University partnership to boost research with National Trust
06 Mar 2017
Knowledge Transfer Partnership with charity that preserves our nation’s heritage and open spaces
Colleagues in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures (SALC) have won their bid for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the National Trust.
The project, led by Professor Hannah Barker, will develop and embed a robust strategic and operational innovation framework, and create tool-kits to enhance the way the National Trust engages with academic research and interprets research for the public.
The work will build on an ESRC Impact Accelerator Account secondment project around the expansion of, and re-interpretation at, Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire, which is a major site for the National Trust and a unique survival of a complete early industrial revolution purpose-built community.
Hannah has been involved with Quarry Bank since September 2015, and her research expertise is integral to the success of the interpretation of the site.
She said: “Continuing the work with a Knowledge Transfer Partnership is a great way to consolidate a strategic relationship with the National Trust. For a historian, it's fantastic to be able to get involved in the production of public history.”
The partnership is part of a deliberate strategy to increase engagement with non-academic organisations and to promote the social and economic impact of research. It also offers the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, and the University, opportunities to build a strategic relationship with the National Trust in the North, which will include researchers and students.
The Knowledge Transfer Partnerships scheme is a UK-wide programme, run and managed by Innovate UK. The University currently has 24 Partnerships including: