When expertise, knowledge, or skilled people are transferred into business from the research base – such as universities or research organisations – to support innovation for new product and service development, it is known as knowledge exchange (KE).
KE covers a wide range of activities, processes and skills that enable close collaboration between universities and partner organisations to deliver commercial, environmental, cultural and place-based benefits, opportunities for students and increased prosperity.
The KE Concordat
The KE Concordat for the advancement of knowledge exchange in higher education supports the full range of KE activities. It aims to give universities, their staff, students and partners a clarity of mission that allows them to succeed in knowledge exchange in a supportive environment.
The Concordat sets out possible routes to good practice in processes and approaches to enable universities to fulfil a KE role whether across the whole spread of their disciplines or for specific activities and relationships.
A summary of the findings of the KE Concordat development year review will be published in 2022, and will inform future plans.
Support and engagement
To share good practice curated from the development review, a series of support and engagement activities are planned, covering themes such as engagement, culture and place, impact and processes.
Further details on the concordat can be found here: https://www.keconcordat.ac.uk/