Socio Economic Impact Project

The University of Bedfordshire invites tenders for a mixed study of quantitative and qualitative research to demonstrate the economic and social impact or wider benefit of the University and the local, regional and national economy. In particular this commission will contribute to the University's Policy Work in relation to delivering the National Industry Strategy aims and the overall UK commitment of reaching an R&D spend of 2.4% of GDP. The University believes that the impact case studies submitted to REF2014 revealed the substantial work that we do to bring wider benefits to the economy, society and quality of life in the UK. This exercise, whilst important to the academic community, does not resonate with the wider public as it often focusses on unquantified or long-term benefit. With the planned introduction of the Knowledge Exchange (KE) Framework, the University wishes to benchmark our current activities that have economic impact to provide businesses and other users (and potential users) of our knowledge with information which may increase our visibility as potential university partners. The University is preparing to develop our Strategic Plan for the period 2020-2025; this impact assessment should be conducted with reference to our Strategic Plan 2017-2020