WILOs - June 10-11th 2010Swansea

Philip Graham

Executive Director

Go raibh maith agaibh as an chuireadh

Diolch yn fawr am fy ngwahodd i Gymru!

3 Themes of this Presentation

The Past

The Present

The Future

...... Knowledge Transfer Landscapes

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

Research has moved on so must KT Associations

• In the 1980’s:

Research was individually led; institutes; nationally focused

Knowledge Transfer was opportunistic and altruistic

• 2000’s:

Research is more strategic; assessments; institutes; international emphasis

Knowledge Transfer more important; we have 3rd mission and a permanent stream of funding

• 2010+:

Research is strategic; professional; institutes; global competition

Knowledge Transfer; key strategic component; and is increasingly professional

The AURIL Offering Then

• Was the key knowledge and technology transfer

association in the UK and Ireland – 120 members

• Represents and influences the sector’s views funders and stakeholders

• Networking, Jiscmail – old boys/girls club - gate keeping!

• Post job vacancies

• Annual conferences

• Workshops – Research Special Interest Group (lunch Club!)

• Opportunities for members to exchange ideas and share experience

• Best practice – guidelines, publications and templates

• A Fraternity

NO PUBLIC FUNDING!!

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS? • Research has moved on so must KT Associations

• In the 1980’s:

Research was individually led; institutes; nationally focused

Knowledge Transfer was opportunistic and altruistic

• 2000’s:

Research is more strategic; assessments; institutes; international emphasis

Knowledge Transfer more important; we have 3rd mission and a permanent stream of funding

• 2010+:

Research is strategic; professional; institutes; global competition

Knowledge Transfer; key strategic component; and is increasingly professional

The AURIL Offering • represents the sector’s views to government,

industry, funders and stakeholders at all levels;• influencing policy of funders, Government, industry, higher education,

public sector research, agencies and other stakeholders;• influences national and European thinking• Jiscmail • Post job vacancies & opportunities for career development,• national & international survey results;• annual conferences and networking events on key and current topics

that contribute to policy formation by Council for focussed discussions with stakeholders;

• CPD, training and learning opportunities, events and workshops;• opportunities for members to exchange ideas and share experience;• best practice – guidelines, publications and templates

PUBLIC FUNDING!! – HEROBIC, HEIF 1 – 4, and devolved equiv.

What did AURIL Deliver• Membership growth – 1,500 THE Biggest in Europe• influencing policy

• Lambert

• State Aid debate

• Schedule 22

• Taxation forum

• Business / University / Charity Collaboration & VAT

• Business Simplification Scheme

• HEIF Metrics

• HEIF Assessment panels

• Research Councils Assessment Panels

• Representation on EVERY KT Stakeholder working Group

• Jiscmail and social networking• Post job vacancies & opportunities for career development, Mentoring• national & international survey results;• annual conferences and networking events on key and current topics that

contribute to policy formation by Council for focussed discussions with stakeholders;

• CPD Competency Framework and learning opportunities, events and workshops;

• opportunities for members to exchange ideas and share experience;• best practice – guidelines, publications and templates

.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS? • Research has moved on so must KT

• In the 1980’s:

Research was individually led; institutes; nationally focused

Knowledge Transfer was opportunistic and altruistic

• 2000’s:

Research is more strategic; assessments; institutes; international emphasis

Knowledge Transfer more important; we have 3rd mission and a permanent stream of funding

• 2010+:

Research is strategic; professional; institutes; global competition

Knowledge Transfer; key strategic component; and is increasingly professional – massive engagement & networking

AURIL: AMPLIFYING THE IMPACT 

• Knowledge Exchange 2.0 requires AURIL 2.0

 • AURIL ‘moving towards an open membership model’

• New developments in communications and widening access

• With the support of UUK and Funding Councils  AURIL is extending membership benefits to ALL employees in subscribing institutions - no additional cost to the current membership fee.

 • The Cap of 10 or 20 members, depending on the fee paid, is now

removed.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

• Innovation is a social process.  It is no longer a sole activity.

• The distinctions between the KT or exchange professional, academic or KE intermediary are increasingly meaningless.  

• Innovation is spread right across an institution and involves many players.

• By its very nature Knowledge Exchange does not stand still - so models for KE organisations need to move forward and develop.   

 

• This leads us to AURIL 2.0 which is an all embracing OPEN model.

 

• We believe that in the current economic climate AURIL, and all KE related individuals within an institution, will have a key role to play in driving the economy forward into growth.

• The AURIL “Hot Topic” page on Ginnn has become

the My AURIL Platform and Members Site

• only members will have access. This will contain mailings, jobs, events, etc. But by embedding it within a large KE network it will allow all members to:

Create their own KE space with both internal and external KE contacts built round areas of KE of interest to them.

Form or join new groups themselves – their own institutional or national ones!

Post Articles, papers (both practitioner and academic) and comment!

Interact and connect with others with similar interests and thereby stimulating debate on KE, Innovation and enterprise.

 

• The My AURIL space is to be the central HUB for all KE activity and communications

http://www.ginnn.com/forumgroup.aspx?g=5290

NATIONAL ISSUES – The Future

SUM Nice figures!

• The National debt today - £770 billion

• National Debt in 5 years time - £1.4 trillion

• For every £4 pounds the Government spends it borrows £1

• In 5 years time National Debt will cost everyone - £22,000

• Level of interest payments in 5 years - £70 billion

• The funding for 3rd Mission activities for the period ,2000-2011 will be over £1 billion.. HEFCE estimates that there are now 12,500 practitioners working in the KT sector.

• Harold Macmillan

• Someone is going to ask what they got for their money!

NATIONAL ISSUES

Major National Issues will drive Devolved &

Regional strategies – not a time to stand alone!!

• Long term funding commitment for 3 mission– Will it continue?– Changing National Agenda – doing more with less– How will it be allocated – Formula, competition, mixture (they will look at other

administrations!)– Included in QR and we fight for every penny?– Collaborations/shared resources– Wellings, Hauser etc

• Devolved Budgets – Cut now or Postpone?

• Regional Strategy/Ending of Structural Funds - Pressure on EU budgets.

• Research Council Budget – Assessor, Cuts?, harder to get! Peer Review, Fierce Competition

• REF

• Impact – Critical and is not going away!

IMPACT - Wont go away and on everyone's agenda

• Tremendous pressure on & confusion in the sector

• What are the main Drivers of Impact– Accountability– Reward a certain type of Impact– Reputation – does it feed into future research funding– Communication – good stories

• Communications must drive the impact agenda

• Better to have an advocate recognising your input rather than signing your own praises.

• Better to have a group to promote you talk of the contributions made to society – use of “economic Impact” turns academics off.

IMPACT - Wont go away and on everyone's agenda

• We have a PR challenge in getting our ROI across

• Scope and scale of KE activities makes it a more difficult sell

• Impact will have wider implications for core funding (RCs/REF)

• UUK & Funding Councils have a role to play – 3rd mission, still the weakest part of their activities

• Explain difference between the social impact and the ROI of TT activities

• Need to carve up our offering to make different arguments to different stakeholders/sectors

• UUK & AURIL are preparing a document for Govt. & other stakeholders but we also need to do something internally

V IMPORTANT

IMPACT - Wont go away and on everyone's agenda

• Is it counter-productive to identify KE as an entity/activity in its own right?

• Better to link it up to community engagement, as a large part of HEI activities/mission.

• Make research more engaged with business – KE as part of business engagement – which we have been doing for years but not highlighting it

• UUK, RCUK, TSB, Funders, BIS AURIL all joining to make an impact statement

• “Here come that bunch who want our money – better to say here come that group who can solve our problems!”

OPERATIONAL ISSUES – Scenario Planning

Things we will need to address and quickly

• Where do we go from here? Do we wait until new models forced on us

• Is the 3rd mission model now outdated? And what should it be?

• Should be seen as a positive opportunity

• Possibility of funding moving back to Research & Teaching

• Is KE genuinely embedded with senior management?– Will KE be counted as a front line service – or treated like other

support/professional services– If its embedded harder to remove– Service level agreements with faculties: reliant on them buying time

• Shared Services or Out-Sourced?

OPERATIONAL ISSUES – Shared / Outsourced

• All devolved administrations are asking HEIs to look

at collaboration on KE activities:– Scotland– Knowledge House - Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, Teesside and the Open

University in the North of England– Wellings report on Hub and Spoke– Irish Model

• If you have a “larger” regional office some issues:– How do they work with the different legal entities/governance of different HEIs – Difficult to set up and takes time– Collaborations cost – in terms of time and effort– Has been shown to work in Australia– Research Councils have shared back office functions – is KE any different?

• Perception that IP management, commercialisation and business development are all the same kind of activities.

OPERATIONAL ISSUES – Shared / Outsourced

• IP exploitation is main focus for outsourcing.• Some claim 25 year contracts with IPO orgs make it very difficult to

control. – cherry picking?• Should you outsource Knowledge Transfer Managers/BDMs some are

looking to outsource some of business development services – allows some variability and offers more opportunities to secure value for money.

• Legal resources are better in house (i.e. cheaper) as will typically pay lawyers £250 per hour – in-house lawyer more cost effective

• In house staff are seen as non-outsiders and academics more likely to relate to TTOs

• Even if you outsource the IP management you still need internal department as well.

• Does the density level of research funding in universities justify individual offices – should it be country wide – return of BTG?

Regional Strategy - Challenges

• Its important to get this right as takes time to bed in

• Several options– Pitch with collaborative bids for RC Funding against your peers– Target what you do to fit with the 2 big strategic priorities of WAG: social justice

and the economy– Research Funding to focus on Digital, Carbon technologies, Health & Bioscience,

and advanced engineering / manufacturing (these are also the TSB priorities so everyone is chasing them and its going to get crowded)

– find a niche area of activity– Concentrate on STEM? – Stick to an internal regional community based agenda

• But– Small nation– Can be dexterous– One size does not fit all– Find out what you are good at and don’t cut and paste

Final Thoughts

• AURIL Council is currently made up by members from all devolved administrations:

• Ms Davena Rankin, Chair: Glasgow Caledonian University

• Dr Alun Tlusty-Sheen, Vice Chair: University of Westminster

• Prof Oisin MacNamara, Immediate Past Chair: Northumbria University

• Ms Linda Baines, Company Secretary, Treasurer; Science and Technology Facilities Council

• Mr Brian McCaul: University of Leeds

• Professor Stephen Hagen: University of Wales – Newport

• Dr David McBeth: University of Strathclyde 

• Mr Michael Metelits: Goldsmiths, University of London

• Mrs Deborah Lock: Kingston University London

• Dr David Bembo: Cardiff University

• Dr Eoin O'Neill: Trinity College Dublin

• To become a national fighting force we need to become a strong regional fighting force