OU Research: Together, we shape what happens next

“Research is just the first step. It’s all about collaboration and applying what we find to see real benefits unfolding in society”, that is how The Open University is approaching research according to Professor Kevin Shakesheff, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation.

On Thursday 12 September 2024, The Open University (OU) hosted an event at Unity Place in Milton Keynes to showcase the University’s open and collaborative research, and celebrate the academics, staff and students that drive this ethos.

A showcase of excellence

The exhibition space and auditorium at Unity Place was buzzing on this early autumn evening as academics and collaborators came together to discuss and find out more about OU research and the Open Societal Challenges (OSC) research platform.

The exhibition space featured some of the OU’s many projects that focus on multidisciplinary, challenge and mission-focused research to find solutions to some of the most important issues that society faces today. Attendees were interested to find out more about the range of challenges being investigated from Take Five to age well to MK:Smart – collaborative projects which engage communities, business and charities.

However, the focus of the evening was to celebrate a range of awards the OU has recently held including, Open Business Creators, the Research Excellence Awards, and the winners of the OSC ‘Challenge Us!’ competition. Professor Shakesheff introduced the event commenting “this evening is all about recognising the excellence of our students, our academics and in our final session, celebrating the work we are doing with charities and Milton Keynes’ businesses on our Open Societal Challenges.”

Celebrating students

The awards began with the Open Business Creators (OBC) Fund award winners. These are OU students who have started both commercial and social enterprises and the OBC Awards supports them from the idea stage, through to running an early-stage start-up. For 2024, the competition was open for entry to both commercial and social enterprise and students were able to win grants from £1,000 to £10,000 provided by the Higher Education Innovation Fund and Santander Universities.

Tracey O'Donnell, Deputy Chief Executive, Milton Keynes Council, was invited to the stage to present the awards to the winners, which included Natasha De Jhonge, for Social Enterprise with her Community Interest Company, RE(YOU)S, which is dedicated to transforming resource sharing and promoting sustainability, and Tara Murphy who won £10,000 for her business, ACT Student Support, which provides specialist mentors to students in higher education who may face mental health challenges, learning differences, or physical disabilities.

Following the OBC awards, Professor Shakesheff announced the launch of a new Open Business Creators Fund for Disabled Entrepreneurs in partnership with Scope, the disability equality charity, to encourage early-stage founders to share their ideas and access support and funding. This new award further builds on the University’s mission to collaborate with and support students, businesses and charities, giving equal and inclusive opportunities.

Celebrating staff

The Research Excellence Awards (REA) were next to take place after a period of networking in the atrium. Attendees headed to the auditorium whilst a showreel about OU research inspired audience members from the auditoriums screen.

Professor Shakesheff introduced the awards stating, “This year, for the 2024 awards, we saw an extremely high calibre of submissions to the Research Excellence Awards… These awards not only highlight the brilliant research going on around the OU, but also how we collaborate and support each other to deliver this research and create real-world impact”. Collaboration really is the name of the game.

The REA winners, who were announced a little earlier in the year, were all in attendance to accept their awards from Professor Clare Warren and Professor Lindsay O’Dell. Each winner was presented with a beautiful wooden award and a certificate whilst saying a few words to mark the occasion. It was clear from their speeches that this recognition is important to each of the recipients, but particularly those in teams or new to academia who are forging a career in the discipline of their choosing.

Celebrating collaboration

In 2023, the OU launched the Open Societal Challenges concept, with the goal of using world-leading research to work with external partners across the themes of Tackling Inequality, Living Well and Sustainability to tackle some of society's most critical challenges.

After receiving over 200 potential challenges from internal academics, the University launched the ‘Challenge Us!’ competition for recent graduates, UK charities and Milton Keynes businesses to find the most exciting research ideas for tackling real-world problems.

During the ‘Challenge Us!’ awards, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the OU, Josie Fraser, joined Professor Shakesheff on the stage to present the award certificates. They were also joined by the three recently elected Members of Parliament for Milton Keynes, Callum Anderson, MP for Buckingham and Bletchley, Emily Darlington, MP for Milton Keynes Central, and Chris Curtis, MP for Milton Keynes North.

During her speech at the event Emily Darlington MP said, “Education is not just about books. It’s about changing our world. We should never be afraid to reach for the stars to do things we have never done before. That’s what the OU is doing with Open Societal Challenges. I’m very proud to be presenting these awards tonight.”

A total of 11 charities and two businesses were awarded research funding to work collaboratively with the OU, including Age UK, White Ribbon, Neno Macadamia Trust, Lingo Flamingo, Milton Keynes Development Partnership, and Bridgman & Bridgman.

Callum Anderson MP added, “I really enjoyed celebrating those who took part in the Challenge Us! Competition at The Open University. The entrant’s stories were fascinating as was finding out more about their ideas on how we can tackle some of our most pressing societal challenges. It was a great night. I’m so proud that the OU calls Milton Keynes home”.

The event was a great success and left those in attendance sure of The Open University’s continued mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas, and how this fifty-year-old mission statement is more relevant than ever in a society tackling real world problems around Sustainability, Living Well and Tackling Inequalities.