How to get your message through? Designing an Impactful Knowledge transfer plan in a European Project

Academic research is largely characterized by scientific projects striving to advance the understanding in their respective fields. Financial support is often subjected to the fulfilment of certain requirements, such as a fully developed knowledge transfer plan and dissemination strategy. But the evaluation of these activities and their impact is rarely an easy path to clarity and comprehensiveness, considering the different expectations from project officers and funding agencies, dissemination activities and objectives, and so on. With this paper, based on the experience of the management and outreach team of the EU-H2020 APPLICATE project, we aim to shed light on the challenging journey towards impact assessment of knowledge transfer activities by presenting a methodology for impact planning and monitoring in the context of a collaborative and international research project. Through quantitative and qualitative evaluations and indicators developed in four years of the project, this paper represents an attempt to build a common practice for project managers and coordinators and establish a baseline for the development of a shared strategy.

Unplanning urban transport: Unsolicited urban highways in Lima

During the last three decades, the use of public–private partnerships to deliver urban infrastructure has increased considerably around the world. The objective of this paper is to understand how the availability of private finance that comes with the use of public–private partnerships and, specifically, unsolicited proposals, affects planning. To do so, I investigate the case of Lima, Peru, where between 2009 and 2012 three urban highway projects worth a total of US$1.3bn were approved, and a new metropolitan plan was written in 2014. I use qualitative case study methods to reconstruct the process. I find that the introduction of private finance deeply shapes the planning process, including the selection of the projects that will get built. Thus, beyond transforming the implementation stage of a two-step process, private finance has a profound impact on the planning phase itself by setting constraints on what can be done and to what ends. Furthermore, I find that the logic following the profit motive to prioritize infrastructure projects then becomes embedded within formal planning, as plans are written according to what can be built with private finance. I call the specific mechanism by which this happens “unplanning.” The paper contributes to understanding how public–private partnerships and private finance impact planning processes and outcomes.

The Distinction of the Major Design Principles of Planning Systems and How They Potentially Impact Planning Outcomes

This paper addresses how different urban planning systems play their role in the development of cities, and how this directly affects the role and status of urban planning in social construction, and how to determine the social awareness of urban planning. By contrasting and defining the challenges and advantages of the regulatory, discretionary and hybrid urban planning systems, as well as examining the potential possibilities of each system, which system is more effective will become apparent. Therefore, planning and policy implementation can be more extensive and special. At the same time, a sound planning system can form relevant information feedback to propose amendments and adjustment methods for the city's planning content and policy and planning operation, which comply with the objective requirements of urban development.

Extreme vertical drafts in the polar summer mesosphere: A super mesospheric bore?

<p>The polar summer mesosphere is the Earth’s coldest region, allowing the formation of mesospheric ice clouds, potentially linked to climate change. These clouds produce strong radar echoes that are used as tracers of mesospheric dynamics. Here we report the first observations of extreme vertical drafts in the mesosphere, characterized by velocities larger than 40 m/s, i.e., more than five standard deviations larger than the observed wind variability. The morphology seems to resemble mesospheric bores, however the scales observed are much larger. Powerful vertical drafts, intermittent in space and time, emerge also in direct numerical simulations of stratified flows, predicting non-Gaussian statistics of vertical velocities. This evidence suggests that mesospheric bores might result from the interplay of gravity waves and turbulent motions. Our extreme event is interpreted as a mesospheric "super-bore", impacting mesospheric mixing and ice-formation, and would potentially impact planning of sub-orbital flights, and the investigation of biological material in the near space.</p>

Quality outcomes in NHS library and knowledge services

PurposeThis paper aims to demonstrate the approach taken in delivering the quality and impact elements of Knowledge for Healthcare, the strategic development framework for National Health Service (NHS) library and knowledge services in England. It examines the work undertaken to enhance quality and demonstrate the value and impact of health library and knowledge services. It describes the interventions developed and implemented over a five-year period 2015–2020 and the move towards an outcome rather than process approach to impact and quality.Design/methodology/approachThe case study illustrates a range of interventions that have been developed, including the outcomes of implementation to date. The methodology behind each intervention is informed by the evidence base and includes professional engagement.FindingsThe outcomes approach to the development and implementation of quality and impact interventions and assets provides evidence to demonstrate the value of library and knowledge staff to the NHS in England to both high-level decision-makers and service users.Originality/valueThe interventions are original concepts developed within the NHS to demonstrate system-wide impacts and change. The Evaluation Framework has been developed based on the impact planning and assessment (IPA) methodology. The interventions can be applied to other healthcare systems, and the generic learning is transferable to other library and knowledge sectors, such as higher education.

Innovative impact planning and assessment through global libraries

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report a range of innovative approaches, methods and tools for evaluating the impact of public libraries and supporting the development of library leaders drawn from projects supported by the Global Libraries initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Design/methodology/approach A range of approaches, tools and methods are described by specialist staff who were directly involved with these innovations. Findings Some comments are provided on the effectiveness of these innovations. Research limitations/implications All of these innovations have been tried out in public library settings, usually over a period of years. Practical implications All of the selected innovations could be adapted and used by library leaders or impact specialists. Social implications Several of the innovations are specifically designed to engage library staff and users in evaluation processes. Originality/value The impact planning and assessment programme of GL was the largest sustained international public library evaluation programme so far attempted. This paper reports on the more innovative evaluation activities undertaken through this programme.

How to think about housing and planning

This chapter discusses how politicians have been deceived by faith-based, ideologically predetermined anti-planning arguments from free-market think tanks such as Policy Exchange. While ministers were fixating on the planning system as a barrier to house building, they neglected to do the obvious thing: build houses. In time, the ‘war on planning’, a steady stream of reports supported by seminars, newspaper articles, and private lunches and dinners, began to have an impact. Planning came to be widely blamed for the country's failure to build enough homes and, more generally, for holding back economic development. The chapter then looks at four related issues that help explain why a new approach is needed: the rise and fall of council housing; the economic model of the big developers; the rise and fall of the ‘property-owning democracy’; and land values.

Derailed Values: Planning Education, External Funding, and Environmental Justice in New Orleans Rail Planning

Studio courses can transform practice and impart planning values, but increasing university expectations around revenue generation could create barriers for these objectives. To understand how funding demands could impact planning education, we examine a New Orleans–based case study in which external funders pressured university stakeholders to change a studio course. The studio, focused on environmental justice and freight rail planning, remained much the same, but shifted from an advocacy framework to a technical approach. This approach did little to impart social justice values or transform practice, but planning education can still support social justice values.