In our third and final post in our series, ‘Constructing for the future -creating a community through innovative procurement method’, we will be looking at engagement with the community.

Innovation, collaboration and engagement are buzz words and there are an infinite amount of possibilities to achieve those things, but using legal structures in different ways is a way to achieve and enhance collaboration, provide innovative solutions to problems and allow for better engagement with the community. These options can also add to the university revenue stream whilst enhancing collaboration and engagement with business, industry and the wider community.

Engagement with the community – how can it be done?

There are many options available to universities to better engage or enhance engagement with the community. These include:

• Strategic co-location with the private sector – This is more than just the university taking a tenancy in a private sector building or vice versa, it is planned, intentional and strategic co-location. This is a very well developed trend in the United States, where a number of very large corporations including Facebook and Google have openly confirmed that their locations have been dictated by the location of university R&D campuses, whether it be Boston (Harvard) or Silicon Valley (Stanford).
• Private Public Partnership (PPP) models – The PPP model is an example of how partnerships with the private sector for built infrastructure can result in a better, more efficient and effective asset and ensure that university resources are not diverted to things that are not its core objectives, such as student accommodation.
• Making university spaces available for community use – Engagement with the community can be as simple as allowing the community to use or designing a space or area within the university precinct designed from the outset with that very purpose and intention in mind.
• Community precinct planning – Partnerships with local and State Governments to co-develop precincts and broader community areas. This can include options such a land swaps and funding initiatives.

All of these opportunities need to be well planned and considered from the outset, but considering broader engagement with business, industry and the community can provide an immense opportunity for innovation, collaboration and engagement.