Our work at the Scottish Universities Insight Institute (SUII) will conclude around the end of the academic year. While in many respects this is a sad time it is also an opportunity to celebrate the projects we have supported and reflect on what we have learned.
SUII has been a joint venture with many different contributors who have made it what it is. There are many who deserve thanks.
I have been lucky to be involved with SUII for a large part of its existence and I owe a great debt of gratitude to the colleagues who had the foresight to develop the concept and get it started. I would also like to say a huge thank you to the members of my team who over the years have made SUII what it is. Thanks also to the members of our governing board (including representatives of each university member alongside colleagues from the Scottish Parliament and Government and Audit Scotland) who played a vital role in guiding our work and making the difficult decisions on which projects to support.
A big thank you to those that have applied for support – you were the core of our work, both those that were successful and those that weren’t. I would also like to thank partners such as Scotland Europa and Zero Waste Scotland who co-invested alongside us and made it possible for us to do more than we otherwise could. Many others deserve thanks for supporting us, such as our application reviewers, KE teams at member universities and behind the scenes staff in finance and HR at Strathclyde. There will be others – apologies if I haven’t singled you out, but thank you.
SUII offered a tangible demonstration of the willingness and ability of institutions that operate in a generally competitive environment to collaborate for the wider public good. Over the years this collaboration supported around a hundred multi-institution, multi-discipline, multi-sector, knowledge exchange projects, aimed at improving policy and practice.
Our projects covered various topics including health, environment, children and youth, justice, housing, older people, the economy and business. Themed calls focussed on areas such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, Just Transition, Scotland in Europe, Cultures of Innovation and Wellbeing. Non-academic project partners were drawn from many private, public and third sector organisations. International partners from around forty countries also took part. Many projects involved active engagement with communities and service users.
The projects achieved a lot. Outputs included briefing papers, policy recommendations, practice guidelines, pilot projects and new networks and relationships. Over the years teams became increasingly imaginative in the use of different media to disseminate outputs and engage more widely, including blogs, films, comics, websites etc.
Projects provided space and support for researchers to try things that might not be possible with more traditional funding streams.
“SUII allowed us to take a creative risk – they valued what it means to have an interdisciplinary approach, bringing everyone together, in a way that I don’t necessarily think other funders would.” – Dr Jenna Breckenbridge, University of Dundee
They allowed non-academics to engage meaningfully with researchers and provided both with the opportunity to learn from both theory and practice in a collaborative way.
“Projects like this are really important because research and policy are areas that people like myself would love to work in, but I don’t have university degrees – it doesn’t mean that I don’t have anything to say, and it doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m talking about.” – Programme participant, Craigielea Care Home, Renfrew
And they were seen by policy makers to be important in bringing together different perspectives to offer insights into how problems could be tackled and opportunities realised.
“The Scottish Government really value the work of the Scottish Universities Insight Institute. It offers a very effective way of bringing together researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. It creates real impact by focusing on the key challenges for Scotland. Delivered in a very cost effective way its project calls allow for creative approaches to problems to be tested and can lead to both academic research and policy and operational impact.” – Dr Roddy Macdonald, Scottish Government
“SUII creates a unique and important space for academics to explore new and different issues, with different people and in different ways. That space for innovation and exploration is vital.” – Rob Littlejohn, Scotland’s Futures Forum, Scottish Parliament
In addition to policy and practice impact, projects led to new research collaborations and funding, academic publications and books. A number also featured in REF case studies.
We are going to conduct a short exercise to record project achievements and reflect on the lessons learned from SUII’s experience, which will hopefully be useful for future collaborative knowledge exchange initiatives. I thought I might kick this off with a few reflections of my own looking back over my time with SUII:
- How something is done can often be as important as what is done.
- Don’t make assumptions about what things look like from another perspective.
- A mixture of academic and non-academic partners on decision-making committees helps ensure a more balanced ‘supply/demand’ outcome.
- The most successful projects are those that involve non-academic partners as early as possible to help shape the project design and ensure that it is demand led.
- End user/community input is invaluable in generating insights.
- The involvement of non-academic partners can help shape themed programmes and provide opportunities for co-investment.
- Project teams place great value on the logistical support of the type offered by SUII – this allows them the time and space to focus on project content – it also builds the event management skills and experience of SUII staff to help other projects.
- Effective knowledge exchange projects evolve, so flexibility within an overall objective is vital, e.g. in event design, budget virement.
- The provision of a safe space to explore difficult issues and try things out can be important in some projects.
- Careful consideration is needed over whether events are restricted to create a safe space or open to encourage wider engagement – projects may include a mix of the two.
- SUII type projects can provide opportunities for researchers early in their careers to develop their engagement skills – this works well when supported by experienced colleagues.
- A conscious effort has to be made to capture and evaluate project outcomes and learn lessons.
- The act of drawing up a collaborative application can have benefits even if the application is unsuccessful – this is an important part of the process.
- Feedback at expression of interest stage can help strengthen proposals, e.g. in the identification of potential partners.
- Application feedback can help in the development of proposals that can be subsequently successful.
- There are many different ways to share and disseminate project outputs – technology developments and the lessons of Covid lockdowns have helped this.
- While much appreciated by project teams, SUII’s financial arrangements (where funds were held by one partner and paid out by the SUII team when required to cover project costs and expenses) meant projects were less visible at member institution level.
Thank you to all who have supported and got involved in our work. We will try to capture as much as we can from those who worked with us. I hope the spirit of SUII and the lessons we have learned will live on in collaborative knowledge exchange projects in the future.
Charlie Woods
SUII Director, March 2024