Knowledge Exchange (KE) Career Pathway: The Impact on your career

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The term ‘knowledge exchange’ (KE) is shorthand for the multiple interactions between HEIs and businesses, public services, charities and communities to create societal and economic benefit. KE Career pathways are well-known throughout Higher Education and your ability to demonstrate impact in this area is proven to generate career opportunities and to improve promotion prospects.

The main criteria of Knowledge Exchange are set out below. To join this pathway we are looking for leaders of Knowledge Exchange who have initiated, designed or lead on particular KE activities. We require evidence to be provided for 2 or more of the main criteria. You will also need to indicate how you meet some of the peer esteem criteria detailed at the end of this section.


  1. Initiating, designing and/or leading on the development and delivery of:
  • in-curriculum and extra-curricula projects that enable students and graduates to work on ‘live projects’, where the brief has been co-developed with a client or partner from the private, public or third sector
  • funded collaborative KE projects with partner organisations from the private, public or third sector, such as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs)
  • the provision of consultancy services to organisations from the private, public or third sector, based on your academic area of expertise
  • start-up and growth support to external businesses, as part of wider University business support programmes

  1. Initiating, designing and/or leading on the development and delivery of:
  • the management and organization of placements, internships and/or volunteering
  • curriculum development in liaison with private, public or third sector partners and advisors
  • student and graduate enterprise and employability initiatives, particularly those that reinforce the Creative Attributes Framework

  1. Initiating, designing and/or leading on the development and delivery of:
  • students, graduates and/or staff social and community engagement projects, which either address specific challenges faced by these communities, or which otherwise impact positively upon their environment including:
    • Place-making
    • Tackling local issues
    • Participation / Co-creation
    • Creating cultural capital
    • (Social) Entrepreneurship

  1. Initiating, designing and/or leading on the development of:
  • credit-bearing executive education or other professional training provision, which draws on the input of industry partners / networks

  1. Initiating, designing and/or leading on the development of:
  • the production of work in public / industry domain: designs, artefacts, shows, exhibitions, performances, events, publications which demonstrate excellence in creative practice and/or subject leadership (where such work is not intended to meet the eligibility criteria for REF submission)
  • consultancy services to organisations from the private, public or third sector, based on your academic area of expertise
  • undertaking secondments, exchanges or placements with external organisations from the private, public or third sector, for the purposes of delivering a structured form of KE activity, (via sabbaticals / staff development etc.)

 

 

We expect the above activities to generate significant positive outcomes and impacts for the University and/or third parties (e.g. reputational, financial, educational, social, cultural or environmental) in the same way as research impact is measured. KE activities should leverage additional external resources (income or in-kind) into the University to help enhance the delivery of our academic mission. Activities undertaken will ALWAYS need to specify what these outcomes and impacts are, and how their achievements are evidenced.

In addition to identifying which of the above criteria you rely on, you should also indicate, by filling in the Public Engagement Form, which of the Peer Esteem Criteria you believe you meet and provide brief details:

  • membership of external national or international judging / selection / evaluation panel or executive-level membership of professional / cultural / charitable organisation (e.g. Fellow of RSA, Board Membership)
  • invitation to act as sector / discipline expert witness
  • public speaking - invitation to speak at nationally or internationally significant sector events or invitation to editor or author nationally or internationally significant sector publications (non-research publications ONLY)
  • exhibitions - invitation to curate / lead the organisation of nationally or internationally significant sector events or invitation to exhibit at nationally or internationally significant sector events
  • panels and competitions - award winner or short-listed for nationally or internationally significant sector awards or prizes