Helsinki Challenge Impact Camp on 9th & 10th of April. Ian Scott from UCL: "Co-creation and cross-disciplinarity as a way to maximize impact"

1. Helsinki Impact Camp – 9 & 10 April 2015
Co-creation and cross-disciplinarity as a way to
maximise impact
Ian Scott PhD
Principal Facilitator
UCL Grand Challenges
Office of UCL Vice-Provost Research
UCL - University College London
UCL GRAND CHALLENGES

2. 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

3. 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

4. UCL 2034 – new 20-year strategy for UCL
Principal 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

5. 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

6. 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,

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. Grand Challenges
Small Grant scheme
Encourages and supports new cross-disciplinary
interactions; community building

14. 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)

15. Cross-disciplinary activity enabled by GC
Small Grants programme
Quote 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]

27. 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

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

29. 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)

30. 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 Lead
Navaz Davoudian (Bartlett
School of Graduate Studies)

31. 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.

32. RecommendMe! App - Report, March 2015
• Methodology 1) Behaviour-
Change Study
• Methodology 2) Software
Infrastructure Development
• Budget
The 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.

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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.

36. 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.

37. 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.

38. 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!

39. 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?

40. www.ucl.ac.uk/grand-challenges
Principal Facilitator
Ian Scott PhD
ian.scott@ucl.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7679 8583
UCL GRAND CHALLENGES