Welcome

Astrid Wissenburg, Director of Partnerships & CommunicationsAaron Camber, Senior Knowledge Exchange Manager

Programme

▶ESRC and RCUK priorities▶Knowledge Exchange Opportunities▶Maximizing Impact▶Knowledge Exchange for ESRC

Science budget allocations 2011 - 2015

Baseline 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

2,549,353 2,596,196 2,573,678 2,586,641 2,599,812

1,731,3001,662,112 1,699,578 1,685,689 1,686,321

87,832 87,465 86,547 86,547 86,54743,616 24,496 24,140 24,165 24,005163,805 205,637 191,963 192,864 179,221

Research Councils HEFCE (QR+HEIF) National Acad-emies Other Programmes UK Space Agency

Research Council allocations2011 - 2015

AHRC

BBSRC

EPSR

C ES

RC MRC

NERC

STFC

- Core

Progra

mme

STFC

- Cro

ss-Council

faciliti

es1

STFC

- Inter

national

Subscr

iptions20

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

900,000

Baseline 2010-112011-122012-132013-142014-15

Strategic priorities

▶The Delivery Plan 2011-2015 three strategic priorities:– Economic Performance and Sustainable Growth– Influencing Behaviour and Informing Interventions– Vibrant and Fair Society

▶To be delivered through:– Enhancing impact from existing investments– Encouraging investments to work together– And only exceptionally, new investments

▶To be refreshed annually

Economic Performance and Sustainable Growth

▶What are the determinants of economic performance and sustainable growth?– From existing commitments: innovation, highly skilled

workforce, demographic changes– From selective new investments: entrepreneurship, rising

powers, infrastructure e.g. energy, digital

▶How to secure benefits for populations?– From existing and planned commitments: move to low

carbon economy, environmental resource provision, global poverty alleviation, distribution of economic performance

▶How to improve stability and resilience of economies?– From selective new investments: new approaches to macro-

economics; constructions of risk, regulation and governance

Influencing Behaviour and Informing Interventions▶How to understand behaviour and risks at multiple levels and

settings? – From existing investments: e.g., public and preventative health– New investment: via Centres and Large Grants Competition steer; and

synthetic work

▶How and why do behaviours change?– From existing commitments, maximising contribution from diverse

awards – From investment: role of technologies, social norms and signals via an

agents of change steer to the Competition, and synthetic work

▶How does the interplay of childhood, family, community and wider society influence inequalities of wellbeing?– From existing and new investment: to exploit key longitudinal data

and potential linkage to administrative data. NB, new investment addresses research and capacity-building; also challenges of measuring wellbeing.

A Vibrant and Fair Society

▶What are inclusive communities and can we achieve them? – From existing investments: implications of public service reconfiguration and contribution

of civil society.– From new investments: the interaction of resources, power, place and identity - ESRC

contribution to Connected Communities; together with contribution from exploitation of key longitudinal data.

▶How do individuals and communities most effectively make their voices heard?– From existing and planned investments: the relevance of technology ; international

comparative perspectives from rising powers, poverty alleviation– From new investment by steer to the Centres and Large Grants competition which will also

address:

▶How mobile is our society? – In terms of implications of austerity, retrenchment of the state and changes in delivery of

public services– Exploitation of key datasets and existing investments address migration; social mobility

n.b. Underpinning themes of diversity and democracy

Research Councils UK

The Research Councils as a whole will:

▶Work more closely with HEIs, other research organisations and the Funding Councils.

▶Steer collaboration to deliver enhanced outcomes and impact

▶Locate and encourage excellence and capability, leading to greater research concentration where appropriate

▶Develop collaborative approaches to managing demand for research funding

RCUK Impact Strategy

• Engage with key stakeholders to encourage partnerships with researchers

• Maximise research impact by providing support and sharing best practice

• Deliver highly skilled people by supporting the training and career development of researchers.

Committed to excellence with impact: this means continuing to invest in the best research, people and infrastructure, whilst aiming to enhance the impact of that funding on society.

Recognise that the research we fund has both academic and economic and societal impacts, i.e.The demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy by:

Fostering global economic performance, and specifically the economic competitiveness of the UK

Increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy Enhancing quality of life, health and creative output

Research Councils UK

Strategic Relationships

RCUK is building single strategic relationships with:• Industry sectors• TSB• Government departments• Key universities• Funding Councils

Working in collaboration with International partners

▶Encourage UK researchers to work with international partners.

▶ International offices in India, China and the USA to foster these relationships.

▶Help UK researchers gain access to international research facilities.

▶Promote the UK as a world-class centre for research.

HE sector working together

RCUK encourages the sector to work together to strengthen the research and knowledge exchange capacity of universities . There are many benefits of university collaborations:

▶Brings together researchers from different disciplines and research organisation to share ideas, skills, techniques and technologies to address complex problems.

▶Creates a critical mass in research skills, facilities and larger infrastructure.

▶Opportunity to increase the visibility of work e.g. more pathways for realising economic and societal impact.

▶Rapid and flexible access to new ideas and insights, increased opportunity for funding and higher quality outcomes in shorter timeframes.

▶Shared costs and risks.

▶ Continue to invest in the best research, people and infrastructure; whilst aiming to enhance the impact of that funding on society.

• explore ways to enhance potential impact, not predict

• Provide resources to enable impact generating activities, covering specific activity within their Pathways to Impact

Pathways to Impact

KE Opportunities

▶Pathways to Impact▶Embed KE and Impact generating activities

▶Knowledge Exchange Calls:– Flexible scheme to encourage collaboration with

research users and reduce unnecessary barriers to KE and engagement

Simpler but more coherent set of opportunities

Research Career

EARLY SENIOR

Fund

ing

Amou

nt

200k

2m

5m+

Centres and Large Grants (early career researchers involved through grant linked studentships etc rather than as Principal Investigator)

Datasets and Data Services

Research GrantsOpen Research Area

International Bi-lateralsProfessorial Fellowships

Future Research Leaders

PhD (through

DTCs)

Secondary Data Analysis Initiative

Knowledge Exchange & Follow-on Funding Seminars & International Networking

KE Funding Opportunities

Aimed at social science researchers at all stages of their career in partnership with organisations in the business, public and civil society sectors

▶Keen to encourage dialogue and collaboration between these groups, and innovative KE  

▶Funding Opportunities: – Knowledge Exchange Opportunities – Follow-on Fund scheme

▶Next call planned for September/October 2011

Breakout Session

▶Consider…– packages of activity you would like to propose

for KE funding opportunities– types of impact they might have on the user

community

▶Be imaginative…

Defining impact Instrumental – Influencing the development of policy practice or

service provision– Shaping behaviour– Altering legislation

Conceptual – Contributing to our understanding of the above– Reframing debates

Capacity-building– Technical/professional skills development

Defining impact … it can be more subtle

Cultural change

– Increased willingness to engage in knowledge exchange activities – by individuals, and/or institutions

– Changed mindsets

Enduring connectivity

– Establishment of enduring academic / non-academic relationships – indicator of potential future achievements or impacts

– Both are a crucial stepping stone for other types of impact

Meagher, L. 2009 “Impact Evaluation of People at the Centre of Communication and Information Technologies (PACCIT) Programme

Generating impact: relationships

▶Key factors identified for generating impact include:

– Established relationships and networks with user communities;

– Where appropriate, the involvement of intermediaries and knowledge broker as translators, amplifiers, network providers, etc

– Good infrastructure and management support;

Generating impact: co-production

– Involving users at all stages of the research;– Well-planned user-engagement and

knowledge exchange strategies;– Co-production of knowledge – scope for

generating higher impact;– Portfolios of research activity that build

reputations with research users;

The role of KE in ESRC

▶Knowledge Broker:– Connecting users with past/current portfolio

▶Advice and Support:– Impact Toolkit– http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/tool

s-and-resources/impact-toolkit/index.aspx

– Encourage good practice and experiences

Partnerships

▶Collaboration critical to delivering quality, impact and independence

▶Our partnerships include– our academic community, HEIs and learned

societies– research users in public, private and third sector– other research councils, funding councils and

the Technology Strategy Board (TSB)– international collaboration with researchers and

funders– promotion of our research to the public

Impact through Partnership: Business

Public and Third sector will continue to be important partners

But business/private sector a priority for increased engagement - aim to increase business co-funding to 5% of external income by 2015

Key areas: financial services, retail, ‘green economy’

Business Engagement Survey 2010 – current activity by major ESRC investments.

Over 70% - some level of engagement with the sector More than 30% - strong existing relationships

Advisory Boards,Collaborative Research, etc.Consultancy arrangements

Where can we add value?,

ESRC investments and business engagement

To summarise

Impact and Knowledge Exchange remain priorities for ESRCImpact throughout the lifecycle is key– Academic excellence is paramount – Impact agenda is not new, but has risen in prominence Embedding “impact” is important

ESRC has many opportunities for Knowledge Exchange– KE Schemes & Pathways to Impact

How we can help

Networking Well established networks and

working relationships with businesses, public sector and third sector organisations and academic researchers

Knowledge Brokering Conduit between researchers and research users Knowledge transfer schemes Engagement seminars and training workshops during

the year

Advice Advice, support and training: Impact Toolkit Help research centres and individual researchers

engage with potential users and develop their research programmes

Contact: knowledgeexchange@esrc.ac.uk

Thank YouComments and questions

welcome

Astrid.Wissenburg@esrc.ac.uk01793 413115

Aaron.Camber@esrc.ac.uk01793 413230