January 2019 has already seen one consultation open (KEF) and another one close (Vitae) so it’s a great time to be feeding into EEUK with your views.
Last year saw the launch of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship report on Enterprise Education which featured the work of EEUK members and evidenced the wide range of ‘enterprise education’ work that we see across our UK institutions (from incubators, to start-up, to curriculum change).
Vitae has also been conducting a review of another area that forms part of EEUK’s work (researchers) through their review of their Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers. Following an EEUK event in December, hosted by Newcastle University, which explored how to engage researchers, EEUK responded to the consultation to confirm its support to enhance the training and support for early career researchers, and to extend its support to Vitae on this agenda going forward.
January 2019 has also seen the launch of the second part of the consultation on Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) which closes on 14th March 2019. Research England has released a document for consultation which presents KEF as part of the annual, institutional metrics (joining TEF and REF). Research England are suggesting a benchmarked approach, which compares English institutions within 8 KEF institutional peer groups. Drawing upon existing university returns (such as HE-BCI Higher Education Business & Community Interaction and the HEIF Higher Education Innovation Fund, and its derivations such as HESA data), KEF will also ask for a narrative to look at the impact of knowledge transfer across the following 7 perspectives:
- Research partnerships
- Working with business
- Working with the public and third sector
- Skills, enterprise and entrepreneurship
- IP and commercialisation
- Local growth and regeneration
- Public and community engagement
In order to respond to the latest call, EEUK are drawing upon members by engaging a KEF task group. This signals a new way for EEUK to work which draws upon members’ expertise and provides a wider range of opportunities for members to engage at national level. EEUK are starting this vital new initiative in 2019 with the launch of the task group for KEF. It will be a short-lived group focused upon delivering a robust response to the consultation that reflects the breadth of member needs. If you are interested in joining this group, then please email Alison Price by Monday 28th Jan to be included.