The ESRC Accelerating Business Collaboration 2020

The Accelerating Business Collaboration (ABC) is an ESRC-funded initiative aimed at Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers in the Social Sciences who want to understand how to successfully collaborate with non-Higher Education partners through research. You will either be interested in undertaking a career in academia or in making the most of your research skills through a career in industry. The programme commences in November (exact start date depends on the specific pathway you choose to apply into) - all sessions will be delivered online and the deadline for applying is 5pm 23rd October.

Accelerating Business Collaboration is an ESRC-funded initiative aimed at Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers in the Social Sciences who want to understand how to successfully collaborate with non-Higher Education partners through research. You will either be interested in undertaking a career in academia or in making the most of your research skills through a career in industry. The programme commences in November (exact start date depends on the specific pathway you choose to apply into) and the deadline for applying is 5pm 23rd October.

We are running two separate programmes. The first programme starts with an individual’s research and asks how that research can be applied to help an organisation move forwards. The second programme starts with a problem generated by a small business partner to which you will respond as part of a multidisciplinary team. You do not need to know anything about business or be ‘business-minded’ to participate in either programme and students from all Social Science disciplines are welcome to apply.

Furthermore, students involved in the North West Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) will receive a one-month extension to their PhD stipend, whilst non-DTP students will be re-numerated for their participation at an hourly rate of approximately £14 for around 70 hours work on the project, paid in stages against agreed milestones. ECRs will not receive payment for their delivery of project work. Instead, participation should be tied to their personal and professional development objectives and viewed as an opportunity to receive on-the-job training, the costs of which are covered by the University.

What is this really about and why should it matter to me?

Knowledge exchange, impact, business collaboration

There are many ways to describe how a University engages with its external stakeholders and what it does to help them implement changes to their practice in a way that positively benefits the people or organisations they work with and for. At Lancaster University, we use the word 'engagement' as the umbrella term for all activity that has this intention. Stakeholders to our engagement activity can include charitable organisations, policy-makers, public and community groups, government bodies, businesses and even individuals. Academic and professional staff engage with them in lots of different ways including through delivery of workshops and training courses, by undertaking collaborative research and in acting as expert advisors (consultants).

If you want to be an academic...

As a new academic member or staff at any Higher Education Institution in the UK, you will need to understand both the drivers for academic engagement and be prepared to build engagement into your funding bids and research activities. Engagement is one of three pillars in Lancaster University’s Strategic Plan (alongside teaching and research) but is part of every Institution’s civic purpose and a way that it demonstrates 'return-on-investment' from public and private funding. The more staff undertaking research with engagement and the higher the quality of those interactions, the more income this generates into the University to support further activity.

If you want to work outside of academia...

Even if you see yourself having a career in ‘industry’ (whatever sector that may be), understanding how to apply your research expertise and skills to help an employer understand the problems they are facing, identify solutions and implement changes will significantly benefit the organisation’s growth and development. It could also potentially have broader societal impact and benefit your career progression.

How does the ABC work?

There are two separate programmes – you can apply to be on one or the other. Both will be delivered online and culminate in the delivery of a live research project by April 2021. Both programmes require an average weekly commitment of approximately 6 hours across the five-month period that the programme runs.

Research-Driven Programme

Led by the University’s Impact Facilitator, Dr Dee Hennessey in partnership with consultancy firm Skillfluence, who specialise in business and soft-skills training for researchers, this programme takes participants through a sequence of iterative capsules enabling them to identify the value of their research expertise to industry and scope out opportunities for knowledge exchange and impact through collaboration with external organisations. Participants will bid for funding to undertake research projects with these organisations between January and March 2021.

A proposed schedule and more detailed overview of sessions is included below.

Industry-Driven Programme

Code-Switch Consultants and Associates will deliver an intensive training programme for participants wishing to develop abilities in working with external partners on industry-focussed projects. As an integral part of the training offer, participants will work in interdisciplinary project teams of three to five to solve a pre-defined problem posed by an industry partner. Teams will form according to the skillsets available across the cohort and the needs of the industry partners. Both the training and the work with the industry partner will take place between November 2020 and March 2021.

A full schedule and more detailed overview of sessions is included below.

What can I expect to get out of it?

Depending on the pathway you choose, you have the chance to gain:

• Confidence to articulate your value to potential external partners
• Motivation to make the first steps in pro-actively engaging with non-academic partners
• Knowledge of how to establish credibility as an expert in your field within the minds of industry
• A set of goals and a plan to grow and nurture your professional relationships in a way that delivers impact
• The ability to define a problem effectively and generate creative solutions via step-change thinking related to the current Covid-19 context
• Understanding and experience of applying for research funding
• Understanding of how to produce a project brief
• Knowledge of critical project management tools and processes
• Experience of managing an academic consultancy project
• Evidence of the value of your knowledge, expertise and skills in practice via an industry-led or research-led project and its relevant outputs

Will I receive payment for the project work?

Students who are part of the North West Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) will be re-numerated for their work on industry or research-led projects via a one-month extension to their PhD stipend. Non-DTP students will receive stage payments in cash upon the achievement of pre-agreed project milestones at £14.39 per hour for a 70 hour total commitment to the project. ECRs will not receive financial re-numeration for their participation in the programme. As existing members of staff, the programme should be viewed as an opportunity for development and align closely with an individual’s personal and professional development goals.

What happens if a project does not go ahead or is cancelled part way through?

Codes-Switch Consultants and the FASS Engagement Team will be working hard to ensure that projects on both programmes have the best chance of success once work has commenced. Partners will be carefully matched to participant expertise and contractual agreements will be created at the outset outlining the commitment needed from all parties to deliver the work on time and to agreed outcomes. However, the reality is that occasionally a project partner may still pull out of a project due to circumstances beyond our control. If this happens during the early stages of the relationship, we will attempt to identify alternative partners and projects. However, if the timing of the project is such that it is not feasible to set up another project, PhD stipend extensions will be honoured and students paid the full amount of the fee due.

Codeswitch have already sourced partners and projects for the industry-driven Consultancy Programme. In relation to the Research-Driven Programme, there is a risk that it may not be possible to develop a viable project proposal within the timescales and/ or identify collaborating partners. In such cases, the participant’s involvement in the programme will end at this point, without payment or an extension to the PhD stipend. However, participants will have received high quality Knowledge Exchange training and will emerge from the initial stages of the programme in possession of a range of techniques and tools to apply to future work.

Further information and queries

Please contact Charlotte Stuart c.stuart@lancs.ac.uk