Ceri
Ceri Batchelder
Ad-Hoc Expert
Generic Skills
B.1. Understanding of integrated and sustainable urban development:
I have worked in technology and innovation throughout my career. At a number of points, I have been part of urban development initiatives. As a scientist at Harvard Medical School in Boston USA, I saw the growth of the city’s biotech industry first hand. And when working as a technology manager in Manchester UK, I was based in the city’s first biotechnology incubator which was the cornerstone of a huge phase of development of science and technology facilities across the city. My project was Building Biotech Businesses (The 3Bs), designed to create a pipeline of new biotech start-ups for the city and wider region.
At present, I am the URBACT Local Group (ULG) Co-ordinator for Barnsley, lead city in the TechTown Action Planning Network. In this role, I have brought city stakeholders together to embark on initiatives to promote digital skills development and create more digital jobs, and collectively produce our integrated action plan.
In 2016/17 I have run initiatives to promote the digital transformation of traditional industries in Barnsley, including healthcare and manufacturing. The Connected Healthcare and Manufacturing programmes have reached across the Yorkshire region and nationally to share expertise and technology networks with Barnsley companies.
[https://technorthhq.com/ecosystem/connected-healthcare/
http://www.yorkshirebusinessdaily.co.uk/2017/05/14/barnsley-host-digital-transformation-event-manufacturers/]
B.2. Understanding of exchange and learning processes at transnational level:
Through my position as ULG Co-ordinator of the URBACT TechTown Action Planning Network in Barnsley, I have participated in several transnational network meetings and played a leading role in meeting facilitation. I have also taken part in the URBACT training for Action-Planning Networks in Paris in May 2016 and was a group facilitator at the URBACT Summer University in Rotterdam in August 2016. I have applied URBACT tools with the Barnsley ULG and in other contexts.
In addition, I have been involved in discussions between Action Planning Networks to explore opportunities for collaboration and capitalisation. For example, learnings from the Gen Y City network about the nature and career expectations of young people are very applicable to TechTown.
In a previous position, at the global healthcare company Smith & Nephew PLC, I had an international business development role. This involved engaging with universities and businesses across Europe and the US to assess new technologies and build research and development collaborations. A key part of this was creating a framework for mutual exchange and learning of scientific and technical knowledge. Should initial proof-of-concept studies be positive, this would then lead to further dialogue to put in place the necessary collaborative agreements.
B.3. Proficiency in English:
My mother tongue is English and I feel very comfortable with oral and written communication. As a scientist and business professional, I have routinely needed to write papers, publications, reports and give presentations in English at national and international conferences. I also have experience in marketing, where I have needed to produce a lot of written materials and make use of online channels.
Increasingly I am running and facilitating many meetings and events, which involves a good command of oral and written English and the ability to use it to communicate clearly.
I have a PhD and MBA with distinction, both of which involved extensive written and oral communication.
Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities:
Summary Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities:
I have a broad base of experience in transnational exchange and learning in a variety of contexts. My academic background has exposed me to international teams and collaborations in the pursuit of scientific progress, where sharing of learning with the world-wide research community is encouraged (e.g. via seminars, conferences and publications). In my international commercial roles, I have developed these skills by applying them to setting up research and development collaborations, as well as transnational innovation projects.
Now, through my role in the TechTown network and my group facilitation at the URBACT Summer University, I am familiar with URBACT action planning methodology and tools for urban development and am applying them locally and to transnational exchange activities.
To encourage peer-to-peer learning and peer review, I have become very practiced in explaining and communicating complex information and either presenting my work, or organising workshops and events to facilitate a wider exchange between different groups. As part of this I routinely carry out research, capture key learnings and disseminate these through reports and on social media. I’m a firm believer that knowledge sharing needs to be fun and interactive, so always aim to ensure that this is a strong element.
Thematic expertise:
Theme / Policy:
Research, Innovation and Knowledge Economy
Summary Thematic expertise:
‘Research, innovation and the knowledge economy’ is the under-pinning theme of my career; starting as a research scientist and then making use of my science background in a variety of commercial roles linked to applied research and open innovation.
In a large corporate, I was part of the team that created the company’s Open Innovation programme and participated in, and led, several transnational initiatives to source new technologies. Then as a director of an SME, I created a new partnership business model to work in an open innovation approach together with universities and big corporates to advance our digital health capabilities.
Linked to the aims of TechTown in developing Barnsley’s digital economy, I have run two large digital transformation programmes for Barnsley Council – Connected Healthcare and Connected Manufacturing – to encourage adoption of digital technologies by traditional industries. At their core is the facilitation of knowledge exchange to stimulate digital innovation.
Similarly, my project choices in my MBA were both strongly linked to innovation – social network analysis and ‘hidden’ or unmet needs exploration - to better understand how to guide and influence innovation programmes in large organisations.
I am well practised in capturing and sharing best practice and policy recommendations as part of these activities, and at present am involved in shaping a capitalisation activity.
Expertise support to local authorities and other stakeholders in designing & delivering integrated and participatory policies
E.1. Knowledge on participatory methods and tools for co-production and implementation of local polices :
As part of the Connected Healthcare programme that I ran for Barnsley Council, I created the Yorkshire & Humber Digital Health Design Challenge. Achieving stakeholder buy-in was key and we secured support from healthcare policy makers across the region. I identified 8 healthcare challenges from NHS Hospital Trusts in South Yorkshire. The challenges related to areas such as dementia care, maternity care and support for people with learning disabilities. The Design Challenge was promoted to digital agencies to apply to work with the hospital teams to address the challenges through creating new digital solutions.
Co-production and community dialogue were at the heart of the Design Challenge – healthcare practitioners, hospital senior management, digital teams and patients all came together to learn about the problems and co-design digital solutions. Ice-breaker techniques were used to get people talking and then the teams were guided by service design methodology worksheets, mentors in the room and expert talks. Mediating some of the dialogue and managing conflicting approaches was an important component. Materials were provided and brought for paper and digital prototyping. At the end of the 2-day programme, teams pitched their concept in front of a panel of judges and prizes were awarded to the people’s and judges’ choice.
A write-up of the programme and associated learnings were shared to inform local and regional policy on digital health innovation initiatives.
E.2. Knowledge on integrated approach for the design, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of urban strategies/policies:
Within TechTown I have led the work on the Action-Planning Cycle with Barnsley’s ULG. We are now in the phase of consultation and co-production to generate ideas and define actions for our integrated action plan. Two workshops are planned on 23 and 29 June 2017 with digital economy stakeholders from across the town, including from the local authority, creative and digital businesses, IT/tech companies, business support infrastructure and the college. I will organise visualisation and ideation sessions to help define the actions for the results framework. As part of this, we will establish
• Specific objectives linked to each action area
• Result indicators, including baseline measurements and targets
• Output indicators
For example, output indicators for creating more high skilled digital and tech job opportunities through digital startups, could relate to the number of:
• Digital businesses starting up
• Events that are digital entrepreneur-led
• Projects involving Barnsley Council open data
Whilst in my business development role at Smith & Nephew PLC, I initiated our involvement in a European programme called Connect-2-Ideas (Framework 6/7, Innovation focus). The aim was to connect large multinational companies with EU SMEs to harness new sources of technology innovation. As part of this we collectively developed some monitoring tools to track the uptake and impact of new technology on our businesses – ‘open innovation metrics’.
E.3. Awareness of the main policy and funding schemes for sustainable urban development at EU and national level:
I am aware of Urban Innovative Actions, that provides cities across Europe with resources to explore new solutions to solve their challenges for sustainable urban development. I understand that it provides the opportunity to take risks and experiment with different approaches.
In addition, our work on TechTown is aligned with the Urban Agenda and it’s digital transition and jobs and skills in the local economy themes. URBACT is also part of the Urban Development Network.
I regularly refer to the URBACT website, particularly for information on other networks and look forward to receiving the URBACT newsletter for all the latest details.
As part of this it’s good to see updates from people I know such as Alison Partridge on co-working and from Ian Hill, National URBACT Point for the UK.
I receive regional updates from the Sheffield City Region Growth Hub and Leeds City Region, and grant and funding information from local tender experts, FCS Associates
In addition, Alison, Tracey Johnson and other TechTown colleagues are great sources of news and updates.
E.4. Ability to understand specific local situations and adapt tools and content to different local realities:
As ULG coordinator in Barnsley, I have needed to adapt to the local realities in order to make progress for TechTown. For example:
a) Relations between digital tech businesses and Barnsley College were limited and there was a poor understanding between both parties. As a result, we ran a workshop to bring the groups together and develop a better mutual understanding. This has led to a new work experience placement and regular meetings between digital employers and the college. In addition the college is now highly engaged in the action planning process.
b) Some initial members of the ULG were keen to be involved at the beginning, but work commitments have meant that they haven’t attended meetings regularly. As a result, I have widened the invitations to people who have demonstrated a real passion for the digital focus. This in turn has allowed us to have more technology-led conversations that will have a bigger impact on digital jobs and skills.
In an early knowledge exchange role, I was Technology Manager on a project called the 3Bs (Building Biotech Businesses) in the North West of the UK. The project aimed to commercialise innovative biotechnology ideas through the creation of start-up biotech companies by providing business mentoring and incubation. We, the 3Bs team, needed to tailor our support to local entrepreneurs and academics who tended to have little experience of the requirements of setting up a biotech business.
Summary Expertise:
Having worked with a wide variety of stakeholders in different situations, I’m aware that you need to gain a good handle on your local environment and seek buy-in from the relevant people before you embark on new planning activities, whether they be business-based or urban strategies. In addition, you need an awareness of the landscape with respect to funding and local authority, government and EU support.
An integrated approach is key to success, ensuring representatives from across the spectrum in a particular area of interest have a voice in establishing the current situation, and how as a group you can move forward. In addition it is important that any solution is arrived at through a facilitated co-production route.
In my role as Barnsley ULG co-ordinator in the TechTown network, we have made good progress in achieving a commitment from stakeholders to take part in the Action-Planning Cycle. We are now at the stage of consultation and co-production to generate ideas and define actions for our integrated action plan and the associated results framework.