KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE AND COMMERCIALISATION: THE STATE OF THE PROFESSION IN UK HIGHER EDUCATION Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation: The State of the Profession in Higher Education “Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation: The state of the profession in UK Higher Education” This report was commissioned by PraxisUnico Contact:
[email protected] Authors: Rob Johnson and Mattia Fosci www.researchconsulting.co.uk Contact:
[email protected] Report dated: February 2016 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 2 CONTENTS Foreword 5 Executive summary 7 Background and methodology 9 The KEC profession in UK higher education 11 The work of KEC professionals 19 Profiling KEC professionals 25 Improving the effectiveness of the KEC profession 31 Key trends and challenges 37 Appendix 1 43 Appendix 2 44 Appendix 3 46 3 Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation: The State of the Profession in Higher Education 4 FOREWORD The focus on taking research knowledge into commercial products and services, policy and social interventions is intense. PraxisUnico has represented professionals working at the interface between researchers and external organisations for almost 15 yearsI. During that time we have seen the work of such intermediaries become increasingly recognised and respected. The UK is ranked 4th in the world for university- industry collaboration in R&DII. The government’s ambition is that universities should ‘continue to increase their collaboration with industry to drive At a time of growth research commercialisation’ and increase the ” in the economy income they earn from working with business III and others to £5 billion by 2025 .