In January, The Physiological Society launched its report ‘Translating Knowledge and Research into Impact: Physiology and knowledge exchange’, a report that used a discipline-informed approach to knowledge exchange (KE) to quantify the value of physiological research in the UK being translated into real-world benefits. The report also outlined the barriers to physiologists conducting more knowledge exchange.
In this interview, The Society’s Policy Manager, Tom Addison, met with the Expert Group’s Co-chairs Professor Tim Curtis and Dr Richard Siow as well as the Lead Consultant on the project, Adrian Day, to understand the increasing emphasis being put on knowledge exchange and how members can learn more about its benefits for both research and career progression.
What is Knowledge Exchange (KE)?
Adrian Day (AD): Knowledge exchange is the many different interactions between higher education institutions and businesses, public services, charities, public engagement, communities, policymakers and government to create societal and economic benefit. So, it’s basically everything that universities do that benefits people or organisations outside academia.
How did you get involved with knowledge exchange? What were the main drivers for your involvement?
Richard Siow (RS): My background in nutrition and cardiovascular physiology led me to approach Unilever to support a PhD studentship which led to a long-term collaboration related to diet and healthy ageing. During this time, my relationship with Unilever evolved to encompass a broad range of engagement, including a sabbatical secondment to work with teams based in their global R&D centres.
I was responsible for developing the Framework Partnership between King’s College London and Unilever, from which the King’s Unilever Innovation Hub was established. I also initiated the King’s India Summer Session at Unilever Bangalore, a unique international academic-industry educational programme. My experience with KE has covered a variety of different types of partnerships and has helped not only improve academic-led research and the development of better consumer products, but also provided novel opportunities for postgraduate students in UK and India.
My role as Director at ARK (Ageing Research at King’s) has also led me to become more closely involved with policymakers in government and industry through the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Longevity and you can read more about this in the full report!
Tim Curtis (TC): As a physiologist, my research interests are mainly focused on trying to better understand why people with diabetes are at risk of losing their vision. We are also using the knowledge gained from our studies to try to develop new drugs that can prevent the vision-threatening complications of this disease.
Through working with industry partners and diabetes public and patient involvement groups, I have the opportunity to translate my findings from the bench to patient care and receive feedback from patients about their priorities for future treatments. It was really pleasing to see my own drive to inform future research and make a tangible difference to people’s lives being reflected in the responses to the report’s survey from the rest of the physiology community – it isn’t all about the money!
Is KE separate from research and teaching?
TC: To some extent it is. For example, there’s specific public funding available for KE but people don’t tend to talk about KE as being separate to teaching and research these days because all three complement one another. As a result of conducting community outreach with older people, this may help improve the terms for future clinical trials focusing on different age-related diseases and conditions. Similarly, engaging with industry partners on a particular disease area might help improve teaching practice to ensure that the course materials include insight from industry or help to make future graduates more employable.
So KE isn’t just a rebranding exercise for commercialisation and spinouts?
AD: Commercialisation of research is still an important component of KE but the assumption that academics only do curiosity-driven research and fortuitously find someone who can use the results further down the line seemed rather limited; early champions of the idea knew that there was more higher education could do to address social and economic issues and opportunities. I think physiology is a great example of this.
Such as the work The Society has done on the Ageing Society Grand Challenge (see Growing Older, Better for more information)?
RS: Precisely. Ageing societies are an issue across much of the world – if we want to add quality of life as well as longevity, we need to look at the big picture. Physiologists are active across the spectrum from those working on [the mechanics of cells] to those designing effective exercise programmes for the elderly to help keep their immune systems active.
So this is why The Society is building an evidence base for the contribution physiology makes to knowledge exchange and society at large?
AD: Indeed, The Society had a sense of how important these ideas were but no one had really taken a discipline-based approach to KE previously – existing data and policy focussed on institutions and overall return on (public) investment.
So this is where Adrian came in?
AD: My background was very much working in public policy – specifically on KE. As an independent consultant I thought it would be a fascinating opportunity to be able to drill down on one discipline and to see what innovative approaches we could come up with to build on the existing data. Although I admit that the learning curve was pretty steep at first – I think I was one of those people who thought ‘physiology’ was an old synonym for ‘medicine’ – I’m now something of a bore correcting others when they don’t use the terms properly – such as it being the Nobel Prize for Physiology & Medicine!
What has the report told us so far?
RS: That physiologists are very active in almost all forms of KE as was discussed at the launch of the report. The UK is something of a world-leader in KE policy – in particular we have established data which provides quantitative and qualitative perspectives of KE. Rather than reinventing the wheel we decided to build on these foundations – not least as this would be an easy way to describe the contribution physiology makes to institutions, funders and the Government. We worked with 10 UK institutions most active in physiology and estimated that around of 11 per cent of UK KE draws on physiology/physiologists. Further, from our survey of academics, we found that physiologists were very active in many forms of KE – from problem-solving to community-based programmes.
However, it’s not income that motivates physiologists to do KE – more important is are the insights in to new research questions and better ways to present teaching material.
Why is it important?
AD: For a number of reasons, research and innovation are a priority for the UK and funders are keen to engage with learned societies to understand how to get the most out of our research budget. Physiologists were central to the COVID vaccine efforts, as were the established partnerships between universities, the private sector and other organisations (such as WHO, Gates Foundation etc). The case studies and data that we have help Government and funders to make good public policy and demonstrate the value of physiology to institutions.
What does that mean for physiologists?
TC: We have a number of case studies detailing how physiology improves lives but they often come from senior academics. We also found that some others – particularly early career researchers (ECRs) – aren’t immediately sure how to go about forming these relationships and what the rewards will be.
What is TPS doing to promote KE?
TC: The Physiological Society has been working with NCUB, ASTP [the European association of KE professionals working in universities] and PraxisAuril to establish a set of resources that will help physiologists, especially ECRs, identify relevant partners. I have recently been working closely with Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) and it was a great pleasure to be able to speak on a panel with them as they presented their opnMe platform. #
opnMe is an open innovation portal providing access to the Boehringer Ingelheim molecule library for sharing and collaboration to benefit drug discovery for researchers at all stages of their careers. What was really pleasing to hear is that because the molecules are open source, BI is receiving inquiries from ECRs as well as researchers with more established careers.
RS: In parallel, we are working with The Society to establish a network of academic champions with KE experience to work with KE professionals to help them understand the specific offer from physiologists.
The report also recommended that The Society use its professional development resources to promote KE to its members so if you are a researcher interested to learn more about KE but aren’t sure where to start, I would recommend registering for the upcoming webinar series on KE.
The three hour-long sessions are designed to give a broad overview of what KE is, how it benefits physiologists and how you can raise your own profile among partner organisations like pharmaceutical companies to maximise the impact of your research
The series begins on the 11 June and you can register here.
Also Tim will also be representing The Society at the upcoming PraxisAuril annual conference, the annual meeting of the UK’s professional association for Knowledge Exchange practitioners. This session takes place on Thursday 10 June from 11am.