The numbers are strong, but community engagement is what makes them count: what KEF 6 tells us about good growth, universities and knowledge exchange

The sixth update of the UK Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF 6) - a tool to better understand, benchmark, and strategically improve performance across knowledge exchange metrics - paints a rich, data-led picture of how universities in England are translating knowledge into impact. Rather than simply being an encyclopaedia for specialists, however, the report tells a story of success breadth and diversity of knowledge exchange happening across England 

The story is immediately told through the numbers, where economic indicators connected to knowledge exchange activity are impressive on their own. The real lesson of KEF 6, though, is that it is when universities actively reach out to their communities that it delivers on the government's ambitions for inclusive innovation and good growth in every postcode. 

Through our Future Innovators and Future Communities campaigns, UUK is committed to building on these foundations, asking how we can be even more ambitious about what universities can achieve in the places and communities they are situated. 

Contribution to economic growth and enterprise sits at the heart of the KEF. It groups each university with others like it and sorts them into performance bands from lowest to highest so improvement shows up as a university moving into a higher band. 

KEF 6 shows real momentum, with almost every type of university either improving or holding steady on last year. 

Intellectual property and research commercialisation are the foundations for translating research into partnerships, businesses, products and processes that change people's lives. Manchester Metropolitan University is a great example of what is possible, strengthening its IP and commercialisation performance in KEF 6, moving up a band.  

Research partnerships build the relationships that mobilise university knowledge for economic and societal impact. Here, the improvements are being led by a strikingly wide range of institutions including small and large teaching-focused institutions, very large research-intensive institutions with a broad discipline base and arts specialist institutions. York St John University (a small, teaching-focused university), for instance, climbed two bands by co-authoring more of its research with non-academic partners, whereas the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (an arts specialist) moved up through greater collaborative research with non-academic partners. 

Working with business is improving too. Driven in large part by deeper engagement with the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), that are so often the bedrock of a local economy. 

Continuing Professional Development and graduate start-ups are also part of the KEF and rightly so; without skilled people and entrepreneurs, none of the great economic output could happen. The most recent HEIF evaluation shows some of the greatest returns come from students and their enterprising activity: every £1 of HEIF invested in enterprise education and entrepreneurship is associated with £18 of additional investment secured by student start-ups. At a time of real concern about future jobs, that works out at a cost per job created of just £1,200. 

These indicators demonstrate the economic strength of English higher education. As strong as they are, though, they tell only half the story: when knowledge exchange happens with active community engagement, enabled by partnership and collaboration, can it translate into real benefits for those communities.

KEF 6 captures this other side of the coin.

Working with the public and third sector covers some of universities' most vital relationships — with the NHS, with local authorities, and with the charities that hold communities together. The University of Cumbria is a good example of using research and expertise to address local challenges; in KEF 6 it moved up a band after holding steady for four years as it deepening its role in the public and voluntary life of its region. 

Local growth and regeneration is where universities have multiple roles including supporting the development of local growth plans, ensuring innovation benefits local communities. The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine is a standout here, holding the top band for the third year running. 

Wider public and community engagement is the patient work of building lasting partnerships with local people and organisations, listening and responding to local needs and concerns, and ensuring communities genuinely feel that their university is there for them. Such engagement is foundational in what knowledge exchange is for. 

The Atom Valley project is a perfect example of the innovation-led economic growth, anchored in local places and communities the KEF analyses. A mayoral development zone spanning Bury, Rochdale and Oldham, it aims to create a hub for innovation in advanced materials, manufacturing and green technologies with the potential for around 20,000 high-quality jobs. Crucially, communities are central to its development plan bringing good jobs, training and skills to the people who live there, with the Universities of Salford, Manchester, Leeds and Huddersfield working side-by-side with companies to turn cutting-edge research into local opportunity. 

KEF 6 is welcome reading for Universities UK, in its recognition of universities' strengths. When active community engagement occurs, knowledge exchange improves, and this chimes closely with our Future Universities campaign. Future Innovators, one of the campaign's programme of work, is about making sure we don't just see "start-ups and scale-ups pouring out of our world-class universities" but that they stay and engage with the people and places of their UK region, to their benefit. Future Communities, another focus, is about building stronger links between universities and the places around them to create more foundations for inclusive innovation. 

Universities are already helping mayors deliver local growth and local leaders lay the groundwork for devolution, but improvement will only come from deeper collaboration. Place-based partnership funds like the Research England Development Fund, the Connecting Capability Fund and the Policy Support Fund are vital to this work, and with the focus on good growth in every postcode, inclusive innovation and devolution, the need to support them has never been greater.