Generating Real-World Impact from Academic Research: Experience Report from a University Impact Hub

Abstract

This paper presents an experience report of Digital Creativity Labs (DC Labs), an 'impact hub' created at the University of York in the UK. The impact hub is dedicated to fostering impactful collaborations between practitioners and researchers in the world of games, interactive media and the rich space in which these converge. In this paper we describe how the impact hub works and the activities undertaken to build a culture of academic entrepreneurship that allows academic researchers to understand the goals of external partners and align with them. We also present some illustrative case studies before proposing initial lessons learned from experiences of the Lab. Multi-disciplinary academic teams can generate excellent impact, but this doesn't happen automatically. A culture of entrepreneurship is needed, and opportunities must be created for researchers to tackle problems jointly. Effort must be put into maintaining collaborations with partners.