It has been a hugely enjoyable and valuable experience connecting to Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia stakeholders and the great conference programme in Queenstown, New Zealand (KCA is an organisation similar to Praxis Auril, providing standardisation and celebration of Knowledge Exchange (KE) practice for research organisations across the continent). There were dedicated sessions on social value and impact within venturing that will provide great content, networking and links for our Social Ventures Community of Practice to explore - but here are some key takeaways from the conference that hopefully we can learn from in the wider UK KE sector.
First, KE practices across institutions in Australasia are very well integrated with government priorities. This obviously occurs to some level back here at home, and at the same time changes within governments anywhere don’t always lead to a seamless alignment of topic focus. However, initiatives like the NCRIS system in Australasia mean that specific targets in the outside world (i.e. environment or key food systems) are targeted by government-backed innovation and venture acceleration funds. This is also supported by a growing number of industry-integrated PhDs, similar to our KTP programmes in the UK.
Second, the relationship between innovation and indigenous communities is an important part of commercialisation practice in this region. Beyond the vital ethical aspect to this, there is also a very progressive aspect of redefining ‘ownership’ and IP to include collective stewardship of knowledge and an ingrained consideration of impact on future generations in any work. There is a lot that can be learnt from this to build a more robust and larger scale linking of commercialisation with impact, community engagement and civic mission in our own system. Maybe we can take inspiration from their motto ‘get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable’ to address sensitive aspects of power and relationship building.
A final point for reflection is the very successful Special Interest Groups, Communities of Practice and member-led activities across the KCA network. Kiwi-net is seen as a leading model in many parts of the world and the impact comes from a fantastic principle of creating confidence through shared spaces and connection as well as more structured practice exchanges. Recent news confirms that universities in this region can apply for Horizon Europe funding, perhaps providing a good basis for our international exchanges and collaborative work.
Look out for further explorations of these themes, as well as the dedicated technical social value and SHAPE topics, through our Community of Practice (CoP) activities and releases. We will also hope to build on the exciting connections made with colleagues doing incredible work across Australasia.
