Otherwise Engaged :
Know your KT Landscape
Kate Beckmann
Annabel Cooper
The Implementation Strategies for Sustainable Urban Environment
Systems (ISSUES) Project
www.urbansustainabilityexchange.org.uk
Who are we
Deputy
Director
In-house
Journalist
Sustainable Urban Environments
Research programme
Waste, Water
and Land
management
projects
Urban and
Built
Environment
projects
Transport
projects
Metrics,
Knowledge
Management
and Decision
Making
- 18 Research Consortia
- £38 Million Research
-400 Researchers from 30 different UK
Universities
-ISSUES - Implementation Strategies for
Sustainable Urban Environment Systems (ISSUES)
Project
Warm Up Exercise
Warm Up Exercise
(SHOW OF HANDS PLEASE)
• Have you identified enduser audiences for your
research?
Warm Up Exercise
(SHOW OF HANDS PLEASE)
• Have you done any work
to find out what your end
users might want?
Warm Up Exercise
(SHOW OF HANDS PLEASE)
• Have you done any work to
find out how your end users
update their knowledge &
working practice?
Impact and Success
•Success and Impact from the stakeholder side
•PRODUCT How is your product (findings/tools/information) going to help me do my job ?
•ACCESSIBILITY Can I find it easily, and is it easy to find, understand and use?
•ADAPTABLE? Is it fit for purpose / fit for my purposes? And how adaptable is it?
•TIMING How are you going to answer my needs / help me in time / at the right time?
•TESTING & RISK How well has this been tested in real-life situations? Are there risks in using it? What
are the perceptions of the risks in using this new product /info?
•KEEPING ABREAST Do you understand and keep abreast of the drivers, constraints and wider context
of my work so you understand what I will need next?
•FRAMEWORK- LEGISLATION Will this influence / change the legislation and regulation that shapes my
work?
•CUSTOMERS CLIENTS & STAKEHOLDERS - Will this influence / change what my customers / clients /
stakeholders want and specify?
Timing – Stakeholder Timescales...
“When you come up against a problem / research
need, within what sort of timescale do you need
information or solutions?”
‘3-9 months’
DfT/DEFRA/CLG
‘7 minutes’
‘3 minutes’
DEFRA researcher
CLG Policy Advisor
Exercise One
You get into a lift with Nick Clegg.
You have 40 seconds to ‘sell’ your research concept
before he gets out.
40 secs
Give us your ‘Elevator Pitch’
KE Landscape
Websites
Email bulletins
Personal contacts
Web-centric activity
• End-users cite web-based information as their most
frequently used means of keeping abreast of
developments in their field
• But - websites and e-bulletins need to be known and
respected by end-users and their professional groups
• Information needs to be in a “punchier format”
• How easy is it to find information about the research
you’re doing on your university’s website?
Print-centric activity
• Each profession has its preferred professional and
trade publications
• End-users very rarely go direct to academic journals.
They report there are many barriers and that they
are too expensive
• Only “once in a Blue Moon” will a journal article be
really useful to an end-user
People-centric activity
• End users cite ‘word of mouth’, meetings and
colleagues as common sources of new information
• Events: “hard to justify attendance unless there’s an
opportunity to provide input or get access to
somebody you wouldn’t normally meet”
• Information on practical experience / practical
knowledge is valued
Otherwise Engaged :
Know your KT Landscape
Kate Beckmann
Annabel Cooper
www.urbansustainability.org.uk