24Aug 2023 by Andrew No Comments

ERDF Summative Assessment of the Tees Valley Screen Programme

Evaluation and impact assessment, News, Sectors
North East Screen (formerly Northern Film + Media) commissioned Ortus Economic Research, working with our regular associate Mark Adamson, to deliver the summative assessment of the Tees Valley Screen programme. The assessment was required to achieve three goals: to report on the project’s performance and impacts, to assess the progress made towards achieving the overall goal of the project including good practice, and to investigate the level of efficiency in the project management and approach and consideration of North East Screen's quality of service and how it can be approved. In line with the ERDF guidance, the evaluation considered key areas, including: the impact and benefit of the project; lessons learned and how this informed potential future activity; contributions to and impact on economic value; and key performance indicators –…
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17Jul 2023 by Andrew No Comments

Heading back to Atlanta

News
We are delighted to have been invited to participate in the Atlanta Design Festival 2023, and equally pleased to have been asked to update our previous analysis of the value of the design economy to the City. Our analysis will look at performance from 2017 onwards, so it will be fascinating to contemplate the impact of the pandemic on this important industry. We look forward to reporting back on the Festival later in the year
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17Jul 2023 by Andrew No Comments

New evaluation commission – Challenge North Tyne

News
Working closely with our regular collaborator Mark Adamson, we have been commissioned by North East LEP and Innovation SuperNetwork to undertake an evaluation of the Challenge North Tyne programme, funded by North of Tyne Combined Authority and running throughout 2023. This exciting project will examine the success and impact of the programme both from a traditional Green Book perspective, but in parallel also looking at the longer term impact on behaviours and attitudes to innovation that arise from the challenge-led nature of the innovation support. The evaluation will answer the following questions: What tangible and non-tangible impact is the project delivering for the participating organisations and the wider innovation ecosystem? Which elements of the programme delivery provide greatest value for participating organisations and the wider ecosystem? Are the risks and…
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17Jul 2023 by Andrew No Comments

Heritage Stimulus Fund evaluation report published

News
Historic England has recently published a report which evidences the impact of the Heritage Stimulus Fund, a package of investment within the Culture Recovery Fund totalling over £100m to allow heritage properties to continue repair and restoration works during the Covid-19 pandemic. Ortus worked with Morris Hargreaves McIntyre to deliver the evaluation, which demonstrated how important the Fund was in retaining skills in the heritage construction sector and providing heritage organisations with funds to restart or continue important repairs during a period of huge financial uncertainty. Read the summary report here.
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03Apr 2023 by Andrew No Comments

Recent evaluation commission

News
Ortus is delighted to announce that we have recently been appointed to deliver a summative assessment of the ERDF-funded Tees Valley Creative Industries SMEs Business Support & Development project on behalf of North East Screen (previously Northern Film and Media).  This project will run to July 2023 and will involve a full summative assessment following ERDF guidance for evaluations.  Once complete, this will represent a further example of our work in the evaluation field, particularly in relation to the creative industries and innovation.
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20Mar 2023 by Andrew No Comments

Changes to our leadership team

News
The Ortus team would like to express its thanks to our colleague Martin Houghton, who has recently retired as a director-shareholder in the business.  Martin’s role in setting up the business in 2017 and establishing a portfolio of work was essential in our ability to create the roots from which Ortus has grown.  Martin continues to act as an advisor to our leadership team and we wish him a happy and healthy retirement (much of which will be spent on his narrow boat or taking brilliant photographs!).  As a result of Martin’s retirement, Lucy Walker has taken the opportunity to take up shares in the business and we look forward to working closely with Lucy in developing the business further.
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13Mar 2023 by Andrew No Comments

Continuing our work in Innovation

News
Ortus was pleased to be asked by UKRI, via our partners in the Innovation Caucus at Oxford Brookes Business School, to undertake two reviews.  The first is in relation to innovation prizes, looking at the role of prizes in stimulating innovation, how they fit into the wider landscape and examining the journey of prize winners and runners up.  This is due to report in May 2023 and will feed into a wider review that Innovate UK is undertaking into the role of Innovation prizes. The second is to undertake a desk research exercise to review existing evidence and models relating to the economic impact of social sciences research, for ESRC.  This is a largely unexplored topic, so the first exercise is to review what material and research exists and whether…
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10Oct 2022 by Andrew No Comments

Supporting Strategy Development in Doncaster

News
We are currently working with Doncaster Borough Council to support the refresh of their economic strategy. Working with Kada Research (and rekindling past working relationships in the process, as Andy and Andrew were previously colleagues with Sam Nair at Kada), our role is to update previous research examining the role of key sectors in driving growth and innovation, and then to create an action plan for the Council and partners to deliver strategic outcomes and impact.  Our work is due to complete in June 2023.
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22Oct 2020 by Andy No Comments

Continuing our work in equality, diversity and inclusion

News
We have been busy across 2020 with two important contracts based in Ireland.  Both build on our previous work for Advance HE to evaluate the impact of the Athena SWAN Charter, which is designed to support higher education and research institutions to address gender inequalities.  The first, for the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, has seen us work closely with the Institute’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, Mary Nestor, to provide the evidence needed to support their application for the Athena SWAN Bronze Award.  This involved the design and administration of staff surveys and facilitation of six focus groups, including one with the Executive Board. The second, for the Irish Research Council (IRC), is to evaluate the IRC Gender Strategy and Action Plan, launched in 2013 with the aims of…
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08Oct 2020 by Andy No Comments

NTCA strikes partnership with NICD

News
Two of our clients, the North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) and the National Innovation Centre for Data (NICD) at Newcastle University have recently announced a new partnership to support economic growth and Covid-19 recovery.  NICD operates a unique business model within the higher education sector.  Instead of engaging with businesses and organisations through the usual contracted research approach, it focuses on developing the data science skills and capabilities of staff within client companies and organisations.  This is done through collaborative projects with NICD playing an advisory, mentoring role to support client staff to deliver a business-critical project and gain new skills and capabilities along the way.  This means that skills are developed within the client company, leading to sustainable productivity gains, ongoing innovation and long-term business performance improvements.  The…
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