Forging partnerships with universities
Museums and higher education institutions are increasingly seeing the benefits of collaborating more closely to increase their impact. Patrick Steel reports
Last month’s memorandum of understanding between National Galleries Scotland (NGS) and the University of Edinburgh is the latest example of museums and higher education bodies working closely together.
Many of these partnerships are building on long-standing relationships that are being adapted for the 21st century. The agreement between NGS and the University of Edinburgh has formalised a relationship that goes back to the 19th century.
John Leighton, the director general of NGS, describes it as “a way of taking an organisational perspective on informal relations to encourage use of the collections by students and creative partnerships around exhibitions”. There is no funding attached, but the deal will bring mutual financial and intellectual benefits.
The four higher education funding bodies collectively distribute £2bn a year in research funding, but to access it universities have to demonstrate impact (see box).
This impact agenda is shaping the way research collaborations are driven, says Helen Graham, the director of the masters in art gallery and museum studies at Leeds University.
Museums collaborating with universities can unlock the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) £98.4m-a-year funding pot for research and postgraduate training, which encourages partnerships. In England, the arts council’s Research Grants Programme 2015-18 aims to foster partnerships between the higher education and culture sectors, with an indicative budget of £900,000 for 2016-17 and 2017-18.
There is also the opportunity to leverage private funds, as the Science Museum and King’s College London did for Enterprising Science – a five-year project to encourage 11- to 16-year-olds to engage with science – with £4m of funding from BP.
For cash-strapped museums this might seem like a panacea. But if people think universities will fill the funding gap they are mistaken, warns Iain Watson, the director of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, which has memorandums of understanding with Newcastle and Northumbria universities. But he says there are opportunities for powerful relationships that will work for mutual benefit.
Esther Roberts, the curator and projects manager at Gwynedd Museum, says that working with Bangor University has led to partnerships “that maybe we would not have thought of before”. As well as collaborating with obvious departments, such as archaeology, the museum is working on audience research with the psychology department and developing a Happy Museum project with the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice.
Thinking laterally about partnerships has worked for Luton’s Wardown Park Museum, where an informal agreement with the University of Bedfordshire has seen students designing computer games for the museum, providing the students with real-world skills and the museum with games that would otherwise have been beyond its budget, says Caroline Simon, the museum’s learning manager.
From 2014, the AHRC has directed “the majority of its postgraduate funding” into doctoral training partnerships, putting an emphasis on students collaborating with cultural bodies. So for researchers of the future, working in and with museums should become second nature.
The Research Excellence Framework (REF), which is designed to assess the quality and impact of research by universities, determines £2bn of funding distributed by the UK higher education funding bodies in the four home nations.
It replaced the Research Assessment Exercise in 2008 and reported for the first time in December 2014 on 2008-13.
The REF is scored with 65% for outputs, 20% for impact and 15% for environment. Outputs can include designs, performances and exhibitions; impact is defined as any effect on, or change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life beyond academia; and environment can include research collaborations and wider contributions to the discipline.
Many of these partnerships are building on long-standing relationships that are being adapted for the 21st century. The agreement between NGS and the University of Edinburgh has formalised a relationship that goes back to the 19th century.
John Leighton, the director general of NGS, describes it as “a way of taking an organisational perspective on informal relations to encourage use of the collections by students and creative partnerships around exhibitions”. There is no funding attached, but the deal will bring mutual financial and intellectual benefits.
The four higher education funding bodies collectively distribute £2bn a year in research funding, but to access it universities have to demonstrate impact (see box).
This impact agenda is shaping the way research collaborations are driven, says Helen Graham, the director of the masters in art gallery and museum studies at Leeds University.
Museums collaborating with universities can unlock the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) £98.4m-a-year funding pot for research and postgraduate training, which encourages partnerships. In England, the arts council’s Research Grants Programme 2015-18 aims to foster partnerships between the higher education and culture sectors, with an indicative budget of £900,000 for 2016-17 and 2017-18.
There is also the opportunity to leverage private funds, as the Science Museum and King’s College London did for Enterprising Science – a five-year project to encourage 11- to 16-year-olds to engage with science – with £4m of funding from BP.
For cash-strapped museums this might seem like a panacea. But if people think universities will fill the funding gap they are mistaken, warns Iain Watson, the director of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, which has memorandums of understanding with Newcastle and Northumbria universities. But he says there are opportunities for powerful relationships that will work for mutual benefit.
Esther Roberts, the curator and projects manager at Gwynedd Museum, says that working with Bangor University has led to partnerships “that maybe we would not have thought of before”. As well as collaborating with obvious departments, such as archaeology, the museum is working on audience research with the psychology department and developing a Happy Museum project with the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice.
Thinking laterally about partnerships has worked for Luton’s Wardown Park Museum, where an informal agreement with the University of Bedfordshire has seen students designing computer games for the museum, providing the students with real-world skills and the museum with games that would otherwise have been beyond its budget, says Caroline Simon, the museum’s learning manager.
From 2014, the AHRC has directed “the majority of its postgraduate funding” into doctoral training partnerships, putting an emphasis on students collaborating with cultural bodies. So for researchers of the future, working in and with museums should become second nature.
Framework to access research funding
The Research Excellence Framework (REF), which is designed to assess the quality and impact of research by universities, determines £2bn of funding distributed by the UK higher education funding bodies in the four home nations.
It replaced the Research Assessment Exercise in 2008 and reported for the first time in December 2014 on 2008-13.
The REF is scored with 65% for outputs, 20% for impact and 15% for environment. Outputs can include designs, performances and exhibitions; impact is defined as any effect on, or change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life beyond academia; and environment can include research collaborations and wider contributions to the discipline.