Universities Scotland has submitted its response to the Scottish Funding Council’s Knowledge Transfer Grant (KTG) consultation SFC/CN/02/2015.
The KTG currently supports outward-facing activity to enable universities to deliver economic, cultural and social impact. The flexibility of the current KTG has been an important feature to allow universities to pursue this impact in the unique context of each institution.
Universities Scotland’s key comments in response to consultation SFC/CN/02/2015 are:
- The university sector is fully supportive of, and demonstrating ongoing leadership in, enhancement of knowledge exchange activities.
- The purpose of knowledge exchange is to drive economic, social and cultural outcomes.
- There is an ongoing need for support for all institutions to engage in knowledge exchange activities.
- The funding mechanism should support institutions to both pursue enhancement of process and to achieve economic, social and cultural impact. Both aspects should be framed in the context of the diversity of the sector, be it in terms of institutional specialisms, the industries institutions work with and/or the needs of those industries. While recognising the benefits of institutional collaboration, all contributions, whether individual or collective, local or global, should be recognised.
- Funding predictability is crucial to each institution’s knowledge exchange activities so a commitment to funding outcomes on a 2-3 year basis is required.
- This consultation does not specify how SFC will come to a decision on institutional allocations. A robust and efficient mechanism that marries performance and predictability is needed.
- We welcome the opportunity to engage with the SFC to agree priorities and desired outcomes.