Business Engagement and Partnerships

The University of Oxford’s Knowledge Exchange Strategy recently identified business engagement and partnerships as an area for strategic investment in the Social Science and Humanities Divisions.

Business engagement sits within the context of the University’s wider mission to expand knowledge exchange and broaden the impact of our research. For Social Sciences and Humanities a broad definition of business engagement is used to include a variety of external partner organisations across the private, public and third sectors who might benefit from the University’s research.

The aims of business engagement are to:

• Identify and articulate the mutual areas of interest between researchers and external partner organisations, translate and communicate this to all parties and capitalise on opportunities that arise;
• Broker, build and manage relationships (new and existing) between these researchers, grounded in co-designed and delivered research activities;
• Accelerate business development activities across the two divisions, increasing funding for research from these organisations to explore models of financial sustainability;
• Work collaboratively with others across the University to increase Humanities and Social Sciences business-related research activities;
• Cultivate a culture of business collaboration by providing operational support, including practical, on the ground assistance via for instance ‘training’ support, and mentorship