The proposed feasibility study will examine how the University of Edinburgh approaches quality assurance of its knowledge exchange activities. The University of Edinburgh, where the researchers proposing this study are based, is selected because of the scale and breadth of its KE activities; because access to documentation is available, and because access to interviewees will also be straightforward. The study will use these sources of data to test out questions about how the quality of KE could or should be judged. This feasibility study may lead on to a further study aimed at how best to quality assure knowledge transfer in Scottish HEIs. A further study could incorporate the views of policy makers, government agencies, and funding bodies as well as a range of HEIs and their KE partners, but this feasibility study will focus on a more limited exploration of how the key people at different levels (KE directors, office managers and academics) in one institution with developed KE activity across disciplines approach the issue of quality assurance.

March 2009 - May 2009

Jenny Ozga
Annie Weir