
The University of Glasgow’s Third Sector Knowledge Exchange Collaborative – The Collaborative – focused on improving the sustainability of Glasgow’s third sector, pivotal to community resilience, as organisations adapt, recover and transform from COVID-19.
Working with the Glasgow Council for Voluntary Sector, The Collaborative aimed to become a sustainable cross-discipline hub for pro-bono advice and expertise for Glasgow’s third sector organisations (TSOs), helping them access academic expertise on a variety of pressing issues in all phases of their lifecycle.
The Collaborative was organised by Dr Paula Karlsson-Brown, Adam Smith Business School, and Dr Sarah Weakley, Policy Scotland, with research assistance provided by Dr Jane Cullingworth.
The pilot phase of The Collaborative has now concluded. The materials created during its development are available here alongside articles marking key stages of the project and reflections on its achievements.
The model
How The Collaborative approached building a network of academics and third sector partners.
Information for TSOs
The advantages for third sector organisations to accessing and using research capacity.
Information for academics
The advantages to academic staff and students of working with real-life clients.
Blogs and publications
Third sector resilience is at the heart of community resilience: Making use of risk management

Third sector resilience is at the heart of community resilience so this is the time for third sector organisations to implement risk management.
The Collaborative: our work in Phase 1 and building on our successes

Key outcomes and participant feedback from the pilot phase of The Collaborative, and plans for the future.
GCVS and the Third Sector Knowledge Exchange Collaborative: a valuable response to our challenges

Ian Bruce from the Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector, outlines the value of collaboraton between third sector organisations and the University of Glasgow.
Piloting The Collaborative: Building the University of Glasgow’s relationship with the local third sector

Concluding evaluation to the pilot phase of The Collaborative, and lessons for future developments.
More information
See more about The Collaborative, including funding and evaluation.
If you are a University of Glasgow staff member and want to learn more about this project, please contact Paula Karlsson-Brown paula.karlsson@glasgow.ac.uk