Helsinki Impact Camp – 9 & 10 April 2015

Co-creation and cross-disciplinarity as a way to maximise impact

Ian Scott PhDPrincipal Facilitator

UCL Grand ChallengesOffice of UCL Vice-Provost Research

UCL - University College London

UCL GRAND CHALLENGES

UCL – key facts and figures• Joint 5th in world’s top ten

universities (QS, 2014)• Top-rated in UK for research

strength (REF, 2014) and in each assessed component:

– Publications and other research outputs

– Research environment– Research Impact

• 983 full professors and > 6000 academic and research staff

• Linked to major teaching hospitals, including:

– Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children

– Royal Free Hospital– Moorfields Eye Hospital

• Nobel Prizes awarded to 29 people who were students or academics at UCL

• 52% of ~ 36,000 students engaged in graduate studies, one-third of these research degree studies

• Students for 150 countries study at UCL (33% of student body)

• Worldwide network of 200,000 alumni

UCL Research Strategy (2011 – present )

Emphasises……

•Leadership•Cross-disciplinarity•Impact

As…….

key components for a comprehensive research intensive university seeking to develop wise solutions to major problems

UCL 2034 – new 20-year strategy for UCLPrincipal themes

1. Academic leadership grounded in intellectual excellence

2. Global leader in integration of research and education

3. Addressing global challenges through disciplinary excellence and distinctive cross-disciplinary approach

1. An accessible, publicly engaged organisation that fosters a life-long community

2. London’s Global University: in London, of London and for London

3. Delivering global impact through a network of innovative international activities, collaborations and partnerships

How UCL supports impact

• Publication, dissemination and promotion

• Translating research

• Reaching the public and policy makers

• Working across disciplines

• Fostering excellent research

• Research impact curation and support

Internal and external funding for impact activities at UCL

Internal (Provost)•Grand Challenges – focusing on cross-disciplinary activity addressing problems of societal complexity•Research Frontiers

– E.g. ‘Origins of Life’•Provost Strategic Development Fund

External•Research Council grants•EPSRC and ESRC Impact Acceleration Accounts•MRC support for Translational Research Office•HEIF funding supports the provision of “Proof of Concept” (PoC) funds,

Professor Michael Arthur, President and Provost of UCL, speaking at Grand Challenges Review event, October 2014

• In creating GC, Professor David Price – UCL’s Vice-Provost Research – has pursued our vision that a university should be more than the sum of its excellent parts

• Since UCL was founded almost 200 years ago it has sought societal relevance and opportunities to engage with the world

• GC has provided a new way for this generation of researchers to fulfil their responsibilities

Why do we need cross-diciplinarity to solve systemic problems?

Solutions to major problems evade the grasp of any single discipline. Yet greater understanding and novel insights arise when experts from different disciplines act together

Wise solutions emerge through contrasting and synthesising the knowledge, perspectives and methodologies of different disciplines to address issues in their full complexity

How UCL’s Grand Challenges programme is organised

Four major Grand Challenge themes:

•Global Health (GCGH) – since 2008•Sustainable Cities (GCSC) – since 2009•Intercultural Interaction (GCII) – since 2010•Human Wellbeing (GCHW) – since 2011

How UCL Grand Challenges functions(1) People

Core GC team– Principal Facilitator– Four Coordinators:

• GCGH• GCSC (also for ‘London Agenda’• GCII and GCHW• Impact and Communication

– Administrator

How UCL Grand Challenges functions(2) Money (2015-16 academic year)

• Core funds (total £145k)– Small grants: £80k (~€110k)– Exec Group leadership activity: £20k– Coordinators’ ad hoc response budget: £20k– Digital comms (GC website), Impact: £20k– GC reports, brochures: £5k

• Conditional funds (total £150k, to be confirmed)– One more GC Coordinator– Part-time Pro-Vice-Provost for GCs– GC Priority topics call

How does Grand Challenges stimulate cross-disciplinary activity and impact?

(3) Mechanisms

‘Bottom-up’ (grass-roots) •Small grants programme•Ad hoc funding for events and workshops

‘Top-down’ (strategic)•Themed seasons on priority topics, and linked….•Research Prize Competitions•Lancet Commissions

Grand Challenges Small Grant scheme

Encourages and supports new cross-disciplinary interactions; community building

Interdepartmental cooperation supported by the GC Small Grants programme

Before the December 2014 merger of UCL and the Institute of Education, UCL was organised into:•72 major academic Departments, in•10 Faculties, grouped into•3 Schools:

– Life and Medical Sciences (SLMS)– Languages, Arts, Social & Historical Sciences (SLASH)– Bartlett, Engineering, Mathematical & Physical

Sciences (BEAMS)

Cross-disciplinary activity enabled by GC Small Grants programmeQuote from 2014 Report of the Office of the UCL Vice-Provost Research to UCL Council:

‘Through six annual rounds the programme has made possible 109 projects led by 304 investigators, providing a massive cross-disciplinary mobilisation for a total investment of £450,000’ [equivalent to €616,500 at an average cost of €5656 per project]

UCL-Lancet Commissions

1.Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change (GCGH, 2009)

2.Shaping Cities for Health (GCSC, 2012)

3.Culture & Health (GCII and Science Medicine & Society Network 2014)

4. Climate Change: Emergency Actions to Protect Human Health (Institute for Global Health – planned for 2015)

5. Stem Cell Therapy & Regenerative Medicine (Science Medicine & Society Network – planned for 2015 / early 2016

“Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.”

Themed seasons and research prize workshops

• Wellbeing (GCHW)• Behaviour Change

(GCHW)• Festival of Ageing

(GCHW)• Non-Communicable

Diseases (GCGH)• Wonderments of the

Cosmos (GCII)• Retrofit (GCSC)

Impact example from Grand Challenges

• Ageing Prize Workshop (Dec 2013): ‘Keeping people, active, independent and well in later life’

• Winning idea ‘RecommendMe!’ app envisioned as a digital platform for use by an ageing population, able to connect a users to relevant services, activities and peer groups

• Alexandru Matei (UCL Computer Science)Maryam Atakhorrami (Translational Research Office, School of Life and Medical Sciences, UCL)

• Tarek Ahmed (UCL Eastman Dental Institute)David Greenberg (UCL Ear Institute) - Project LeadNavaz Davoudian (Bartlett School of Graduate Studies)

Impact example: RecommendMe!Aims- To create a platform that enables the elderly to be more active and to remain as active members of society

· To develop a platform that is usable and functional for the target user-base

· To ensure that the platform maximises the potential of the user through recommendations based on individual ability.

· To improve upon existing levels of wellbeing in later life.

Objectives

- Research on the data required for successful recommendation engine.

· Establish links with Camden Council to provide a link to elderly users for beta-testing of platform.

- Design questionnaires

- Work with data scientists

- Work with human-computer interaction experts

· Produce working recommendation platform and trial with 100 users.

RecommendMe! App - Report, March 2015

• Methodology 1) Behaviour-Change Study

• Methodology 2) Software Infrastructure Development

• BudgetThe RecommendME! project will use the available £10k funding to build an investable and attractive proposal for a social enterprise venture.

• Schedule (12 months) - envisaged start /end dates, key milestones, envisaged outputs

• Target focus group successfully conducted

• Close working partnerships built with AgeUK, Camden Council, Holborn Community Centre and OurCamden

• Secured £40k of further funding for July 1st 2015 - July 1st 2016 followed by £30k over the following 3 years in order to build a functioning platform and pilot RecommendMe within Camden.

New cross-disciplinary groupings

• UCL Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction

• UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources

• UCL European Institute• UCL Centre for Behaviour

Change • UCL Institute for Global

Health • UCL Transport Institute• UCL Institute for Biomedical

Engineering

• UCL Centre for Digital Humanities

• UCL Institute for Human Rights

• UCL Centre for Research into the Dynamics of Civilisation

• UCL Science, Medicine & Society Network

• UCL Computational Life & Medical Sciences Network

• UCL Urban Laboratory

UK Research Council Impact Acceleration Accounts

• EPSRC’s (Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council) Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) scheme launched at UCL on 15 November 2012

• UCL was the second largest recipient of IAA support (award of £4.5 million)

• Funds have been used for thirty or forty projects – all following up on various EPSRC research projects

Use of EPSRC IAA funds at UCL

The extended funding program now includes support for: •East London’s Tech City, •Secondments, •Discovery to Use grants•Development of several strategic hubs.

EPSRC IAA support for IDEALondon hub• 6 Dec 2013 Prime Minister

David Cameron officially opened IDEALondon – an initiative between Cisco, DC Thomson and UCL

• First of its kind in Tech City (in Shoreditch)

• Will nurture and grow both new and existing early-stage start-ups in the area

• Strengths of respective partners should accelerate growth in Tech City which, in turn, would benefit the country. 

• IDEALondon will host the UCL DECIDE project, in collaboration with UCL, DC Thomson and the BBC in what is intended to be the world’s largest ‘living lab’ for digital and media projects. It will see the university utilise its staff and student body of 30,000 as a closed community for testing and evaluating digital products in pre-commercial development.

EPSRC IAA-funded strategic initiative at UCL:The UCL Engineering Exchange

• Started on a practical yet surprisingly little-used premise in academic research – basing rigorous academic research on the needs of communities and equally giving local communities access to the technical expertise of a world-class university

• Established by Dr Sarah Bell, Senior Lecturer in UCL Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering

• Launched October 2014 with publication of EE’s first report, “Demolition or Refurbishment of Social Housing? A review of the evidence”

• The report is a collaboration between the Engineering Exchange and UCL Urban Lab and commissioned by the London Tenants Federation (LTF) and Just Space, an alliance of community groups, campaigns and concerned independent organisations.

How UCL could benefit from Helsinki Impact Camp experiences?

• ‘Challenge Crew’ comprising people from the university, civil society organisations and the media

• Challenge teams comprising researchers from more than one university

• Serious money!

What next for UCL Grand Challenges?

• What are the key global problems to address in the next 20 y?

• In what areas are we not yet maximising UCL’s impact

• How can we ensure that academics of all disciplines and career stages are able to engage with cross-disciplinary collaboration?

• What are the most effective ways to facilitate student involvement with UCL Grand Challenges?

• How can we enhance collaboration with communities, business, government and the third sector?

• Are there so-far unexploited methods to share our insights?

• How can we increase our international engagement?

www.ucl.ac.uk/grand-challenges

Principal FacilitatorIan Scott PhDian.scott@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7679 8583

UCL GRAND CHALLENGES