Research Funding Prize for Zinc Mission 2 Businesses
Zinc’s Mission 2 programme focused on unlocking new opportunities for people in places that have been hard-hit by globalisation and automation, creating 16 businesses focused on a variety of new, innovative solutions to meet this challenge.
To showcase the impact of social sciences research on a new businesses, and to increase and improve engagement between one of the businesses and academic researchers, Aspect funded a £10k research prize, awarded to Tandem, whose aim is to end transport poverty in small towns and cities. Using the prize, Tandem built a collaborative programme of work with academics from the universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen. Outputs from the award and subsequent engagement included an open access report on the research that was done surveying and modelling user preferences, and an event to share the learning – which was promoted via the Aspect network. One outcome from this work was that Tandem realised the importance of understanding and communicating the policy implications of their business, and the ways in which they – as a business – can better engage with policymakers.
For Zinc’s third mission, which focused on adding five more years of high quality to later life, Aspect funded a Research Fellowship programme, through which three researchers joined Zinc’s in-house R&D team. The researchers worked hands-on with the entrepreneurs who were part of the mission, as well as with the Zinc team and network of experts.
Their work with the entrepreneurs focused on translating and embedding existing research as well as facilitating the generation and dissemination of new evidence. They also worked to build a network of researchers across different institutions that are interested in specific problem areas, with a view to creating learning transfer opportunities.
Learnings and outputs from the fellowships included:
An event showcasing the opportunities for early career researcher (ECR) social scientists in startups, held as part of the ASPECT annual conference.
A short video showcasing scientists and researchers in Zinc ventures.
Career opportunities for researchers – in addition to the three scientists funded through these Fellowships, Zinc was also able to offer short-term research project opportunities to other PhD students and Postdocs. One of our Fellows talked about her role at Zinc on a podcast as part of Glasgow’s Abacuss programme (available here).
New science-rich ventures – 24 ventures were created through Zinc’s later life programme, of which 12 were selected to join the Zinc portfolio – these are all listed on the Zinc website.
Led by the Universities of Glasgow and Manchester, this programme aimed to develop and provide a proof of concept for working models of intrapreneurship within the social sciences, and bring social scientists and industry partners closer together.
The ABaCuSS platform sought to drive real-world use of innovative, world-leading social science research, widen networks for future collaborations, and provide a platform to develop business relationships. It developed practical skills for students coming from a diverse field of disciplines, tapping into the broader Aspect network to create a robust program of delivery and support.
During the part-time, eight-week paid internship programme, students were able to:
Work with a business to advance a specific project using intrapreneurial methods
Accomplish a transformative business challenge using intrapreneurial skills
Take part in an exciting program of training and support, starting with a virtual boot camp
Receive individual coaching, business skills trainings, and high-energy workshops with the whole ABaCuSS cohort; and
Build their network by hearing from innovators, members of the business community, and other academics.
The 2021 ABaCuSS program is now complete. The first iteration of the ABaCuSS program achieved positive results, with over half of the students having been asked to stay on at their internship company in some capacity. Several Aspect members demonstrated their interest in running another iteration of this intrapreneurship programme.
Read more about learnings and outcomes from the programme:
Final Project Report: Programme Overview and Learnings
Student Reflections Document
Programme Welcome Packs (accessible to Aspect Members Only)
Aspect’s Research Commercialisation Community of Practice (RC CoP) seeks to support Innovation and knowledge exchange teams to share best practice, find opportunities for shared activities and identify and test new and experimental models for commercialising social sciences research.
The network of institutions in the Aspect network has demonstrated potential significant demand for social science commercialisation both amongst the academic community as well as the knowledge exchange professional services community. However, this demand is still nascent and requires support mechanisms, toolkits and resources to both the academic and university professional services communities.
To address the practical challenges, the Research Commercialisation Community of Practice within Aspect co-developed 4 workshops to draw out key strengths amongst the participating institutions whilst also relying on specific expert input to inform and elevate understanding of each key chosen issue.
As can be seen below, each workshop had a suite of outputs developing the framework of toolkit resources and training, enabling the workshop series to be accessed by as many members of the Knowledge Exchange Community as possible.
Impactful social science methodologies for 21st century problems
Social scientists are developing methodologies that are useful beyond academia. Methods for Change plans to develop an online platform to showcase the value of social sciences methodologies to the wider world and demonstrate to industry the benefits that social sciences research can bring to their organisations.
A live event illustration from the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2020, where the Methods for Change team hosted a series of online workshops.
Reflecting on already existing research methodologies within the School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED) at the University of Manchester and allied researchers at partner institutions (Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Oxford, Sheffield, Sussex and York), the Methods for Change team held conversations with social scientists from Universities from across the UK, to establish the characteristics and possibilities afforded by the methodological approaches they use, if applied by/within organisations such as businesses, third sector organisations and government departments.
These conversations served as the basis for the facilitation of collaborations between academics and artists/ designers, with the aim to distil key elements of 30 research methods and present them in novel, thought provoking or creative ways to reach a range of different audiences beyond academia. The pieces produced come in a variety of formats including comic illustrations, posters, zines, short films and animations and communicate methods through visual, sensory and physical elements. These are accompanied by accessible, jargon free written ‘how to’ guide about the methodological approach, with step-by-step instructions and top tips for carrying out the method.
What was next?
The M4C team had secured funding from Aspect to pursue Phase 2 of the project. This included:
Engaging with a range of spatial, quantitative, and mixed methods to produce additional creative resources and how-to guides.
Working with the Business Engagement CoP to build up a community of practice around academic and non-academic partnerships.
Pursuing collaborative opportunities across the Aspect network from non-traditional funding sources.
How could other Aspect members get involved?
Aspect members used the multiple resources available on the M4C project page as teaching resources. Given that many social sciences students go on to work in non-academic sectors – government, NGOs, industry – educating them early about these research methodologies and their applications outside of academia paves the way for change at a much earlier stage.
The M4C team engaged with a range of 20-30 researchers across the Aspect network to create a second round of how-to guides – particularly around spatial, quantitative, and mixed methods addressing social, environmental, political, and economic societal challenges.
Asocial sciences entrepreneurial support mapping project
Drawing on the wealth of entrepreneurial activities and opportunities that exist across the Aspect network, this project aimed to identify and ‘map’ the entrepreneurship offerings at member institutions.
The Project Manager worked with members of the Entrepreneurship Community of Practice to identify the range of offerings available at each university, highlighting any notable examples and gaps. Member’s offerings were categorised into four areas:
People – entrepreneurs & start-ups, supporters, entrepreneurial academics, industry partners, networks
Places – co-working spaces, offices and parks, hubs, accelerators/incubators
Programmes – events, workshops, networking
Pounds – competitions, investors, awards and grants
Looking at these areas across 11 Aspect institutions, a comparison matrix was created. The intention was to allow members to consider what could be shared in terms of best practice and ideas, and to enable universities to see how they may supplement their offerings, by learning from the activities collated from elsewhere.
The matrix has been translated into an interactive online map, which will enable universities to better inform their entrepreneurial networks, whether in existence or being established, of the opportunities to get involved in the social sciences entrepreneurship ecosystem.
The audit uncovered that very few members have social sciences specific offerings, rather, most seek to engage social scientists with existing offerings. Members have been exploring how to best do this via other projects such as the Entrepreneurship Workshop Series, the ASAP Accelerator, and the Social Science Student Journey Mapping mini-project (read more about these projects on the Entrepreneurship COP webpage). Other learnings from this project have been reported in the 2020 and 2021 Aspect Learning Reports.
Offerings Comparison Matrix (accessible to Aspect members only) – This detailed spreadsheet details the existing offerings at each member institution that informed the Interactive Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Map. This spreadsheet can also be used by members to compare their offerings to those of peer institutions. As a next, it could also be used to complete a gap analysis across Aspect, and consider where universities may wish to supplement their offerings based on best practice elsewhere.
Implementation Guide – this guide is for members who participated in the mapping exercise. It outlines how the data can be used to build a web-based map or visual representation of the offerings listed in their matrix, modelled on the University of Oxford’s ‘Enterprising Oxford’ website. Read more about Oxford’s journey in this write-up from the Entrepreneurship COP Workshop Series project.
Case Studies in Social Sciences Entrepreneurship – Each COP member was invited to put forward two case studies of student entrepreneurs with a social science background from their institution. The case studies were selected based on their impact or role in the ecosystem, and showcase a multitude of different entrepreneurial ventures.
Spotlight on Oxford’s Entrepreneurs Uncovered –This information pack and presentation provides an overview of Entrepreneurs Uncovered, one of the ‘good practice’ examples highlighted in the mapping exercises. The pack provides guidance on how to run a similar programme at your institution.
LSE’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Offerings (Digital Flyer) – Using the information gathered in this mapping project, the LSE team created a ‘digital flyer’ that they can use to showcase their offerings to student entrepreneurs. The flyer was created as one example of how members can use and apply their own ecosystem audit data.
