Partner Article

Recognition for knowledge transfer prowess

A CONSORTIUM led by Northumbria University has been named as “the most outstanding knowledge transfer team” in British higher education.

The Making a Difference programme drew together four large universities in the North of England - Northumbria University, Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Central Lancashire and Salford University.

A team of more than 200 experts was charged with tackling some of the biggest issues affecting society and focused on Northern British cities facing similar challenges in economic and social regeneration.

The Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards 2010, at the Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane, declared the group as the winner of the award.

Making a Difference led to 46 projects which involved collaboration with more than 600 external organisations. Its principal themes were Community Cohesion, Crime, Enterprise and Health.

The scheme has already created more than eighty new jobs and more than a thousand days of training were compressed into just thirty-six months, and covered social entrepreneurship, developing leadership skills and setting up and sustaining new businesses.

The Project Director, professor of knowledge transfer at Northumbria University, Professor Oisin MacNamara, said: “Many of the projects focussed on communities at the gravest risk of being disadvantaged – migrants, workless people living in relative poverty, people living in areas of multiple deprivation and children living in areas with low educational aspirations and attainment. We also worked with young offenders and children in schools, creating opportunities for policy makers to listen to what they have to say, and to raise aspirations.”

The ten projects in the crime theme of Making a Difference sought to tackle the social and environmental issues surrounding crime and its consequences. Individual projects helped excluded pupils to develop, deterred young people from crime, improved community safety and supported organisations dealing with alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

The Enterprise theme delivered ten projects helping small and medium sized enterprises, including social enterprises, to gain access to funding and win contracts. Potential entrepreneurs were also encouraged to deliver innovation within a business environment.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .