By Professor James Smith, Vice Principal – International, University of Edinburgh
Last night we held an alumni event in Hong Kong.
As ever, sometimes you have to travel the world to hear the best of colleagues’ research, which speaks volumes of the international scope of Edinburgh’s research, teaching and impact and of the shear scale of the university.
Finding better ways of sharing, communicating and learning is a daunting challenge for us but also an amazing opportunity.
The event kicked off with three short, sharp presentations that aimed to give attendees a taste of what international research is going on at the university. All three of us did our best to stick to time… Well, I did.
Gathered alumni heard presentations from Dr Andy Kerr, Prof Sue Welburn and Prof James Smith.
It was brilliant to hear from Dr Andy Kerr, the executive director of the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, about the centre’s activities and ambitions for working in Hong Kong and East Asia.
Dr Andy Kerr
Andy reminded us that assuming that universities can simply work upstream and hope their activities gain purchase downstream is flawed for two reasons.
Firstly, universities have an obligation for the impact of their research and engagement. Our work is not simply released into the ether, rather we are duty bound to build relationships and pathways to ensure it has a meaningful impact.
Secondly – and this was also a point underlined by Professor Sue Welburn in her talk – we cannot simplistically think in terms of ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’.
Professor Sue Welburn
We live in a complex, interconnected world with complex, interconnected demands for new knowledge, new technologies and new ways of doing things. Understanding complex systems requires not only new ways of working across disciplines within universities but also new ways of working with new partners, and by forging alliances and building capacity.
Sue talked about her 20-year career engaging with neglected zoonotic disease in Africa (a topic also close to my heart).
She argued that an academic essentially has to work as an entrepreneur, in her case not only conducting the basic research that provides insight into new molecular techniques and understanding the complex epidemiology of diseases that span multiple species, but also thinking through how one manages disease in resource-poor settings where innovation cannot be sparked by market demand and risk itself risks getting crowded out by more visible, vocal priorities.
Me? I talked a bit about some of our work building capacity to develop more efficient, cleaner burning cook stoves in Tanzania and how the power of scholarships and internship opportunities can equip a future generation of African research and policy leaders.
Professor James Smith
We are lucky that some of our own graduates are providing internship opportunities and mentorship for this current generation of students. Networks can develop through generations too.
While we talked about quite different topics, the themes were the same: mutual partnership, committed engagement, building capacity, and responsibility to make a difference.
These are values that I believe define our institution in many ways, and most especially when we think about what we do around the world.