The KE Step Change Project: Piloting KE Culture Change across the ECR/PGR Community in Scotland

The KE Step Change Project:The KE Step Change Project:Piloting KE Culture Change across the ECR/PGR Piloting KE Culture Change across the ECR/PGR

Community in ScotlandCommunity in Scotland

Alison McCleery – Director of Research

Convenor of Universities ScotlandResearch Training Sub-Committee

Universities Scotland

KE Step Change 2009 WWW.NAPIER.AC.UK/KESTEPCHANGE

Supporting Scottish Researchers to Engage in Knowledge Exchange

Alison McCleery QAA Scotland Bologna Seminar Brussels March 2011

• Q. What do PhDs do? A. Prove the 1 in 8 rule • What should PhDs be doing? Transcending discipline boundaries Transcending national boundaries Speaking employers’ language Engaging with the public• Q. How? A. By adding value through generic skills

training which builds KE capacity


KE and the 21KE and the 21stst Century Research Degree Century Research Degree

Scottish HE Research Collaboration Scottish HE Research Collaboration

• Research competitiveness through collaboration

• Prior example of doing research through pooling

• Can collaborative KE researcher training also work?

• Sector-wide R&KE training committee willing to try!

Alison McCleery QAA ScotlandBologna Seminar Brussels March 2011

• Wider context of Research Excellence with Impact

• KT and KE increasingly critical to Impact Agenda

• Impact good for economy & society as well as REF

• Cross-sector KE Step Change programme launched


Scottish KE Research Collaboration Scottish KE Research Collaboration

The KE Step Change ChallengeThe KE Step Change Challenge

What: to translate research into impact through a cross-sector culture change across the cohort of ECRs/PGRs

How: by changing the researcher mindset so that KE is perceived as a core element of the normal research portfolio

Why: to instil attributes of openness, flexibility and adaptability and so make an impact beyond the academy


Academic Excellence into ImpactAcademic Excellence into Impact

The researchers: ECRs/PGRs are the research leaders of tomorrow to whom we owe a duty of care

The requirement: ECRs/PGRs must make a real world impact and be capacity built in order to do so

The rationale: initial investment in personal gain translates in turn into delivery of public good

The reach: sector-wide approach to delivery produces essential cross-fertilisation of ideas as well as desirable economies of scale


Engaging ExperiencesEngaging Experiences

• Across discipline boundaries: opportunities for semi-structured encounters between

ECRs/PGRs from a range of disciplines• Across sector boundaries: opportunities for

formal or informal encounters by ECRs/PGRs with entrepreneurs and innovators

• Across institutional boundaries: opportunities for exploring key national institutions and analysing their inter-linked functions


KE Step Change: KE Step Change: A Targeted ProgrammeA Targeted Programme

• Strand 1: First Steps in KE for researchers new to the concept and actuality of Knowledge Transfer/Knowledge Exchange

• Strand 2: Leadership Innovation for those who understand the concept and need help to turn it into reality

• Strand 3: Scottish Crucible for hand-picked high fliers who could benefit from intensive

exposure to KE ideas and activities Alison McCleery QAA Scotland

Bologna Seminar Brussels March 2011

Something for EveryoneSomething for Everyone


Coordinated by Universities Scotland & funded by Scottish Funding Council with buy-in from:

• All of Scotland’s Higher Education Institutions• Scottish Funding Council & Government• Royal Society of Edinburgh • National Endowment for Science, Technology

and the Arts (NESTA)• Key business stakeholder representatives

Something from Everyone: Something from Everyone: Genuine CollaborationGenuine Collaboration


• Universities as social capital• Capacity building of emergent talent• Added value of inter-disciplinarity• Inspiring innovation & encouraging enterprise • Breaking down barriers & working together

For the benefit of economic prosperity, social well-being and community cohesiveness

Investment in Impact through …Investment in Impact through …


• Strategic Barriers? – political, institutional, financial, definitional

• Operational Challenges – too little, too late, but also too much, too soon

• Sensible Solutions – evaluate and explain, then revise and repeat

• Difficult Dilemma – the tricky business of Full Economic Costing

• Solutions? – Identify, Develop & exchange working practice– Broaden and deepen partnership working– Erasmus Funding Programme

• New skills for researchers & entrepreneurship• Two-way knowledge exchange between key actors

From Rhetoric to RealityFrom Rhetoric to Reality


• Price– £100k from the Scottish Funding Council before the downturn kicked in fully

• Cost – blood, sweat and tears in the shape of staff time not accounted for through TRAC

• Value – more than 4 X the original investment including in-kind contributions and new money

Price, Cost and ValuePrice, Cost and Value


• Strategic Barriers – comprehensive continuation difficult in downturn

Operational Challenges– hard to reach non-traditional PhD candidates

• Pragmatic Solutions – evaluate, explain, convince, collaborate, innovate

• Difficulty of in-kind and fEC – project’s greatest strength is its main weakness

Looking ForwardLooking Forward


• ‘Worthwhile but time-consuming’• ‘Worthwhile and thought provoking’• ‘No magic answer ... just confidence and a

prepared approach’• ‘If it makes sense, then we can do it – maybe!’• ‘Life-changing’And for some participants life did indeed change

almost immediately for the better

The view from the groundThe view from the ground


In November 2010 The Universities Scotland Research Training Sub-Committee won the

Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers

Sponsored by Research Councils UK in association with Vitae

Recognising the highly successful collaborative outcome of the KE Step Change Project


The view from the topThe view from the top

Thank you for your attentionThank you for your attention

First of all: are there any questions? Next: let’s try some KE scenarios!

Universities Scotland

KE Step Change 2009 WWW.NAPIER.AC.UK/KESTEPCHANGE

Supporting Scottish Researchers to Engage in Knowledge Exchange


Documents

The KE Step Change Project: Piloting KE Culture Change across the ECR/PGR Community in Scotland