University news

Sussex’s performance in the annual Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) has continued to improve for the fourth consecutive year. 

The latest KEF results were published today (18 September) by Research England and show that Sussex continues to be in the top 20% for its group in four out of the seven measures looked at in KEF. We have also improved our position in two others. 

The KEF provides information on the rich and diverse ways that English universities engage with society and the economy, locally, nationally and internationally. 

Sussex’s performance is assessed in a group with 19 other large, research-intensive, broad discipline universities, and we have continued to improve our position, relative to our comparators, on most measures since last year’s KEF dashboard was published.

Sussex has continued to stay ahead of our group performance average and been ranked in the top 20% in the sector for:

• Working with business
• Intellectual Property & Commercialisation – maintaining our improved position from last year
• Working with the public and third sector
• Research Partnerships

This year the University has also improved its position relative to our group’s performance average by being ranked in the top 60% in the sector for:

• Local growth
• Continuing professional development
• Graduate start-ups

In terms of our public and community engagement score, where we lag behind the group, we are focused on working to effectively capture the diverse and creative engagement that academics undertake with community partners. We expect this score to improve also through the University's commitment to civic engagement, led by Robin Banerjee, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global and Civic Engagement, in this fairly new role. 

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), Professor Keith Jones said: “For the last few years, particularly born out of the Sussex 2025 strategy, we have had a strong focus on partnership working and knowledge exchange, and this continues to pay dividends in terms of our KEF scores. Brilliant spin-out companies such as Universal Quantum and Metasonixx evidence an academic culture at Sussex that is increasingly entrepreneurial. Our consistently strong performance in working successfully with businesses and public sector evidences our responsiveness to external partners’ needs, and we are able to offer Sussex graduates the opportunity to excel across the diverse range of fields they enter.” 

Knowledge exchange at Sussex

Knowledge exchange (KE) is a key area for the University, and an increased focus on KE in recent years has resulted in almost doubling income from business collaboration, the establishment of more spin-outs, doubling patent awards and software licences, creating 661 jobs and doubling turnover of graduate and staff business, and attracting external investment to these businesses of over £17.9m. The rollout of our new Sussex 2035 strategy will provide for an even more future-focused culture of engagement with business and community partners. 

If you would like any further information about our results in this year’s KEF, or how KE works here at Sussex, please contact Professor Kristi Langhoff, Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Knowledge Exchange, at k.e.langhoff@sussex.ac.uk. 

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