services than anywhere else), energy (including sustainability) and in the creative and digital sectors, where there has been significant growth in recent years (Newcastle is the fourth biggest city in this sector, with the biggest contribution of the gaming sector to anywhere outside London (Ukie 2020).
Aspect 2: Activity
Knowledge Exchange is at the heart of our vision and strategy. Over the past three years, we have consulted widely internally and externally in order to develop our vision, underpinned by four over-arching strategies: Education for Life, Research for Discovery and Impact, Engagement and Place and Global. The following schematic demonstrates how our place wraps around everything we do:
To deliver this, we have strengthened our senior management over the past three years by the appointment of a series of cross-cutting University-wide Deans, of Engagement and Place, Innovation and Business, Lifelong Learning and Professional Practice, and Social Justice, adding to the experience of a long-standing Dean of Culture and the Creative Arts and previously created Deanships of Sport, Advancement and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. All of these Deans have remits to work University-wide on their own portfolio, as well as working collaboratively on the wider agenda of engaging with wider society, not least in our region. The Deans have particularly strong relationships with civic society in the North-East, including sitting as Higher Education representatives on various representative regional bodies. Regionally-focused activities since 2016 include:
1. Linking research to the region:
We have pioneered since 2018, via a major ERDF award, a programme (‘Arrow’) which enables businesses to develop new and improved products, services and processes, by capitalising on the University’s expertise and assets.
Other bespoke schemes, such as the Intensive Industrial Innovation Programme and national initiatives, offer an escalator of innovation support.
We have established a joint venture with BEL Valves: the Tyne Subsea National Research Centre https://tynepressuretesting.com/ to support the regional sub-sea and offshore industries.
We are the national lead for Innovate UK’s Driving the Electric Revolution Centres programme, which aims to put the UK at the heart of the global electromobility market by establishing a power electronics, machines and drives supply chain across the UK. The North East is currently the largest producer of electric cars in the UK.
Our expertise in energy systems has partnered with Northern Gas Networks and Northern Powergrid to develop the Integrated Transport Gas Electric Research Laboratory (InTEGReL): the UK’s first multi-vector integrated energy systems research and demonstration facility investigating utility scale infrastructure.
We have established, with major Government investment, three National Innovation Centres (NICs) – in Ageing (NICA), Data (NICD) and Rural Enterprise (NICRE). All play a national and international role in their respective domains, but also have a disproportionately beneficial effect on their home region.
2. Creating new businesses:
Northern Accelerator - a collaboration between all four North East universities – has begun to address gaps in the regional infrastructure. With initial investment from ERDF to Newcastle and Durham and then further support from the Connecting Capability Fund (encompassing Northumbria and Sunderland), the scheme is addressing both the lack of experienced management teams with the ability to take on and manage new innovative businesses and the funding and investment shortfall in the region.
Our START UP programme provides a range of support for students and graduates for the development and growth of start-ups. Founderships, for example, is a 6-month funded pre-accelerator initiative supporting entrepreneurs with scalable business ideas to get ready for market entry, first investment and/or participation in business accelerators.
3. Inward investment:
We work with partners including the City Council, Invest Newcastle and DIT on positioning the region as a growing centre of innovation.
Newcastle Helix - a landmark 24-acre development in the centre of Newcastle – has been developed jointly by the University and City Council since our joint purchase of the site in 2005. In 2019 alone, over 30 inward investment visits were hosted at Newcastle Helix.
4. Policy input:
We provide Board level input to the North-East Local Economic Partnership and participate in numerous working groups.
At City level, our Vice-Chancellor has facilitated a city leaders’ forum, meeting regularly with CEOs of other major city institutions.
Our Policy Academy catalyses the impact of our research, bringing together academic and professional staff to engage with policymakers and build networks.
We have helped shape a wider debate on policy issues via our initiation of Freedom City 2017, which celebrated 50 years since we became the only UK University to award Martin Luther King an honorary degree during his lifetime.
We are a lead member of the Universities sub-group of the North East Cultural Partnership, the Newcastle Cultural Compact, and the Northumberland Culture Network and through these contribute to and help shape the regional cultural policy agenda.
In rural Northumberland, where we have operated two farms for decades, new initiatives in the past three years have included the Centre for Crop Health and Protection and the Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock.
Where possible - for example Northern Accelerator and the IIIP scheme - we come together with the other universities in the region. Creative Fuse, a partnership between five NE universities, sees academics working alongside industry, cultural organisations, charities and the public sector, to explore how creative, digital and IT firms can have a sustainable future in the region adding value to the region’s broader employment base.
Aspect 3: Results
We have delivered major impacts for the region in the past three years in all four areas of activity:
1. Linking research to the region:
We aim for the national Knowledge Exchange Schemes we participate in to have a regional element where possible: for example, of 42 KTPs we have managed since August 2016, 31 have been with regional partners.
The Arrow project has delivered projects of real value to regional SMEs even during the Covid-19 crisis (https://www.ncl.ac.uk/work-with-us/expert-solutions/arrow/).
Our NICs have worked with regional companies on initiatives with direct economic and social benefit. For example, NICA has worked with Newcastle Building Society to explore how app technology can swiftly connect volunteers with older people needing support with minor tasks; and NICD has worked with AkzoNobel, a global company whose industrial paints and coatings business is based in Gateshead, to harness its data and develop new predictive modelling, analysis and machine learning skills amongst its staff.
One of the first major projects funded by the newly created North of Tyne Combined Authority in 2020 was the ‘Advancing Circular Economy (ACE) Research and Development (R&D) Demonstrator’, led by Procter & Gamble, who have a research centre on Tyneside, involving the University and various SMEs (https://www.northoftyne-ca.gov.uk/news/2020/7/28/north-of-tyne-back-scientists-in-green-revolution).
2. High-growth businesses:
Northern Accelerator has delivered a step change in our spin-out activity: from an average of 1 per year in the three years to 2016 to an average of 4 per year in the three years to 2019 (HEBCIS).
At the end of July 2019, START UP was supporting 203 actively trading student and graduate start-ups and social enterprises, with a combined turnover of £60m, employing 695 FTE staff and attracting £19m in total external investment.
The Creative Fuse project has supported 277 businesses in 40 different cities, towns and villages across the region.
Our work with the Newbridge Project in the cultural sector delivers a graduate development programme which has supported 68 emerging creatives to grow their practice/business in the region since 2017.
3. Inward investment:
Development on the Helix site has speeded up rapidly in recent years: in 2019 the Biosphere, a major life sciences incubator, was opened. It has attracted significant inward investment into the city, helping to form a vibrant cluster, along with University spin-outs.
The Catalyst building on Helix was occupied by the two National Innovation Centres in 2020 and is hosting innovative data-driven businesses such as Red Hat and Changing Health.
Newcastle was named 2019 ‘Smart City of the Year’ at the UK-wide Digital Leaders Awards, reflecting the work of the University and its civic partners and helping to change perceptions of the region.
We were key partners in the Great Exhibition of the North in 2018, which was designed to showcase innovation, business, art and design across the whole North of England but hosted across Newcastle and Gateshead.
4. Policy:
We have influenced policy at a national and regional level. We have provided input to Parliamentary select committees and as senior advisers to Government departments. NICD has worked on the NELEP’s Local Industrial Strategy, and with the North of Tyne Combined Authority to focus its data skills training on regional businesses
Our Policy Academy has helped input into a wide range of policy development: for example, our work with the Northern Health Service Alliance on the effect of health inequalities on economic development in the North (https://www.thenhsa.co.uk/2018/11/major-new-report-connects-norths-poor-health-with-poor-productivity/) and the work with Newcastle City Council on the ‘Net Zero Newcastle’ initiative (https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/citylife-news/climate-change/newcastle-climate-summit-considers-citys-net-zero-future).
We have partnered with Sheffield and Cambridge Universities, in a Research England CCF award to identify and address barriers to the successful development and exploitation of Internet of Things technologies. This will have a significant effect on national policy and practice as well as in making the region an exemplar area for this activity.
For further information, please send queries to business@newcastle.ac.uk
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
Newcastle University was founded by the pioneers of the Industrial Revolution in the North East of England. We exist to benefit society through our research and teaching. As one of the core strategies underpinning our Vision, ‘Engagement and Place’ is central to our work.
Engagement describes how the benefits of our teaching and research go beyond the University, delivering mutual benefit for both the University and our communities/partners. These exchanges take many forms and require a long term view.
In line with our institutional values, our engagement activities:
- are embedded in and representative of our research and education excellence
- are creative and innovative in working for the public good
- provide ideas and solutions that have economic and social impact
Aspect 1: Strategy
Our Engagement and Place Strategy is closely aligned with our other three core strategies of Research, Education and Global that underpin our Vision. Extensive consultation was undertaken to develop this strategy involving workshops with partners in the private, public, cultural and voluntary and community sectors to understand their needs and how the University could respond.
Our Engagement and Place strategy takes a holistic view of engagement across six key areas:
Economic benefit
Societal benefit (including the health and wellbeing of our place)
The relationship between our local and global activities
Cultural benefit
Policy and practice
Access and participation
In terms of Governance, the Strategy is owned by the University Engagement and Place Committee (UEPC), the membership of which includes representatives from each of our three faculties and leads in each of the six themes described in the strategy. UEPC is a committee of Senate and the Engagement and Place portfolio is led at Executive Board level by our Dean of Engagement and Place. A team of cross-cutting University-wide Deans support the delivery of the Strategy and ensure that there is co-ordination on how we engage with wider society across our four core strategies.
Delivery of our strategy is supported by strategic University funding and through the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF).
Building on a wealth of excellent engagement practice our strategy identifies two transformative initiatives designed to create a step change in how our research and education deliver benefit outside of the University, these are:
To embed social justice
To embed public engagement
When developing these initiatives, particularly with the public and community sector we built on previous work with our VCSE Implementation Group and Freedom City 2017 that marked the 50th anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King receiving an honorary degree from Newcastle University. Our Social Justice Advisory Group includes thirteen community organisations, that work across our identified nine themes and provides a space for academics and practitioners to explore how our research can help to address local issues. Our transformative initiative to embed engagement looks to strengthen the structures and resources available to colleagues and partners to undertake engagement projects.
Our website sets out the range of facilities and services we offer from schools outreach to patient engagement to support for businesses and our public lectures series.
Aspect 2: Support
We have a wealth of practical support for colleagues to strengthen their engagement work. Our internal communication of opportunities, news and events is managed through our monthly NU Engage newsletter. Support for engagement is provided across our three faculties with the central Engagement Team acting in a coordinating role. Our internal webpages provide colleagues with resources and information on how to get involved.
Our regular Engage & Learn Forum is open to all staff and aims to encourage colleagues to grow their internal engagement network, increase cross-disciplinary working, share best practice, encourage continual improvement and feedback to strategic plans. The forum is supplemented with the use of Microsoft Teams to provide a platform for interactive discussion.
Our annual programme of engagement training includes; an introduction to engagement, evaluation of engagement, engaging with schools, co-production and sessions tailored to working with specific sectors. In addition, engagement leads in our three faculties run specific training. The Engagement Team attend all Staff Welcome events.
The Engagement and Place Fund supports colleagues to deliver projects that enable the benefits of our research and teaching to be shared beyond the University. Our Social Justice Fund aims to develop successful relationships between the University and VCSE sector with a focus on social justice issues, successful applications are rooted in co-production, providing mutual benefit for both academics and communities.
In our Medical Faculty engagement is supported through Engage FMS. This includes events and resources for colleagues including engagement showcases, engagement socials where researchers can practice engagement techniques, PPI drop-ins, digital toolkits and training. Our STEM Outreach Team provide support through training and events to strengthen colleagues’ skills when collaborating with schools and local groups.
Our website includes case studies to demonstrate how partners and communities can collaborate with us. We have a strong social media presence and provide bespoke events to bring together academics and partners in response to community need. We have a single point of contact for enquiries which provides sign-posting to colleagues across the institution. We also regularly contribute to events organised by community partners.
We are developing engagement awards with our first presentations taking place in 2021, to recognise contributions from both colleagues and partners. Our Pride of Newcastle University Awards feature a specific category for ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Community’.
Aspect 3: Activity
Engagement activities are delivered at an institutional, Faculty and School level. Our strategy provides a useful framing for our ‘audiences’ and within these audiences there are many types of engagement activities undertaken. The following are just a few examples:
We are developing our Civic University Agreement, bringing together the anchor institutions in our city to deliver projects in response to our communities. To ensure that we are responding to local need this is underpinned by analysis of the city using the UNSDGs alongside a policy and evidence hub.
Social justice is one of our core values. During Freedom City 2017, we worked with organisations across the city to deliver a programme of events drawing on the themes of war, poverty and racism. The legacy of this was the creation of our first Dean of Social Justice. Our Social Justice Advisory Group brings together academics, practitioners, and students to co-produce solutions to issues facing communities. The challenge posed by Covid-19 for the VCSE sector is huge so it has been vital that we are led by the sector.
Our University Museum and Gallery, the Great North Museum: Hancock and The Hatton provide a front door to our research and education.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, we developed 'Wor Culture', a forum for the creative sector in the North East.
Strategic partnerships with venues across the city enable us to maximise opportunities for public engagement. For example, through the Centre for Life academics participate in Bright Club and Meet the Scientist.
Our National Innovation Centre for Ageing is home to VOICE a unique network of citizens who contribute experience, ideas and insights to research and innovation.
Our Knowledge Exchange Seminar Series aims to promote evidence based policy making in partnership with 5 local authorities the North East LEP and Chamber of Commerce.
We host the Soapbox Science event in Newcastle, this is a public outreach platform promoting women scientists and their work.
Our Insights Public Lectures Programme is free to attend and annually attracts an audience of around 10,000.
Creative Fuse North East is a partnership of the 5 North East Universities and enables academics to work alongside industry, cultural organisations, charities and the public sector. The final report demonstrates the breadth of activity and engagement.
Our Street Law project involves students acting as ‘Street Law Ambassadors’ providing young people with information about their rights.
Our STEM Outreach Team offer a range of classroom workshops and on campus events for ages from 7 – 18.
Our Street Scientists, are science buskers, bringing science to life for the public through interactive demonstrations.
Public engagement opportunities for students include; the Student Union’s Go Volunteer programme, the ncl+ Award scheme and our placements policy which gives every undergraduate the opportunity to undertake a placement.
Aspect 4: Results and learning
Evaluation takes place at an institutional and project level. We have three key performance indicators which look at inclusive growth, social mobility and mutually beneficial partnerships. Our 2018/19 Integrated Annual Report shows our progress. We launched our Engagement and Place Strategy as part of our ‘Vision in Action’ day in May 2019, staging a series of engagement events showcasing public engagement activities. The day culminated in a celebration event at our University museum where colleagues and partners presented their collaborative projects. To evaluate the day and the consultation that formed part of the strategy development we captured testimonials of some of the attendees. In academic year 2020/21 we will be undergoing the NCCPE’s Engage Watermark accreditation process.
We are ranked 11th in the world for our impact on society and leadership in sustainable development by the THE’s Impact Rankings and ranked 6th in the world under Sustainable Development Goal 11 ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’, in recognition of our work in sustainability, support for the culture, arts and heritage sectors, and for sustainable practices.
In 2019 colleagues from across the University took part in the Tyne and Wear Citizen’s Big Listen to help define future themes for community action in the North East. We were one of the founding members of the North East chapter of Citizens UK.
In partnership with the University of Pittsburgh, we have developed an international ‘place-based’ partnership - a key aspect is looking at how we measure the impact of our engagement.
Through regular training we encourage colleagues to think about evaluation early on in the planning of their activity. We carry out evaluation of all of our engagement funding schemes, training programmes, communication channels and events and use the lessons learned to inform our future planning and practice.
A survey of the Social Justice Advisory Group prompted the following responses from both colleagues and external partners:
“The Social Justice Advisory Group has been extremely useful, interesting and valuable … The Group has generated useful external VCSE contacts that were helpful in situating and delivering a research project in 2019 which sought to reach diverse communities…This would not have been possible to achieve in the same way if there was not the unique blend of academics, PSS staff, students and most importantly VCSE members”.
“The group has been valuable on many fronts… networking opportunities with the University and others from the wider sector, joint working opportunities on issues of real current relevance. The existence of the group means conversations happen which spark ideas for further work, thinking is challenged, expanded”.
Aspect 5: Acting on results
During consultation with the VCSE sector, there was a very strong message that there must be parity of esteem between partners from the VCSE sector and commercial sector. The Social Justice Advisory Group puts VCSE partners at the heart of this strategic initiative. At the first meeting we revisited the themes raised during the strategy consultation and collaboratively created a set of principles on how we will work together. The creation of the Dean of Social Justice role itself was a direct outcome of the Freedom City 2017 community engagement programme to ensure that we embed social justice across the institution.
One of our key performance indicators is to ‘Develop appropriate targets in collaboration with external partners to measure mutual benefits’. We have addressed this through the Newcastle Agreement. Using the UNSDGs to understand better the needs of our communities. Our Knowledge Exchange Seminar Series is delivered in partnership with five local authorities, who annually identify a list of key policy topics to which our academic colleagues respond.
One example of how we have acted on the outcomes of our activity is through our sustainability work. We have committed to net-zero carbon by 2040. To coincide with the global climate change strike in September 2019 we held a public engagement event on campus with academics working across sustainability. This event signposted colleagues and partners to our Climate Change Conversation in November 2019. This half day of conversations brought together colleagues, students and external stakeholders to develop our roadmap to net-zero. This work has also contributed to the ‘Net Zero Newcastle’ project which we are collaborating on with partners under the Newcastle Agreement.
Our Engage & Learn Forum provides a space for colleagues to raise any issues around policy or procedures that cause ‘blockages’ and make engagement difficult. This is vital in our approach to continuous improvement. Using the EDGE Tool in our forum and Staff Experience Day has enabled us to gain a deeper understanding of how engagement is supported across the University. We have recently evaluated our internal engagement newsletter, based on the responses received we have changed our approach to curating the content for future editions.
For further information, please send queries to engage@newcastle.ac.uk