Topic Hub: Knowledge Exchange Framework
Research England has released the fifth iteration of the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF), capturing the breadth and depth of KE across England’s diverse higher education provider landscape. The KEF5 outcomes are a welcome picture of university engagement at a time when universities are being urged to do more for their local communities, with regional businesses, to create new innovative companies and much more.
The KEF, which was designed by Research England in close collaboration with the sector, provides a valuable tool for assessing HEP performance across seven key areas with HEPs grouped into clusters to enable more accurate benchmarking within HE ‘peer groups’. It enables individual institutions to identify areas for improvement, whilst revealing broader sector trends.
Stuart Wilkinson, CEO of KEUK said:
“Each year the KEF provides an opportunity to focus on knowledge exchange activity across the university sector and explore and celebrate the many stories of how universities are striving to do more with, and for, many different audiences. It’s fantastic to see our members continuing to improve their performance across the seven KEF areas and we offer congratulations to all those KE professional involved in delivering these results.”
You can read the full press release here.
We’ll be celebrate KE success stories from across the UK at our annual KE Awards, taking place on 27th November in Salford. Find out more here.
KEF is already regarded positively in higher education – improving the status of knowledge exchange, driving strategic and evolved approaches, and helping to improve data. It is also generally regarded as a sound approach, with new features introduced today that provide even better public information on the rich and diverse ways English universities continue to engage with society and our economy, locally, nationally, and internationally.
KEF2 uses updated data and an evolved methodology to examine the performance of English Higher Education Providers (HEPs) from a variety of different perspectives. New features for KEF2 further demonstrate that regardless of the type of activity that a university may specialise or excel in, this is reflected in their final results. KEF2 provides a more accurate picture of how universities perform across the sector whilst preserving the considered and tested model developed alongside the sector.
The new dashboards are available on the KEF’s interactive website.
Building on the successes of the first iteration of the KEF, KEF2 continues to demonstrate the range of valuable activities universities conduct with external partners across seven perspectives. These perspectives include public and community engagement, working with partners ranging from big businesses to small local firms, and how they commercialise home-grown research.
It also demonstrates the diversity of universities that support the government’s key national and global priorities through these activities. The KEF is recognised by government as “valuable to capture contributions to economic growth, such as place and civic contributions” and plays an important part in driving forwards these agendas.
David Sweeney CBE, Executive Chair of Research England, said:
“Knowledge exchange is integral to the mission and purpose of our universities, and its importance in contributing to societal and economic prosperity is strongly supported by the Government.
“Today’s new version of the Knowledge Exchange Framework takes further forward the vision and potential of KE activity, providing richer evidence to demonstrate universities’ strengths in different areas when set alongside their peers.”
This technical evolution of the first iteration of KEF dashboards includes an evolved methodology, updates to the current metrics, and enhanced presentation of the results. These changes were designed following a deep-dive review of the first iteration with the sector to further improve the robustness of the results. KEF1 dashboards were published in March 2021.
For the first time, KEF2 includes university activity conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Taking into account the KEF’s underlying data and insights from the UCI Policy Evidence Unit at the University of Cambridge, results highlight the remarkable resilience of the English higher education sector during a period of disruption and instability. In particular, activity levels have been maintained across a breadth of KE in order to support the UK’s economic and societal recovery from the pandemic. In KEF2, encouraging signs of growing success are emerging particularly in the perspectives for IP & Commercialisation and Research Partnerships.
The core principles underpinning KEF2 however remain largely unchanged, drawing on the successes of the first iteration as a novel framework in KE. Significantly, the KEF compares institutions on a like-for-like basis, with similar institutions being grouped together with their peers in ‘KE clusters’. This is a fair and balanced approach that avoids making unhelpful comparisons between incomparable institutions. Clustering has been instrumental in demonstrating the value of universities of all sizes and specialisms and their contributions to the UK economy.
KEF results are determined by taking data covering a wide range of a university’s activities, and using this to form a series of metrics. These then go into seven perspectives, and updated for the second iteration, a university receives a quintile score for each perspective displayed in relation to the average for its cluster.
The KEF website continues to show the detailed, qualitative information submitted by HEPs for the first iteration about how they build community engagement and promote growth in their local areas.
For more information about the KEF, including about clusters, perspectives and metrics, please take a look at the technical notes on the KEF website.
The majority of the data that form the metrics of the KEF continues to comes from the long-standing HESA Higher Education Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey, supported by:
- Narratives provided by the institutions for the first iteration that inform the local growth & regeneration and public & community engagement perspectives
- Data provided by Innovate UK
- Data provided by Elsevier.
All institutions in receipt of a Research England Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) allocation in 2021-22 are included in the exercise. Some institutions who were eligible for HEIF but did not meet the threshold for an allocation have still elected to participate in the KEF. The clusters are not ranked, and the KEF is not a league table.
Research England will continue to develop future iterations of the KEF annually. The KEF is not currently used to inform funding.
Contact: press@ukri.org
Notes
- KEF website – https://kef.ac.uk/
- Research England report: Knowledge Exchange Framework, Decisions for the second iteration – https://www.ukri.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/RE-310522-KnowledgeExchangeFrameworkDecisionsSecondIterationReport.pdf
Research England has released a report detailing decisions and next steps for the KEF following last year’s consultation and pilot exercises. PraxisAuril is pleased to see that comments and contributions from universities, businesses and other sector stakeholders – including many PraxisAuril members – have been taken into account in the final metrics, narrative information, clusters, eligibility and timelines.
The UK is already one of the best in the World for collaboration between universities and business and this work is a key component of UK innovation strategy. Alice Frost, Director of Knowledge Exchange at Research England, noted that:
“Over twenty years our universities have developed ever closer links with key stakeholders, delivering benefits for institutions and their students and unlocking knowledge for the benefit of their partners. [The KEF] exercise will bring a justified focus on the progress which had been made and which we expect to continue as the government invests more in research and innovation.”
Full details of the release and the report itself can be found on the Research England website.
PraxisAuril welcomes the KEF approach which we think will bring a renewed focus to the important role that knowledge exchange professionals play in making this important work happen. The new majority Conservative government has yet to finalise its plans for innovation and R&D investment but the expectations on universities are high. Our membership has been highly engaged throughout the KEF consultation. That engagement has strengthened the validity of the KEF data and made us stronger as a professional community; bringing together different groups of HEIs. It will give us a new framework for analysing activity, and drawing out the strengths of KE across the UK and identifying potential weaknesses. Research England found broad support from the sector for accompanying narrative in three areas: public and community engagement, local growth and regeneration activities, and the broader context in which they operate. We think this will help partners to understand each university’s priorities. Because the KEF is designed to be low burden, it is based on data which is already reported by universities and no new data categories are proposed for the first exercise. Many of our members are concerned that HE-BCI data is not able to fully articulate the full range of KE activities and their economic, social and cultural impacts and the ongoing review of HE-BCI data put cart before horse. Therefore, whilst we regard KEF as an important step we hope for refinements in the next few years.
Sean Fielding, current chair of PraxisAuril said:
“The KEF has come at an important time. The UK is set for a new era of R&D driven growth and productivity, and collaboration between businesses and universities has never been so important. The UK already punches above its weight in innovation and knowledge exchange and the KEF will give us the data to prove it.”
PraxisAuril will continue to work with Research England to engage members, deliver the Framework and help our sector stakeholders to understand its purpose all whist being a critical friend in its development and implementation.
Next steps
The first results using the Framework will be published in summer 2020 at which point the underlying framework will be reviewed. No decision has yet been made about how the KEF will link to funding, and the current £213m HEIF will continue to be allocated using the current method.
In January 2019 Research England published a consultation on our proposals for the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF). At the same time it invited English Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to participate in a pilot exercise to test and refine the proposals. The findings contained in the report are being used to inform the ongoing development of the KEF.
- The consultation closed on 14 March 2019 having received 147 responses to the online consultation. In general the approach outlined in the consultation was cautiously welcomed, with aspects including the low burden approach, the proposed clustering arrangement and the integration of narrative receiving broad support. The report outlines the themes raised by respondees across the proposed elements of the KEF.
- The pilot exercise brought together 21 English HEIs across a series of five workshops to interrogate the proposals in detail. The successful pilot exercise demonstrated the feasibility of the overall approach and provided detailed insight into the proposed metrics and narrative templates, identifying potential improvements and areas for further exploration.
Data presented in the report can be downloaded in a separate data spreadsheet.
Downloads
Knowledge Exchange Framework: Outcomes of Consultation and Pilot Exercise
Originally posted on the Research England website.
Research England has today published a document detailing proposals for how the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) could work and would like to hear the HE sector’s views on these proposals. The proposals set out in the document aim to implement a Government policy priority for the KEF set out in the Industrial Strategy White Paper in 2017.
The KEF consultation document details the proposed design and implementation plan for the first iteration of the KEF for English HEIs. The consultation proposals build on three KEF documents published in November 2018: Summary of KEF call for evidence responses, KEF Cluster Analysis Report, and KEF Technical Note. A full copy of the press release can be read on the Research England website. The consultation will be open until midday, Thursday 14 March 2019. English HEIs can respond to it by completing a survey.
Sean Fielding, Director of Innovation, Impact and Business at the University of Exeter and Chair of PraxisAuril said:
“UK Universities are already some of the best in the world at engaging effectively with business and for working with small businesses UK universities are global leaders. The Knowledge Exchange Framework will help us to benchmark our performance so that we can keep getting better. This work is vital for the success of the UK economy and the UK’s knowledge transfer professionals have a key part to play in its success.”
Research England also plans to run a pilot KEF with a representative cross-section of HEIs between February and April 2019. They are now calling for English HEIs eligible for Research England funding to register their interest in being involved in this pilot exercise for the remainder of the 2018-19 academic year. Interested applicants should read the guidance before completing the form in the consultation document, and submit it to KEPolicy@re.ukri.org by midday, Friday 25 January 2019. The pilot will further test and refine proposals, and will be used to inform the development of the KEF.
PraxisAuril will respond to the consultaiton and actively encourages members to submit their own views as well. You can read a blog piece about the KEF by our Head of Policy, Tamsin Mann, on Wonkhe today and keep up to date with PraxisAuril’s KEF activities via our dedicated KEF webpage.
Professor Trevor McMillan, Chair of Research England’s KEF Steering Group, set the scene and trailed the KEF Concordat, stressing the importance of measuring and evaluating how universities do Knowledge Exchange (KE). He identified three key actions for university management:
- Make a clear statement of the role of KE in your institution;
- support staff in delivering to that role;
- provide clear access points and policies to enable business to engage.
Evaluation should involve self-assessment, leading to a sharing of best practice and, where applicable, improved HEIF strategies. I pointed out that a recent pilot carried out by PraxisAuril, providing a self-assessment tool to help member universities identify their KE aspirations and maturity levels, fits perfectly with this direction of travel. Alice Frost, Research England, drew attention to the recent increases in KE funding by Government in her presentation “KEF and the land of opportunity” and the need for the KEF to demonstrate that the principles of KE (concordat and good practice sharing) are being measured and communicated to the public. With reference to Tomas Ulrichsen’s report, she introduced the new concept of “clusters” of universities so that KE performance could be compared with others of similar resource and capabilities, rather than all compared to some notional “gold standard”.
Joe Marshall, NCUB, presented a view from industry, stressing the need for universities to understand business drivers as well as their own if they are to realise their potentially pivotal role in supporting the national innovation agenda. Businesses would like to see more “people exchanges” as part of KE and he emphasised the importance of building trust and reputation in establishing strategic partnerships. The value of the ‘user voice’ in all aspects of KE is an important one but hard to capture in current metrics (but see our blog series on industry engagement).
In the afternoon, speakers from London Metropolitan University and the Royal College of Art gave impressive examples of what KE means in their institutions. Finally, Anne Klein of the Chartered Association of Business Schools rounded off the session with a provocative talk questioning the need for the KEF at all! Throughout the day a lively participation by the delegates attested to the high level of interest in the proposals.
In my summing up, I noted that in barely 20 years we have moved from debating whether KE (then described as “Third Leg” or Third Arm”, nudge, wink) was a proper primary activity for universities at all, to a discussion about how to embed, measure and improve KE. KE is now widely accepted as one of the three core activities carried out by universities. I pointed out that PraxisAuril was proud to have worked with Research England and others to provide input from the KE practitioners’ perspective and that this would continue. But we live in unertain times, and with a new Universities Minister in post, will the KEF survive? Will we see the draft Concordat published before Christmas, as promised? How will universities react to the proposed KEF clusters and metrics when released? Are metrics the best way to measure this activity at all? And how will the public at large benefit from this exercise? Lots of questions remain – perhaps for a future conference?
Dr David Secher is Patron and co-Founder of PraxisAuril.
Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) and Higher Education – Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) review
Speaker: Hamish McAlpine, Senior Higher Education Policy Adviser, Knowledge Exchange – HEFCE
Date and location: Thursday 15th February 2018 from 1 to 4 pm, NTU Dryden Centre, The Courtroom NG1 4EY.
To register please contact Estelle Paley estelle.paley@ntu.ac.uk
HEFCE has launched a new portal dedicated to sharing best practice in Knowledge Exchange (KE). The KE Framework portal will identify and develop communities of practice and their materials across the full range of knowledge exchange actvities.
A report by Research Consulting forms the basis for the summary of existing communities of practice, and links will be added as the scope of the framework expands. Development of the framework will include periodic ’deep dive’ reviews of areas of KE policy and practice, such as the recent McMillan Review of Technology Transfer. PraxisUnico, AURIL and other sector stakeholders have been working with HEFCE to develop the portal and provide resources and will continue to be closely involved as the project continues.
The KE Framework portal is part of a package of support aimed at keeping English university knowledge exchange operating at world class standards. Further details can be found on the HEFCE KE Good Practice webpages.
This report was led by Professor Trevor McMillan, Vice-Chancellor of Keele University, in his capacity as the universities-HEFCE knowledge exchange framework champion. For this report he led a group of university experts to review good practice in technology transfer, as one aspect to the university knowledge exchange framework.
The review focuses on technology transfer, defined as the processes of spinning out new companies based on university intellectual property (IP) and licensing IP to existing companies. The review report stresses that technology transfer is just one route to impact, and universities should take the route appropriate to the specific technology in any particular case. National policy should continue to be focused around all forms of knowledge exchange.
The review looks at extensive evidence on UK and overseas practice and performance in technology transfer, and concludes that UK universities are internationally competitive in their practices. National and institutional policies for technology transfer need to be context-specific, reflecting university characteristics, the nature of the technology (such as its technology sector) and entrepreneurial features of place (the ecosystem of the university).
The report recommends greater attention to the leadership and governance dimensions of technology transfer, improved evidence and understanding of the implications of ecosystems and technology sector differentiation for successful technology transfer, and continuing support for the UK’s strong technology transfer professional community (PraxisUnico) and academic entrepreneurs.
The report was released in September 2016.