Creating Prosperity: the role of higher education in ... - Universities UK

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Creating Prosperity: the role of higher educationin driving the UK’s creative economy264.38 In the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN)’s Meld project, hosted at the university’s SandboxInnovation Lab, the Meld team persuaded the university that they should not retain any IP rights,but rather should allow the new collaborations to own all IP. This was partly to minimise any barriersto participation, but also because it was hoped that the final outcomes would be a contract with alarge media company. Although giving away IP rights may not always be feasible or desirable foruniversities, this is an example of the ways in which universities are becoming more open about IP.4.39 Meld is also interesting because it is part of the university’s focus on developing long-termrelationships with industry that go beyond placements and guest lecturers. Staff at Sandbox haveno teaching responsibilities and are therefore able to dedicate more time to industry relationships.This is significant, as research has shown that the single biggest reported barrier to academicengagement with industry is lack of time (CBR, 2010).6. CASE STUDYMeld, Sandbox, UCLANMeld was hosted at UCLAN’s innovation lab,Sandbox, as a vehicle to test methodologiesthat encourage collaborative ways of workingfor the benefit of industry. The aim of Meldwas to encourage journalists to work withinteractive designers, programmers andgames designers to develop new forms ofnon-linear digital narrative storytelling (thatis, where old and new media collide). For theindustry partners, it gave access to newideas and new talent.Meld was a collaboration between NorthernEdge (funded by the North West DevelopmentAgency, NWDA) and UCLAN’s department ofjournalism, together with SMEs, freelancejournalists and industry partners (Sky TV,Haymarket Publications and Johnston Press).The competitive process involved mediaindustry partners setting a brief on how to usenew media to work in a different way and helptake business forward. The response had to bea collaboration between journalists and digitalcreators (web programmers, coders andso on), with collaboration at the core.The competition was launched at events inManchester and Leeds, and attracted over 70people. Those interested had a month to builda collaboration and respond, supported by theSandbox team. There were 25 applications,with seven taken forward into a week-longworkshop, including speakers, job swap,mentors and support to build their strongestproposition. The week culminated in a pitchto the industry ‘buyers’. This resulted in twoprojects being progressed by Sky, one byHaymarket and one by Johnston Press.4.40 As we have argued, higher education research policy remains strongly focused on science-baseddisciplines, and mechanisms for funding research are still based on academic performance asmeasured by research publications and income. These do not always align well with activity in thecreative economy, particularly as collaborative, people-based interactions that work well for creativebusinesses do not always translate into the kind of academic research that results in publications.Even though practice-based outputs are now well established in the RAE and the Research ExcellenceFramework (REF), they can be problematic compared to print publications.4.41 In the Goldsmiths project (see over), academic research input from psychologists helped to improvebusiness practice by introducing innovative mechanisms for culture change. However, this kind ofactivity is unlikely to be rewarded in subsequent research funding allocations as it does not fit with therequirements of existing frameworks, despite the fact that it clearly added value to the partners. It ispossible that it might fall within the new impact assessment framework that is planned for the REF,but that is not yet established.4.0 Higher education’s contribution
Creating Prosperity: the role of higher educationin driving the UK’s creative economy274.42 It is also unlikely to reward the researchers (other than personally and intellectually). A careerprogression system that rewards academic research and publication may actually be a deterrentto SME engagement, particularly where this does not result in publishable research outputs. Thiswas frequently highlighted as an issue by academic researchers.q‘Due to the scientific rigour used and the expert analysts in the Goldsmiths team, we were able to quantify ourresearch results in a way we would never have been able to alone. Even in an intangible field like trying to increasethe creativity and innovation of ideas, we can now allocate our effort and funds where they have most impact andalso have hard evidence to encourage any changes that management are required to make.’Hannah McBain, BBC7. CASE STUDYGoldsmiths, University of LondonThe department of psychology at Goldsmithsworked with the BBC on the developmentof new training activities to supportmultiplatform thinking within BBC Vision.The Goldsmiths team helped devise thetraining using established processes inorganisational psychology and then evaluatedthe training outcomes.The training proved very successful andthe BBC has since rolled it out across theorganisation and to external partners. Theacademic nature of the evaluation helpedto secure senior management support, butalthough the research will be published,the research outputs will not feature aspart of the psychology department’s REFsubmission as they are not likely to score ashighly due to the kind of journals in whichthe findings will be published (managementrather than psychology). The realities ofworking with an external partner such asthe BBC also meant that the experimentalconditions could not be as tightly controlledas academic research might otherwise be,requiring some compromise on the rigour ofthe research process. As such, this kind ofactivity is dependent on the personal interestsof the academic partners rather than anyclear incentives.Despite these challenges, the project wasvery positively received, and resulted inimportant changes at the BBC that will, byembedding the training method developedand evaluated through the project, improvethe quality of multiplatform content. The factthat the training will be made available toany UK media company is a very significantindication of the success of the project, andof the role that academic input can play instimulating innovation and improvement in thecreative economy.4.43 There is also a challenge for higher education in engaging with an industry (or set of industries)in which there is a relative lack of large business. Most creative businesses are small and typicallylack the resources, financial and human, to dedicate to building and maintaining collaborativerelationships with academics. Lack of income from knowledge exchange will also affect futurefunding allocations and the method of allocating such funding to universities may not be rewardingknowledge exchange in the creative economy. New models are required, as at Digilab at TheUniversity of Warwick (see overleaf).4.0 Higher education’s contribution
Page 1 and 2: Creating Prosperity: the role of hi
Page 19: Creating Prosperity: the role of hi

Creating Prosperity: the role of higher education in ... - Universities UK

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?