Activity Informatics
Activity Informatics is a notable example of how a small business and a university have leveraged each other’s core skills to build a strategic partnership. It is a collaboration between the University of Exeter and Activinsights. The University is part of the influential Russell Group in the UK and Activinsights is a UK based digital health company that exports products and services globally.
The University of Exeter and Activinsights have built a specialist research capability in human physical activity and behaviour measurement that draws on the strengths of each partner. Activity Informatics is a complete service for public-funded research and clinical trials that want to use wearable sensors to understand participant activity in a trial. The offering includes all aspects of trial management: deploying/retrieving devices, managing data and processing digital health biomarkers.
Activinsights provides infrastructure, underwrites the cost of devices and development resources while the University delivers project contracts and provides health expertise. Each organisation contributes resources that they consider low-risk and together create an adaptable, unique, capability-led, and valuable service.
The collaboration is built on over 10 years of joint working in physical activity measurement in public health, where the partners have considerable shared know-how and intellectual property. There is a portfolio of legal agreements between the organisations to cover PhD students and specific projects. The Activity Informatics collaboration has an umbrella agreement that allows new projects to be ‘called-off’ using a simple, pre-defined agreement template. While the legal agreements specify the various responsibilities, it is the shared, public statements of intent that create the Activity Informatics brand.
With Activinsights’ data analytics team in the South West of England, geographical proximity has helped to nurture the relationship. Regular, recurring calls without a pre-set agenda have preserved the essential aspects of face-to-face meetings during enforced social distancing.
The shared aim is to create a research centre of excellence in the measurement of lifestyle behaviours and their health impacts. This aim acts as a guiding star for the work between the University of Exeter and Activinsights. Every shared project and interaction helps to build the social capital that supports the realisation of this ambition.