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Everton and Liverpool Hope University join forces to form unique academic research partnership

Saturday, 15 October, 2016 6comments  |  Jump to most recent

Everton Football Club and Liverpool Hope University have announced plans for an official research partnership — the first of its type between a Premier League club and a leading university.

During the five-year collaboration, Liverpool Hope will work with Everton to provide high quality academic resources to support the Club's research requirements. Projects will range from review and assessment of the social projects delivered by the Club's Charity, Everton in the Community, to fanbase development and areas relating to commercial growth.

The first formal project will see the University researchers working with Everton in the Community staff to quantify and provide detailed evidence of the social impact the Club's Charity makes within the City of Liverpool. The findings from this research will provide insight which will enable improvements by focusing resource in areas that achieve the greatest social impact.

The University's research and analysis will support the Club to further develop its knowledge in corporate and performance spheres, technology development and governance all of which will be beneficial in taking future strategies forward.

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In addition to the research element of the partnership, both the University and the Club will benefit from knowledge exchange through guest lecturers, placements and volunteering opportunities.

The collaboration follows on from the recent award by the university of an Honorary Visiting Professorship in Leadership in Sport Serving Humanity to Professor Barrett-Baxendale.

Professor Pillay, Vice Chancellor and Rector of Liverpool Hope University, said: “The partnership between Everton and Liverpool Hope University developed because we share the aspiration of making a positive impact in and beyond our communities. The benefit of being in a long-term research relationship means our focus can be on the quality of the work and the impact made by our research. It is a great opportunity for the University and for Everton — but what excites me the most is the impact this partnership could have on our city, and potentially other cities, once the model is proven. At Hope we have many international links and we understand the reach and global profile of Everton Football Club. This makes the opportunity even more exciting.

“Through our initial work with Professor Barrett-Baxendale we have been able to see the impact that Everton in the Community has made in our society. We are excited that both through her role as an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University, and our organisation's collaboration, we will be able to make further significant progress in this hugely important area.” 

Professor Barrett-Baxendale MBE, Executive Chair of Everton in the Community and Director at Everton Football Club, added: “Everton in the Community and Everton Football Club have grown considerably over the past decade into larger, more professional organisations with greater resources. The quality of the support we will now get from Liverpool Hope, which has recently become the third highest ranked modern university in the country and one of the top 50 UK universities, is best-in-class. In order to achieve our ambition, we have a requirement for a dedicated research facility that can work across our organisation to benchmark, test ideas and help us take new initiatives forward. Having access to the expertise of Post-Doctoral researchers will give us an advantage in a number of areas, not least in our ability to optimise the life-changing and life-saving work in our local communities.”

To support the partnership, an Everton Chair in Social Responsibility will be appointed at the University. Professor Keaton, who developed the concept between the Club and the University, will become an Ambassador for Everton in the Community, with Professor Pillay joining the Charity as a Patron alongside, among others, Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ken Robinson.

 

Reader Comments (6)

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Tony I'Anson
1 Posted 15/10/2016 at 18:00:27
Very interesting project. Everton looking at social impact measures with Liverpool Hope University. Very interesting indeed...
Peter Mills
2 Posted 15/10/2016 at 19:41:59
I suspect there is a lot to interest us in this piece, it would be good if someone from the club could break through the corporate-speak and shed some further light on what it really means.
Patrick Murphy
3 Posted 15/10/2016 at 19:47:32
Peter (#2), It might just mean that the club will use the research facilities of the University to see how much money they can extract from the fan-base? On the other hand, it may be a way to develop EitC to become a larger, better-targetted resource... who knows?
James Byrne
4 Posted 16/10/2016 at 13:14:38
I'm probably on a completely different path here, but it's encouraging to see both our top clubs collaborate in any initiative that improves the City as a whole.

It's about time the clubs together with council and government support, pushed for the development of a world-class standard of all-weather football pitches at grass-roots level and upwards. Even more important given the amount of girls who are now playing football to a good level.

Jay Wood
5 Posted 16/10/2016 at 13:51:16
Very interesting – and praiseworthy – initiative by the club, adding to the many Everton have historically made.

I hope it results in achieving its stated aims, which could benefit the city (and others) and wider society beyond the confines of the club itself.

Ernie Baywood
6 Posted 18/10/2016 at 04:06:12
I see this as finding ways to measure the impact of past projects and therefore allowing us to get bang for our buck in terms of new projects.

Any community activity will make us feel good about our club, but might as well optimise the benefit we can provide. The only way to measure success is to put some kind of data behind it.

Good to see, in my opinion.

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