Researching EngD impact

(5 July 2013) - A short-term pilot study, supported by the AEngD and EPSRC, aims to understand the various forms of impact which EngD programmes have made over the years on both Research Engineers and their industry sponsors. The key objective is to define and understand what is the ‘impact’ of EngDs and identify how it can best be evidenced.

Dr. Fumi Kitagawa, lecturer in enterprise studies at Manchester Business School is leading the project and has provided the following overview:

The focus of the study is on understanding the impact of the EngD, looking particularly at:

1. impact on industry partners providing some hard evidence of the value of EngD project sponsorship to industry, and
2. career pathways, identifying how the EngD experience shapes the career paths of Research Engineers/ EngD Alumni.

Rationale

Whilst benefits and strengths of EngD programmes are recognised over years and anecdotally acknowledged, there is a need to provide frameworks that answer the question – “What is the nature of EngD Impact?”, and then demonstrate the extent of such impact by identify tangible data-sets and evidences. This is a pertinent question to ask after 20 years since the Parnaby report was published, by examining the accumulated impact of the EngD. Demonstrating the impact is imperative for the future of the EngD programmes and the future of doctoral training that is relevant to industry and societal needs, especially in times of austerity.

Work to date

The project team has developed a conceptual framework to define and understand the 'impact' of EngDs. Using this 'evaluative map', we have been collecting evidences that demonstrate various forms of impacts. We have spoken to Centre directors and managers, consulted materials and publications provided by the IDCs/EngD centres, and interviewed REs, alumni and industry sponsors. We have identified both tangible and intangible impacts from the EngD projects.

The greatest EngD impact is 'people-related'. Researchers, with their dynamic career pathways, act as agents of knowledge exchange between university and industry, within the firm, and sometimes across industry sectors. Some industry sponsors regard the EngD programmes as a "4 year job interview", not just for their own firms but for the sector.

Other impacts extend beyond the REs, benefitting industry supervisors and colleagues through knowledge exchanges, skills development and learning. Other impacts include technological ones, including the creation of exploitable intellectual property and spin-off firms, or the influence of research findings on industrial practice. We have found several EngD projects that had commercial impacts, including higher business performance and new business development. The findings of this pilot evaluative study with illustrative cases will be written as a report, which will be ready in the final quarter of 2013.

Help needed

This pilot study is being conducted by a small research team at Manchester Business School during the summer of 2013. We are conducting telephone interviews in July and August 2013 (interview duration about half an hour). We would like to talk to RE Alumni, and key industry partners with various EngD experiences, illustrating different impacts from the EngD programmes. In order to complete this study, the support of the IDCs/EngD Centres is essential. It would be extremely helpful if the AEngD member Centres could give contacts of alumni and industry partners. We are looking for 2-3 alumni and key industry contacts from individual Centres.

Thanks for your kind attention and co-operation in advance. Please get in touch for any queries and suggestions. You can email me at Fumi.kitagawa@mbs.ac.uk.