Applied Research and Knowledge Transfer: Retaining Design Knowledge Assets in Higher Education

Abstract

ABSTRACTRecent research into the transfer and retention of design knowledge assets from knowledge transfer (KT) projects in a number of universities in the West Midlands is described. Participants in design-based knowledge transfer projects were interviewed and their projects reviewed within several universities. A typology of design knowledge assets of the projects researched indicated that universities appear not to systematically reflect and assess value in a manner commensurate with learning organizations. An interdependent relationship between the identification of design knowledge assets and the evaluation of knowledge transfer was discovered. The tacit and embedded nature of unrealized design knowledge was found to be difficult to harvest but present in most projects. The limited client-based value assessment criteria offered little to universities. New approaches to identifying, capturing and reusing knowledge assets from design-oriented knowledge transfer projects are indicated.