The Higher Education Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey collects financial and output data related to knowledge exchange each academic year, and has been running since 1999. The annual survey reports provide information on a range of activities, from business and public or third sector involvement in research, to consultancy and the commercialisation of intellectual property. It also explores other activities intended to have direct societal benefits such as the provision of continuing professional development and continuing education courses, and the provision of, for example, lectures, exhibitions and other cultural activities.
Research England also uses elements of the data to inform the allocation of the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF).
Explore HE-BCI survey data
The data is collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and for the last few years has been made available as open data.
Requests for longer time series of data should be directed to HESA.
Previous HE-BCI reports
Research England has published reports analysing the HE-BCI data, often taking a specific focus on IP-related and commercialisation activity, and including high level international comparisons.
Previous reports were published by HEFCE, which no longer exists, but documents can be viewed on the UK Government Web Archive.
See the latest HE-BCI report (2015-16) on the UK Government Web Archive.
See reports on previous surveys on the UK Government Web Archive.
Last updated: 21 March 2024