Knowledge Exchange Concordat

The Knowledge Exchange Concordat sets out eight guiding principles to support universities in sharing knowledge effectively and ethically with external partners, including businesses, policymakers, funders, and communities.

We use these principles to shape how we support equitable partnerships and transform scientific discovery into global health impact.

• Mission: Knowledge Exchange is embedded in LSTM’s core strategic plan and overseen by our Knowledge Exchange Steering Group. This ensures every initiative supports global health innovation while addressing the world’s most pressing health challenges.
• Policies and processes: We maintain robust governance, including a published concordat action plan, comprehensive KE resources, and dedicated KE Officers who guide policy adherence and data capture across all our partnerships.
• Engagement: Through our Enterprise and Innovation Unit, we support partnerships with SMEs, entrepreneurs, and health ministries. We provide mentoring, seminar series, and support to help transition research and development (R&D) into market-ready solutions.
• Working transparently and ethically: Aligned with our research integrity standards, we ensure ethical knowledge exchange in all engagements. We require mandatory transparency training for staff and maintain clear protocols for ethical partnership development.
• Capacity building: We have introduced training programmes, career support, mentoring, and public engagement initiatives.
• Recognition and reward: Our promotion and workload models, aligned with DORA principles, recognise knowledge exchange outputs.
• Continuous improvement: We regularly review our progress from previous Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) performance metrics, particularly focusing on local growth and partnership development.
• Evaluating success: With a formal governance through the steering group, we maintain transparent monitoring of knowledge exchange outcomes, update our action plan, and ensure accountability for our partnership commitments.