The Case

A Capacity Building Course for Achieving Impact and Innovation from Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts

There is a growing request for Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts impact and commercialisation activities. Some examples, case studies, guidance documents and lessons on good practice are already existing. Now you want to kickstart – or improve – SHAPE impact activities in your own institution and want to do all you can to make sure those first projects you do are successful.

We have therefore developed “The Case,” a collaboration between Mark Mann OÜ (Estonia & UK) and Görgen & Köller GmbH (Germany) to bring together the best practitioners in SHAPE commercialisation together to help your institution. This course concept provides vital knowledge about SHAPE-transfer and impact, including the application of appropriate methodologies to your most promising projects. “The Case” is about application-oriented learning: you will be able to utilize acquired knowledge instantly by working on a specific real-world case from your own university or institute.

What does it aim for?

“The Case” is about creating awareness for impact opportunities from SHAPE and how to explore them. It aims to build the capacity of Knowledge Transfer Officers, Scouts, AND researchers, who are the source of impact-creating knowledge. Together, we work on a promising project and create “The Case” – it’s in-situ-learning featuring a project-clinic approach, focused on SHAPE. Central learnings are:

  • Idea sharpening: how to develop an initial idea into a transfer project.
  • Concepts of transfer, innovation impact: how to turn them to your project.
  • Impact goals and pathways: how to choose and tackle impact goals.
  • Evaluation of impact: how to capture success.

“The Case” puts your project upfront and enables you to support SHAPE researchers systematically and successfully on their way to achieving impact. “The Case” approach is aimed at getting you going with your best project so you can use it as a champion in your institution. We believe understanding impact at a project level is the most important prerequisite for laying the foundation for a successful impact ecosystem in your university.

How does it work?

“The Case” is a four-day interactive working concept (6 h/day).
It addresses KTOs, TTOs, Scouts, Business Developers, and Researchers.

_ Phase I: Awareness and Demand (Day 1)

  • Basic concepts: transfer, impact, innovation
  • SHAPE transfer worldwide: activities and networks
  • Good practice: case-based lessons learned
  • Tools and methods: introduction to methodologies (e.g., identifying cases, market launch toolbox)
  • Core: development of a case. Interactive KT³-approach

_Phase II: Processing and Preparation (2-3 Months)

After Day 1 you will have some homework to do. You’ll need to speak to your project’s stakeholders, and there are key bits of information you will need to get from them. There may also need to be some internal pieces of work to do in your institution as the path forward may be blocked. We will allow two to three months for you to get this work done and can support you along the way. We then bring everyone together for Phase III.

_Phase III: Application and Progression (Days 2 and 3)

  • Presentation and reflection: results of preparational phase.
  • Options for achieving impact from SHAPE: start-ups, licensing and more.
  • Impact insights: Social Innovation, Impact Investing, Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Development Goals, Crowdfunding, Societal Impact, Indicators.
  • Interactive Impact Café: developing an impact strategy for the case.
  • Setting the course: evaluation of transfer options for the case.
  • Navigating the ship: defining the route to impact – and when to stop it.
  • Involving government: local, regional, national, and international.
  • Putting things together in a business plan.
  • Organizing support: measures to impactful support of SHAPE transfer.
  • Developing a narrative: telling a story about the case to target groups and stakeholders.

Phase IV: outlook (Day 4)

Day 4

  • Visit at another university/research institution for exchanging knowledge and experiences about SHAPE knowledge transfer and impact.
  • The role the institution itself plays in building and anchoring itself at the centre of an ecosystem so that its own projects can benefit will be a key part.
  • Selection of this visit is based on the interest of attendees.

What will you take away?

“The Case” results in a developed case. You will have learned about appropriate and relevant methodologies and how to use them. By the end of the course, you are capable of managing SHAPE transfer and impact cases on your own.

What will you need to bring?

  • Being open minded and interested in SHAPE transfer and impact.
  • A real case: knowledge generated at your university in the field of SHAPE that has a good chance of being effectively transferred, including the researcher and their team who are the sources of this knowledge. Particularly suitable are cases which do not initially involve high development costs (e.g., consulting or service offerings) or that do not require particularly specialised contextual knowledge. It is really important that the participants bring a case which has got good potential and has momentum independent of the ecosystem it finds itself within. If are unsure which of the projects you have are the most appropriate, we will work together beforehand to choose the best project for “The Case”.

Who should attend?

KTO, TTOs, Scouts, Business Developers.

Interested? Please contact Josef Pinter, Görgen & Köller GmbH, hum-lab@gk-mb.com