Programme
| 10:00 | Welcome and opening remarks |
| 10:30 | Keynote - Transforming knowledge transfer: The online tools changing the impact methodology forever Speaker: Alastair Banks, Optix Solutions |
| 12:00 | Keynote - Driving the commercialisation of social science research at Cambridge: barriers, enablers and pathways to success Speakers: Dr Tomas Coates Ulrichsen & Dr Nicky Athanassopoulou, University Commercialisation and Innovation (UCI) Policy Evidence Unit, University of Cambridge |
| 13:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00 | Parallel workshops 1. Three ways to boost engagement with research on social media - Amy Mollett, Head of Social and Audio Visual, University of Cambridge 2. Planning for policy engagement and impact - Dr Nicky Buckley & Dr Charlotte Sausman, Centre for Science and Policy 3. Frontiers of Societal Readiness: a curated forum for discussion with Knowledge Transfer Facilitators and Research Impact Managers |
| 16:00 | Drinks reception and closing remarks |
Speakers and Session Outlines
Keynote: Transforming Knowledge Transfer: The Online Tools Changing the Impact Methodology Forever
Our opening talk is a tantalising demonstration of digital tools, including ChatGPT, and the way in which they are accelerating the opportunities to connect with your collaborators, partners, and research users.
Alastair Banks co-founded Optix Solutions, a digital marketing agency when he was just 19 out of a bedroom at Exeter University with a few course mates. Over the last 20+ years, that company has grown into one of the leading digital agencies in the country. He presented his talk at ASTP, the leading Tech Transfer community of Europe and this will be the first opportunity that Cambridge researchers will have to hear directly from him how mapping a knowledge exchange network has shifted from prolonged months to a few days. He demonstrates the ways in which familiar tools, such as LinkedIn, can be pulled into dynamic partnership development with efficiency and accuracy.
Keynote: Driving the commercialisation of social science research at the University of Cambridge: barriers, enablers and understanding pathways to success
Our second talk comes from colleagues within the University of Cambridge. As with other research universities, we have been looking to increase support for academics based in social science disciplines who are looking to commercialise their research, reflecting a growing recognition across the UK and internationally of the economic and commercial value of the social sciences. This talk presents the results of an exploratory study looking at social science research commercialisation projects underway at Cambridge today. We will talk about the barriers and enablers faced, their pathways to success, and the kinds of support academics believed could help them accelerate their journeys and increase the likelihood of success.
Workshops
Workshop 1: Three ways to boost engagement with research on social media
Join Amy Mollet, Head of Social Media at the University of Cambridge, to explore ways in which to engage social media users with your research and expertise. Amy leads on the University’s social media, film, photography and podcasting strategies and supports her team in creating exciting content for an audience of over 6 million followers.
Amy was previously the Head of Social Media at the Houses of Parliament and the Social Media Manager at the London School of Economics. She has led teams that used social media to communicate and cover everything from live streaming PMQs on YouTube to launching the most-followed Instagram channel in UK Higher Education. Amy also played a leading role in LSE’s award-winning academic blogs, as editor of LSE Impact of Social Sciences blog and LSE Review of Books. With her fellow blog editors, Amy is co-author of Communicating Your Research with Social Media: A Practical Guide to Using Blogs, Podcasts, Data Visualisations and Video (SAGE: 2017). Amy is on Twitter @amybmollett and on LinkedIn.
Workshop 2: Planning for policy engagement and impact
Join the Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) to explore opportunities and challenges in policy engagement and impact. Nicky Buckley and Charlotte Sausman from CSaP will outline some policy engagement suggestions followed by an interactive session for policy engagement planning. You will learn about different ways to engage with policy makers, practical strategies to enhance the policy impact of your research and examples from case studies of successful policy engagement. We will then focus on helping you plan your policy engagement strategy.
Nicky Buckley is Director of Networks and Fellowships at CSaP and Charlotte Sausman is Associate Director, Policy Fellowships. They will draw on their experience of working with researchers and policy makers to facilitate policy engagement in a range of settings.
Workshop 3: Frontiers of Societal Readiness: A curated forum for KTFs and Research Impact Managers
Join us for a discussion within the knowledge exchange facilitation community, reflecting on the morning’s talks and on how we can reframe models of impact and knowledge transfer for the social science disciplines. In particular, we’ll be picking up on the notion of “societal readiness” as a tool for qualitative assessment of risk and value for knowledge exchange and commercialisation projects.
Optional reading
Michael J. Bernstein, Mathias Wullum Nielsen, Emil Alnor, André Brasil, Astrid Lykke Birkving, Tung Tung Chan, Erich Griessler, Stefan de Jong, Wouter van de Klippe, Ingeborg Meijer, Emad Yaghmaei, Peter Busch Nicolaisen, Mika Nieminen, Peter Novitzky, Niels Mejlgaard. “The Societal Readiness Thinking Tool: A Practical Resource for Maturing the Societal Readiness of Research Projects” Science and Engineering Ethics (2022) 28:6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-021-00360-3