agile-ox Overview Summer 2016

Providing links to
the local
Engaging new
audiences,
re-engaging old
Facilitating
research impact,
adding value
Building &
maintaining
networks &
partnerships
Enabling
innovation & the
‘Living Lab’
Increasing
agility

Introduction
Halfway through its second year, the agile-ox local engagement and knowledge
exchange project is quickly gaining visibility and momentum.
The project has a series of successful experimental events and engagement activities
under its belt, and an ever-growing and engaged network at its fingertips, stretching
across Oxfordshire and beyond.
With its understanding of local priorities and University expertise, agile-ox is perfectly
placed to connect the University’s research with local opportunities, building
partnerships and facilitating impact, and working to maximise our contribution to the
county’s environmental futures.
agile-ox is adding value to the University’s environmental research and networks,
identifying opportunities for new collaboration and research, and ensuring the
University is an important player in our ‘agile’ future, both locally and globally.
The following document outlines the strategic value of the project, highlighting some
of its successes to date.
Mim Saxl, Project Coordinator, agile-ox
Match
Funding Needed
agile-ox is currently funded
by the Patsy Wood Trust, and
has been offered additional funding
for next year and beyond, if match
funding can be found. For this funding
to be unlocked and for the project to
continue, match funding must be
obtained by September 2016.
“
Oxford University has huge, and largely untapped, potential to help the people of
Oxford and Oxfordshire address sustainability challenges, like flooding, clean energy
and food security [...] agile-ox is connecting the University’s world-leading expertise
with local government, businesses, NGOs and people.
Professor Jim Hall, Director of the ECI, University of Oxford
“

Providing links to the local
In a world where the local agenda is growing in importance, and local action is seen
as a crucial part of responding to some of the biggest challenges we face, agile-ox is
providing a key link to the local.
The project is mapping Oxfordshire’s ‘hot topics’ and linking them to the University’s
current research, creating benefits for both the University and Oxfordshire’s decisionmakers
and innovators.
Tuned into the needs and priorities of local decision makers, businesses, researchers
and the wider community, agile-ox enables the University to take full advantage of
local opportunities and capability, and provides a gateway to the local for University
researchers.
With agile-ox’s broad knowledge of University priorities and research, and through
its fast-growing network, the project is enabling Oxfordshire’s environmental
stakeholders to take full advantage of the University’s largely untapped expertise.
By showcasing cutting edge research and public engagement activities, it raises local
awareness, facilitating joined-up thinking and creating new beneficial partnerships.
“
agile-ox is a key mechanism in ensuring that we
can better connect with groups and companies on
our doorstep to make sure they can take advantage
of our network and inform the work that we do.
“
Dr Pete Walton, Oxford Climate Research Network,
University of Oxford
“
The agile-ox project is extremely valuable in
providing a ‘way in’ to the University [...] it’s fantastic
to have this resource connecting the University
academics with local communities, public sector
and businesses.
“
Jenny Carr, Low Carbon Oxford, Oxford City Council

agile-ox engagement to date
OU RESEARCH
COMMUNITY
INFORMATION &
RESEARCH
CIRCULATING
WORKING WITH
OTHER OU KE
50+ OXFORDSHIRE STAKEHOLDERS
LINKED INTO AGILE-OX

Increasing agility
In January 2016, in her admission address, the new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise
Richardson, called for a fast-moving and ‘agile’ University at the forefront of global
change. She asked, “how do we ensure that we organise ourselves to respond with
agility to opportunities as they arise?”
The wide subject and stakeholder remit of agile-ox allows the University and County’s
key stakeholders to be increasingly agile, enabling us all to respond creatively,
efficiently and effectively to the complex environmental and social challenges we
face.
The project’s breadth of scope acknowledges and mirrors the real-world complexity,
interconnectedness and interdisciplinarity of these challenges, and is in line with
current nexus research thinking.
Environmental Challenges & Digital Technology workshop, June 2015:
• Fifty individuals from research (eight University of Oxford Departments), public
sector and business, brought together for a half-day networking workshop
• Led directly to new ‘Resilient Oxford’ workshop and City Council-led Rockerfeller
Institute bid for new Resilience Officer post
• Prime example of area which does not slot neatly into one subject category
research-wise, but which is key to thinking about Oxfordshire’s future, and a priority
for local Councils and SMART Oxford
• Creation of this interdisciplinary network increased agility and ability of county
to respond to funding opportunity
“
agile-ox’s workshop [...] was a valuable forum to
present the Smart Oxford initiative, and provided
helpful feedback from the wider business, academic
and civic community on the environmental
challenges and opportunities facing the city [...] The
network connections that it facilitated were also
useful in feeding into further local events
“
Bill Imlah, Digital Research & Collaboration Officer,
Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team; Smart Oxford
Board

Engaging new audiences, re-engaging old
agile-ox is developing creative methods of engagement, trailling new approaches
and building engagement expertise across the research community.
Through its blog posts, social media presence and events, the project is developing
new ways to communicate often complex ideas in engaging and accessible ways,
to a wide range of local audiences. Through its networks, it is enabling the University
research community to take advantage of the many local opportunities for showcasing
research.
The agile-ox project is on hand to facilitate engagement on behalf of the wide
range of cutting edge and locally relevant research happening at the University,
and is proactive in sharing expertise and contacts with others in Oxfordshire’s
environmental community and supporting wider engagement efforts.
Oxfordshire: Welcome to the Anthropocene:
• Series of events and activities to engage Oxfordshire with current thinking
around the concept of the Anthropocene
• Activities included: online survey; Anthropocene-focused web content; article
in InTandem Magazine and a well-attended and controversial Ecomodernism debate
with Mark Lynas in partnership with OCTF
• Project culminated in ‘Climate Culture: Making the Anthropocene’, an evening
event with short talks from researchers, a collaborative installation from local artists
(including two new pieces of poetry) and the opportunity for attendees to participate
in an Anthropocene-inspired interactive sound workshop with composer Toby Young
“
As a researcher and practitioner with an interest
in public understanding of climate science through
art, I feel that agile-ox’s model is a highly effective
one, with huge potential for growth and even wider
impact in the local area.
“
Dr Toby Young, composer & Oxford University Faculty of
Music

Facilitating research impact, adding value
agile-ox has built up extensive knowledge, networks and expertise, positioning it to
add value to the plethora of locally focussed and locally relevant University research.
Whether researchers want help with identifying participants, testbeds for research,
opportunities for funding and collaboration, or identifying and creating new and
interesting pathways to impact, agile-ox is on hand to help.
The project adds value to existing University initiatives, for example playing a key role
within the Oxford Networks for the Environment, by facilitating shared events and
providing access to an extensive local network and eager audiences.
ECI-based research project METER:
• Working closely with EPSRC fellow Dr Philipp Grunewald to support research
project METER, ‘Measuring and Evaluating Time- and Energy-use Relationships’
• Support includes help with recruiting 500 participants needed for research,
identifying opportunities to access and engage new local audiences
• Working to develop innovative role-playing game, ‘Power Struggle Neighbours’,
to happen as part of Low Carbon Oxford Week 2016
• This event will simultaneously raise the profile of the research project and encourage
participantion, allow Dr Grunewald to test new ideas and a new engagement
tool, whilst also celebrating and increasing awareness of the Oxford Energy Network
and ECI’s 25th Anniversary, amongst key local stakeholders
“
The events put on by agile-ox, and Mim Saxl’s
engaging manner in particular, have created
valuable contacts with local businesses and
stakeholders, which have had a positive impact on
my own research and that of my colleagues.
“
Dr Philipp Grunewald, FICE, EPSRC Fellow, Deputy
Director of Energy Research, University of Oxford

Building & maintaining networks & partnerships
agile-ox plays an important role in relationship management, both internally
and externally, building new networks and partnerships with Oxfordshire’s
stakeholders, and strengthening existing links.
The project’s extensive networks allow the University to spot interesting opportunities
for synergy and creative collaboration, and also builds capacity and knowledge, so
when an opportunity arises, the University is poised to take advantage rapidly.
agile-ox is recognised by many as both a gateway into and out of the University,
and it is playing an important role in persuading both ‘town’ and ‘gown’ of the value
of collaboration.
Ongoing relationship with key local stakeholder Good Food Oxford:
• Participatory role in governance and direction of Good Food Oxford, Oxford’s
sustainable food network, through inclusion in Steering Group
• Series of joint ‘Research Kitchen’ events, showcasing the University’s hottest new
food-relevant research, increasing engagement and collaboration
• Upcoming food scenarios workshop, the result of a Research Kitchen event, with
buy-in from ten key stakeholders
• Brought Good Food Oxford and local stakeholders into new food research
projects at the ECI
• Provided free office space to Good Food Oxford for two six-week periods in 2015-
16, during periods of low occupancy
“
By facilitating conversations and connections,
agile-ox has played a critical part in allowing
Oxford’s sustainable food network to integrate
its activities with the latest food systems thinking
at the ECI. And in turn, Good Food Oxford is now
feeding in local knowledge to help shape applied
ECI research in the future.
“
Hannah Fenton, Good Food Oxford

Enabling innovation & the ‘Living Lab’
agile-ox promotes the value of Oxfordshire as a testbed for innovative research.
The project is well-placed to identify opportunities for local testing of research, and
plays an active matchmaking role between research and action, developing new
partnerships for innovation.
agile-ox is actively engaged in the process of idea creation, for example running
hackathons to develop new solutions to the County’s current problems, and facilitating
the local trial of resulting prototypes.
Pedalling Innovation, Oxford’s First Cycling Data Hackathon, February 2016:
• Designed to generate ideas and solutions to support the University’s Transport
Strategy and tackle challenges to cycling in Oxford city
• Held in partnership with Oxford University Estates in collaboration with SMART
Oxford, the Broken Spoke Bike Co-op, MobOx and Oxford University’s Transport
Studies Unit, with active involvement from both Oxfordshire County Council and
Oxford City Council
• Hack generated 6 ideas, all of which have follow-on development support from
key stakeholders, including Oxfordshire County Council and Oxford University Estates.
“[This] generated a huge amount of energy for
using Oxford as a living lab [...] agile-ox surpassed
all expectations and enabled us to engage with a
range of key stakeholders whilst crucially allowing
the disruption necessary to break with conventional
thinking and innovate. Quite simply we could not
have done this without the advice, expertise and
knowledge of agile-ox.
“
Adam Bows, Sustainable Transport Manager, University
of Oxford

Support for agile-ox
“I have found working with Mim and the agile-ox project very helpful indeed for our
efforts to foster a functioning locally-focussed Enterprise culture between different
groups within the university and with local businesses and policy makers. Her support
has been essential for the development of Low carbon and other environmental
initiatives, and with getting a programme of hackathons and similar events going
to build that collaborative dimension. Without Mim’s enthusiasm and expertise in
drawing people together we would be struggling to get strong support across the
university. We are currently working together very successfully in delivering several
outward facing activities that demonstrate the impact that the university has locally,
and with the impact agenda rising, to lose Mim and agile-ox at this point would set
us back a long way.”
Dr Anne Miller, Enterprise Programme, Mathematical, Physical & Life Sciences, Oxford
University
“agile-ox/Mim is proving an invaluable resource. She has facilitated an increasing
number of linkages, interactions and shared learning events between academics and
local people which helps inform and strengthen local action on climate change and
other environmental issues, as well providing feedback and new ideas for academic
research. She has facilitated a number of extremely interesting and useful events
the most notable of which recently was on air quality with academic experts, local
council, Friends of the Earth and local community groups. The number and range
of interactions between academics and local organisations appears to be widening
due to her activities. One indicators of this is increased University engagement in Low
Carbon Oxford week this year.”
Ruth Mayne, Low Carbon Futures, ECI
“agile-ox is important in identifying and connecting stakeholders and researchers
across Oxfordshire, making it an important catalyst for action, an effective resource for
those seeking to find stakeholder partners. This was well demonstrated when setting
up our “Bicester and beyond” project on green infrastructure, which was commended
for its engagement with a wide range of stakeholders.”
Pam Berry, Senior Research Fellow, ECI
“agile-ox has been a crucial resource to support the ongoing relations between the
ECI and community energy and carbon reduction projects in Oxfordshire. An example
is the support it offered for the annual skillshare of CAG Oxfordshire. This kind of
support would not be possible within the restrictions of project funding, but is crucial
in maintaining good relations with a sector that has been very involved in research
projects in the past four years.”
Jo Hamilton, ECI and Project Co-ordinator for ClimateXChange

“agile-ox is answering a much needed and routinely underfunded function to connect
our University research with the local community. The events put on by agile-ox, and
Mim Saxl’s engaging manner in particular, have created valuable contacts with local
businesses and stakeholders, which have had a positive impact on my own research
and that of my colleagues.”
Dr Philipp Grunewald, FICE, EPSRC Fellow, Deputy Director of Energy Research, University
of Oxford
“Oxford University has huge, and largely untapped, potential to help the people of
Oxford and Oxfordshire address sustainability challenges, like flooding, clean energy
and food security. The Oxford Networks for the Environment are joining up expertise
in environment and energy across the university, and agile-ox is connecting that
world-leading expertise with local government, businesses, NGOs and people.”
Professor Jim Hall, Director of the ECI
“The Oxford Climate Research Network prides itself on being able to engage people
outside of the University with high quality climate information. agile-ox is a key
mechanism in ensuring the we can better connect with groups and companies on our
doorstep to make sure they can take advantage of our network and inform the work
that we do.”
Dr Pete Walton, Knowledge Exchange Research Fellow, UKCIP , Oxford Climate Research
Network Coordinator
“agile-ox’s workshop on exploring opportunities for collaboration in Oxfordshire on
environmental challenges and digital technology was a valuable forum to present
the Smart Oxford initiative, and provided helpful feedback from the wider business,
academic and civic community on the environmental challenges and opportunities
facing the city.
The network connections that it faciliated were also useful in feeding into further
local events, also involving agile-ox, including the Resilient Oxford workshop (which
resulted in a submitted proposal to the Rockefeller Institute’s 100 Resilient Cities
competition [winners to be announced later this year]) and the Pedalling Innovation
workshop, where agile-ox worked with the County Council to make available a range
of cycling-related data on their recently-developed Open Data Platform for Oxford.
Mim Saxl’s network of connections, and related articles on the agile-ox blog, has been
valuable in connecting the Smart Oxford initiative with local groups such as Good
Food Oxford.”
Bill Imlah, Digital Research & Collaboration Officer, Knowledge Exchange and Impact
Team; Smart Oxford Board

“The Estates Services Environmental Sustainability team needed to find pragmatic, low
cost and non-infrastructure solutions to support the University’s Transport Strategy
objectives to improve the experience and safety of cycling in Oxford. This required a
bottom up approach, working with the community and drawing in a wide range of
partners to identify develop and test ideas that would work locally. The first port of
call for advice was Mim at agile-ox, who suggested a Hackathon event to get diverse
groups of people creating and innovating solutions for cycling. This was a particularly
valuable approach as cycling can be an emotive subject sometimes dominated by
self-selected experts with strong views and fixed ways of thinking.
Working with agile-ox, a pre-hack public launch was held in the Said Business School
on 18th June 2015 which successfully re-framed the issues and collectively identified
the key problems and potential solutions. This led into a 2 day Hackathon event on
5th and 6th February 2016 which generated a huge amount of energy for using Oxford
as a living lab and three strong cycling solutions which are being explored by the
University.
The hackathon was a complex and difficult event to organise and the success
dependent on the right mix of people, speakers, technical and academic expertise,
facilitation, judges, food, venue and pre and post marketing and social media. agile-ox
surpassed all expectations and enabled us to engage with a range of key stakeholders
whilst crucially allowing the disruption necessary to break with conventional thinking
and innovate. Quite simply we could not have done this without the advice, expertise
and knowledge of agile-ox.”
Adam Bows, Sustainable Transport Manager, University of Oxford
“I was lucky enough to work with agile-ox on a public engagement programme in
Oxford based around understanding the Anthropocene. The event was a thoroughly
engaging one, providing a range of activities including presentations from Oxford
University staff and more informal presentations of artistic work alongside creative
workshops held by local practitioners.
Informal feedback after the event was highly positive, with participants feeling that the
broad mix of approaches to the evening had really helped open up the complexities
of the Anthropocene, with many feeling that it had helped them engage better with
the local impact of climate issues. As a researcher and practitioner with an interest
in public understanding of climate science through art, I feel that agile-ox’s model
is a highly effective one, with huge potential for growth and even wider impact in
the local area. As such, I am very excited about the potential of working further with
agile-ox to bring together art/music and environmental issues.”
Dr Toby Young, composer & Oxford University Faculty of Music

“We found the agile-ox network to be invaluable when we were developing a series of
recent proposals for work with local stakeholders in Oxfordshire. We were able to put
together a strong consortium of stakeholders drawn from the local councils, NGOs
and civil society groups in just a few days, to meet tight proposal deadlines.
One of these proposals – for a study of Green Infrastructure in Bicester – was
successful in receiving funding from NERC, and is now shaping up to be a high-impact
project. The strong stakeholder support and the user-led nature of the project was a
significant factor in obtaining the funding from NERC. We are looking to build on this
by developing more locally-based work in future, and the links we have established
through agile-ox mean that we are now in a much stronger position to do this. The
involvement of local groups outside academia means that we can develop research
that has real value in addressing local problems, and this can then be extended more
widely to achieve national or international impact.”
Alison Smith, Biodiversity & Climate Adaptation, Oxford University

“[W]e recognise the value of the projects that agile-ox (you) have been instrumental
in developing around the hackathons and wider citizen engagement.’
James Golding-Graham, Innovation and Research, Oxfordshire County Council
“agile-ox has been very useful for us in terms of contact on air quality and flooding. I
am positive that as a result of agile-ox we now have a viable project around air quality
monitors. It has been helpful in providing contacts and plays a really important role
in linking us to the research at the University.”
Mai Jarvis, Environmental Policy Team Leader, Oxford City Council
“The agile-ox programme provides an important linkage between the University of
Oxford and the wider environmental community with excellent initiatives such as the
Pedalling Innovation cycling data hackathon in February which produced a range of
cycling related apps and ideas that will be taken forward by the University and by
Oxfordshire County Council.”
Tony Hart, Digital, Media & Publishing Network Navigator, Oxfordshire LEP; Smart
Oxford Project Board
“We have greatly valued the input of agile-ox over the last six months, and have been
enjoying the increasing number of link-ups between Oxford City Council and Oxford
University’s research and researchers that the project has facilitated. As well as useful
participation in and contribution to council-initiated events, agile-ox has created a
number of very interesting events of its own, around topics of great interest to us.
For example the ‘Digital technology and environmental challenges’ workshop which
provided very well facilitated space and time for attendees to focus their minds on the
opportunities that technology and the ‘smart’ agenda offer Oxfordshire.
We were also really pleased that agile-ox were able to run a cycle hackathon launch
as part of Low Carbon Oxford week and look forward to the follow up. Hackathons
can turn aspirations and good intentions into concrete solutions and next steps for
the challenges that we face today. We are particularly excited about the prospects
of working further with agile-ox on such events as a tool to address challenges such
as transport in and around the city, meeting the city and county’s carbon emissions
targets and fuel poverty – to name only a few. The University should definitely look to
continue to work with partners locally and we hope that agile-ox will continue to act
as a useful way in to working more closely with the university’s research community.”
Mairi Brookes, Oxford City Council OxFutures Programme

“agile-ox provides an extremely valuable connection point between our business, the
University, and local Oxford issues. For us, it provides a framework and pretext for
focusing some of our work close to home; often resulting in a more integrated ‘nexus’
style approach to projects than in our wider work. And agile-ox provides a natural
and regular contact point for us with the University, resulting in a healthy flow of
ideas, insight, and - occasionally - staff!”
Tom Curtis, Partner, 3Keel LLP
“The agile-ox project is extremely valuable in providing a ‘way in’ to the University
and some of the research happening in Oxford behind closed doors. As one of
the organisers of the Low Carbon Oxford Week festival, I have found it very useful
working with Mim to organise lively and innovative events to engage the public on
sustainability and reveal some of the exciting work being done within the ECI.
agile-ox is also a great source of inspiring events and initiatives that we frequently
highlight to other Low Carbon Oxford network members. It’s fantastic to have this
resource connecting the University academics with local communities, public sector
and businesses – I really look forward to working with the project further in future.”
Jenny Carr, Low Carbon Oxford, Oxford City Council
“By facilitating conversations and connections, agile ox has played a critical part in
allowing Oxford’s sustainable food network Good Food Oxford to integrate its activities
with the latest food systems thinking at the ECI. And in turn Good Food Oxford is now
feeding in local knowledge to help shape applied ECI research in the future. agile-ox is
a brilliant example of how the university and the local community can work together
for mutual benefit and greater impact.
For example, our joint series of “Research Kitchen” events has brought together the
best food research with local food actors – with beneficial outcomes including seeding
a redistributed food manufacturing project. agile-ox has also brokered temporary
office space for the Good Food Oxford team, which has saved us hundreds of pounds
to spend instead on supporting local food businesses, the accessibility of good food
for everyone, and reducing Oxford’s food waste. The benefits of these connections can
only grow over time and we strongly support the extension of the agile ox programme.”
Hannah Fenton, Good Food Oxford

“You have been really helpful and we made some valuable contacts through agile-ox.
Example 1: Put us in touch with behaviour change expert – and she is now talking
to the NW Bicester EcoTown developers about the possibility to provide carbon
conversations for residents that move in. Example 2: Put us in touch with heat network
expert and we have some really good discussions about our scheme in Bicester”
Gabi Kaiser, Cherwell District Council, Project Officer (Sustainability), EcoBicester Project
Team
“Thank you for taking the time to help me get an overview of relevant research and
practitioner-orientated activities happening at Oxford University and the useful
personal introductions you made over the last months. It is really hard for an
organisation like ourselves to keep up with all that is happening at the university. We
hope to be able to develop some work further, including on Natural Capital and some
apps you are developing.
Also I met two people at the recent workshop, where there may be good follow up
on biodiversity monitoring and engagement of nature conservation volunteering
groups respectively. Please continue feeding in to our newsletter, so we can continue
to disseminate important events about publications and events to the wider
environmental sector.”
Dr Ingo Schüder, Wild Oxfordshire
“agile-ox has provided a brilliant interface between the university and local businesses
working in the sustainability space through events such as the Oxford Green Breakfasts,
facilitating the transfer of knowledge from the ECI’s research into a wider community
of sustainability professionals able to integrate this thinking into their practice”
Julian Cottee, 3Keel
“You were very helpful in sourcing an ECI speaker for the symposium and in helping to
publicise it. We had a full hall and a good mix of people including several academics.
Being able to collaborate with ECI helped raise the profile of the event. For us as a
group the conclusions of the symposium were clear and helpful - and hopefully the
meeting report will be useful to a wider readership. You have also introduced us
to other programmes which are running or are planned which may be useful to us
in keeping track of what’s happening in natural flood management. We’ve tried to
engage with ECI before but it was only since your role was created that it has been
possible to implement an activity. Without you being there I don’t think this would
have happened.”
Simon Collings & Peter Rawcliffe, Oxford Flood Alliance
“Huge thanks. The whole Welcome to the Anthropocene series has had such good
feedback.”
Nicola Mcconville, Blake Lapthorn

“In its early days, agile-ox provided the Community Action Group (CAG) Project with a
great space for the annual CAG skillshare in November 2014, as well as offering a short
workshop for skillshare attendees on accessing research and creating links with the
university. For the skillshare this year, agile-ox is keen to be more deeply involved and
offer a greater amount of community-group-focussed content from the university’s
researchers. We are looking forward to working with agile-ox on the programme,
and are glad that along with the free venue, the project will play a bigger role in terms
of the day’s content.
It is of course useful for our CAG members to have access to and connection with the
university, and in particular the Environmental Change Institute. In the past, a key role
in the development of Oxfordshire’s CAG scene was played by ECI’s ClimateXChange,
and we hope that if agile-ox continues, it can build on this, and continue its role as a
friendly gateway to expertise and potentially exciting collaboration for our community
groups.”
Peter Lefort, CAG Project Officer