01 June 2026

Tomas Coates Ulrichsen and Leonard Kelleher

Since 2023, The Policy Evidence Unit for University Commercialisation and Innovation (UCI), based at the University of Cambridge, has been working in partnership with Research England (RE) to deliver their national Knowledge Exchange (KE) Metrics programme to develop next generation data and metrics on KE. A key focus of this programme is improving data and metrics to inform and support the KE for regional economic growth agenda.

Today, UCI releases a new paper setting out a series of promising areas for action to improve KE data and metrics for regional growth: Improving data and metrics on knowledge exchange for regional growth: Insights from the UCI Expert Insights Series

The areas were informed by our work at UCI and the series of Expert Insights papers published earlier this year, which established a state-of-the-art evidence base through the contributions from a number of leading academics with expertise on regional innovation and economic growth, universities, and KE. More information on this can be found here.

These areas are grouped into four themes:

A territorial typology for knowledge exchange

• A typology of places specific to the needs of institutional funders of university KE that captures the varieties of local strengths, opportunities and challenges that exist across the country.

Improving KE data availability

• Data and metrics capturing the scale and specialisation of universities within local economies as it relates to their potential to contribute to regional economic growth outcomes through KE.
• Greater geographic granularity of data on KE activities and outcomes to enable better insights on the regional focus and reach of KE.
• Improved data on the resources (financial / non-financial) committed and mobilised by universities to contribute to sub-national economic growth through KE.
• Data and metrics capturing the ecosystem-strengthening activities and contributions of universities through KE, not least on regional institutional capacity and capability building. 
• Data and metrics capturing the collaborative and joint efforts of universities (with eachother and with partners such as Further Education colleagues) aimed at contributing to regional economic growth.
• Data and metrics capturing the regional retention and growth impacts of spinouts, startups and scale-up companies. 

Increasing understanding of the roles and contributions of university KE to regional growth

• Further understanding the different KE pathways for regional economic growth, particularly through collaborative approaches, those focused on strengthening and mobilising ecosystems, and by stimulating and leveraging public procurement to pull through innovation.
• Examining the pathways and contributions of university KE to regional economic growth through an arts, humanities and social science lens to improve understanding and identify key gaps and opportunities for improved KE data and metrics.

Approaches to KE decision-making, funding, and performance measurement for regional growth

• How to capture and measure the strengthening and maturing of ecosystems for regional growth through university KE (e.g. cluster development, system transition opportunities, local institutional capacity to design and deliver strategies for growth).
• How to balance local and non-local outcomes in funding approaches.
• Opportunities for a ‘systems-of-systems’ approach to performance management and measurement.
• Integrating qualitative and quantitative data into strategic decision-making and funding approaches.
• How to incentivise and reward collaborative efforts in strategic decision making and funding approaches.
• Monitoring and evaluating the KE for regional growth policy mix.
• Recognising alternative directions of innovation contributing to different types of economic growth.

We also add a new paper to the Series, mapping the fitness of existing KE data and metrics to a range of purposes relevant to the regional growth agenda: KE governance, regional growth strategies, and mission-oriented innovation policy. This addresses a key gap surfaced by this Series.

Supporting universities’ contributions to regional growth through KE has been a key focus area of Research England’s national KE metrics programme.

UCI and Research England are now actively exploring prioritisation of these areas and implementing work to take a number of them forward to improve KE data and metrics, enabling more strategic decision-making and funding approaches for regional prosperity.

Research England national knowledge exchange metrics programme

This Expert Insights Paper Series was commissioned by UCI, as Research England’s national knowledge exchange (KE) metrics advisers, to provide expert insights to inform the Research England-UCI work programme to develop better data and metrics for KE.