RESEARCH AND
KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE (continued)
KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE
Middlesex has maintained its strong foundation in knowledge exchange, and has responded proactively to the challenges of Brexit and the pandemic.
The University’s key performance indicator in the Institutional Plan for Knowledge Exchange for 2017-22 was to grow Knowledge Exchange (KE) revenues at 4% above the underlying growth rate or 2% should the economy fall into recession during the planning period. Low rates of underlying macroeconomic growth warrant a lower expectation of knowledge exchange revenue yield.
Our main tracking aggregate (Higher Education - Business Community Interaction HE-BCI, return data for collaborative/ contract research, consultancy, Continuous Professional Development (CPD), facilities hire, CPD fees, regeneration projects and IP income) for the last full academic year saw a fall from £15.9 million to £13.7 million. This was almost wholly due to the combined effect of lower levels of collaborative research income resulting from lower EU funding activity (Brexit effect as partners draw back from partnering with UK institutions) and contract research values and volumes for contract research with commercial small or medium-sized enterprises falling by about a third (COVID-19 effect). These effects have continued into 2021/22.
COVID-19 and Brexit uncertainty remained a threat to our 2% year-on-year sustainable growth ambition in the 2020/21 academic year and we shall need to ensure that we rebuild income during COVID-19 recovery and as post-Brexit opportunities become clearer.
Knowledge exchange was a feature of our response to COVID-19, and a regular Research and Knowledge Exchange Subgroup of senior staff, chaired by the then Executive Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and KE), tracked and summarised best practice from COVID-19 related engagement activity.
The consequences of the pandemic for KE delivery were evident and there was a decline in newly commissioned activity compared to pre-pandemic levels as clients continued to deal with the consequences of COVID-19.
The most evident effects have been:
— Repurposing funded KE projects to meet COVID-19 related objectives
— Delays in funding — Abandonment of procurement plans that would have allowed the University to extend KE work by re-contracting.
The range and variety of new knowledge exchange work begun during the year indicates the vitality of our practice in this key area of our emerging Strategy. From CPD to contract research, and from collaborative research to public engagement, we continue to cast our net wide.
KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION THROUGH KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE
In line with our Strategy to improve social equity and wellbeing, Middlesex joined a Polish-led Erasmus+ project, ‘Improving Geriatric Patient Satisfaction’, using e-learning simulation to develop intercultural skills in older persons’ care, while the College of Policing commissioned Dr Elena Martelozzo to evaluate a new stalking screening tool used in police forces to reduce online stalking.
We continued to create solutions to complex problems and produce impactful research. Dr Hector Menendez secured an InnovateUK academic start-up accelerator award for a security evaluation tool for use in machine learning systems, while British Weight Lifting (the sport’s lead body in the UK) engaged researchers from our London Sports Institute to help implement a sound scientific rationale for evidence-based practice to be implemented across the sport, and Professor Ajit Shah continued to provide laboratory analytical services in bioscience.
Working with others remained central. Collaborative research to address the COVID-19 pandemic included Dr Kai Xu’s involvement in a wide-ranging consortium to make visual analytics a key feature of the infrastructure for combating
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