COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE COMMITTEE
Minutes of the meeting of the Knowledge Exchange Committee held on
Wednesday 18th May 2011 from 14:00 to 15:30
Room G1, 55 George Square
Present:
Dr Anne Sofie Laegran, Co-convener (KE) [ASL]
Emma Giles, Secretary (KE)
Dr Heather Wilkinson,(HW)Chair (Health)
Prof Hans Barstad (Divinity)
Graham Thomson (Education)
Dr Catherine Lyall (SSPS)
Erin Jackson (Law)
Prof Stuart Sayer (Economics)
Dr José Saval (LLC)
Prof Jo Shaw (Dean of Research) [JS]
Apologies:
Simon Earp (Business)
Prof Simon King (PPLS)
Dr Pauline Phemister (IASH)
Prof Remo Pedreschi (ACE)
Prof David Greasley (HCA)
Georgina Hamshaw (KE office/ERI)
Prof Richard Williams (Dean for Postgraduate Studies)
1.
WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS
HW welcomed everyone to the meeting.
ACTION POINTS
2.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM 26th January 2011
The minutes from 26th January were approved.
KE Office
3. KE in School plans
The KE parts of School plans submitted to the College had been circulated and
it was agreed it was useful to see how diverse schools had dealt with this part
of the plan. It was noted that this reflected diversity in detail and form of the
School plans in general.
CL noted that SSPS has a more detailed KE plan with 8 targets of which some
but not all are in the School plan. JS mentioned that LLC don’t have a definite
plan due to the diversity of the subject areas and their KE activities but they
are working towards it, and they have seen increased activity this year.
GT noted that Education is doing more CPD activity and they are keen on
finding ways of monitoring the impact their CPD has in changed practice for
the students. This lead into a discussion on evaluation – where several have
had good use of follow up surveys (Survey Monkey) a few months after
courses. Others ask a question about what students expect to change at the
end of the course. Whilst this may be useful in students reflecting on changed
practice, it was noted that it is not useful for REF case studies as only achieved
impact is recognised there – anticipated impact will not count.
It was noted that for those KE directors not also having the research remit in
the role, close work with the research office and membership in the research
committee would be useful to secure synergies and information flow. It is also
important KE directors are involved with the Schools work on REF impact.
Reporting of KE activity including impact was included in several of the plans
and it was noted that PURE will be useful for recording data once it is launched
in the Summer. There is therefore no need for Schools to develop own systems
for this. It was agreed that information about PURE will be circulated.
4.
KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE IN RESEARCH CAREERS
In February, CL took on the role of Associate Dean for research careers
in CHSS, a new role to assist in development and implementation of
College policies in relation to research careers including Postgraduate
researchers and research staff.
There are 161 members of research staff across the 11 Schools (13% of
the total) but they are a heterogeneous group and not evenly
distributed between the Schools. Thus meetings with all Schools had
identified very few recurring themes – however there were concerns re:
future funding, research leadership, and training. For the latter it
seemed most Schools found bespoke training within the School most
useful, although there are concerns with how that could be funded.
CL taking four areas forward in particular:
 Share Society – researcher led network, social, humanities and arts
research, career enhancement, staff development, launch on 24 th
May (Nina Millar, Law)
 Working with Careers Advisory Service to boost awareness of career
opportunities for PHD candidates in particular through websites etc.
E.g., PPLS – have profiles of ex-students.
 The Senate Research Experience Committee – have set up a task
group to support PIs for larger projects in helping develop careers of
their research staff
 My Career portal available through MyEd – research staff in
particular can use it to log information of any course, achievement,
etc. Looking into whether this can be formalised towards a
certification so that e.g., you get points for attending particular
courses.
Researchers are often so focused on applying for grants and the related
projects that it’s less of a priority to engage in and record KE activities.
The meeting agreed that there is still a need to gain a better
understanding of what KE is and its significance among researchers –
KE office
profile-raising is already widely going on and we just need to keep
working on this.
5.
REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FROM SFC FOR THE KE GRANT
ASL ran through the key requirements of SFC for report in KTG based on
the circulated paper.
We will continue the return on income but more detailed than now,
focusing in particular on engagement with SMEs and with Scotland.
Finance is researching whether the required categories can be included
in their systems but it may have to be done manually. 10 case studies
demonstrating impact of KE will be required from the University every
year but, unlike REF, these are not assessed. ASL expects to be the one
gathering in the case studies with help from the Committee. Strategy
document and report is also required and will be coordinated centrally,
with input from ASL and the Committee. The University’s Research
Policy Group will discuss this in their meeting 13 June and are likely to
decide on responsibilities then.
SS raised the question whether it is beneficial for UoE to support this
development given our focus on excellent word class research – i.e., is
this funding that comes on top of or is it likely to be taken from the total
budget for research? ASL responded that the Government wants to see
more benefits to Scotland from their investment in HEI in general and KE
in particular. If we are not able to demonstrate this, she expects that
they are more likely to move funds to other sectors than into
fundamental research. She also noted that the KE fund is small
compared to research and teaching.
SFC would like some case studies in the Autumn so ASL will liaise with
Directors then. More information including the circular from SFC will be
sent out to Schools as soon as we have it (expected end of June).
5.
CHSS KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE SMALL GRANT 2011-2012
Discussion based on paper circulated asking whether the current
guidelines for the KE small grant encourage applications with the best
potential impact. Questions were raised in particular with regards to size
of the grant and whether we should open for some grants with buy-out
of time.
EJ, HW and JS in particular noted that the KE grant had been very
important in supporting projects in their Schools, developing external
relationships and raising the profile of KE. In the case of Law it has also
been useful in pump priming CPD activity that has lead to a good income
stream for the School.
It was noted that success rates for applications are very high and that
this should be communicated to potential applicants. This is very
positive given that the success rates for other grants are going down and
is a good reason for keeping the criteria. It should also be highlighted
that the KE office and KE directors are available to help frame the
application and the project for best possible impact.
It was agreed that the current arrangement of calls for applications for
the KE Grant in October, February and May should continue with the
same criteria. KE office to distribute overview of previous awards and
examples of how previous grants have had impact when promoting the
first call in October.
6.
KE OFFICE COMMUNICATIONS AND PLAN OF ACTIVITIES 2011-2012
AHRC KE impact hub application not successful. Have information that
10% went further – 2 in Scotland (Glasgow and Dundee).
Exchange Fellowships – currently 5 fellowships. No limit on numbers so
more applications welcome, but do require a project and a match
between academic and non-academic.
Publicity – the KE office now sends out e-bulletins using mailchimp – the
group hadn’t particularly noticed the difference but agreed that with the
email overload anything that helps to reduce the number of emails
going out is good.
Applications and awards – we are doing slightly better than last year.
7.
AOB
CL has had a query from her School - do we currently capture KE activity on an
international level in the College? ASL confirmed that the plan is that overseas
income will be tracked with the new system and information/data on
international activities are encouraged and reported alongside UK based
activities for use in case studies.
Date for next meeting:
To be confirmed
Location and time for all meetings:
CHSS meeting room, Room G1, 55 George Square, 14:00-15:30
Anne Sofie Laegran/Emma Giles
May 2011
KE Office