Research Projects

Measuring the Social, Making Markets: Imagining and Constructing Global markets for Social Investment

Current Projects

Centre for Business in Society

The project will analyse the (international) creation of social investment (SI) markets, addressing the following research objectives:

• What ideas and discourses support the different models of an SI market?
• How do different understandings translate into market practice?
• How do market practices travel across space and place?

Enabling and translating advances in diagnostic and communication technologies to reduce the burden of STIs (eSTI2

Current Projects

Enabling and translating advances in diagnostic and communication technologies to reduce the burden of STIs (eSTI²).

B-Skills

Current Projects

The ultimate aim of this intervention is to empower mothers to breastfeed for as long as they wish. An associated increase in breastfeeding duration would result in reduced incidence of maternal and infant disease.

An Assessment of the Outcomes of the Social Incubator Fund

Current Projects

Centre for Business in Society

In July 2012, the Cabinet Office established a £10 million Social Incubator Fund as part of its broader strategy to grow the UK’s social investment market. The aim of the project was to assess the success and effectiveness of different forms of incubator and their finance and business support packages on the development of early stage social ventures. Acting as a sub-consultant to policy consultancy ICF Consulting, Nick Henry provided expert peer review on the evaluation methodology, findings and recommendations.

Capturing Stillness: Visualisations of Dance Through Motion Capture

Current Projects

Centre for Dance Research

The Capturing Stillness project places a microscope on the dance practice Skinner Releasing Technique (SRT), in combination with motion capture and game engine technologies.

CHANGE Plus; Promoting Behaviour Change towards the Eradication of Female Genital Mutilation in Practising Communities and Community-Based Advocacy

Current Projects

Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations

The CHANGE Plus project aims to raise awareness, change attitudes and promote behaviour change on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in practicing African communities in four EU countries: Germany, Netherlands, Portugal and France.

Improvement Science Training for European Healthcare Workers (ISTEW)

Current Projects

Health and Life Sciences

Developing shared academic and practice based programmes that enable European universities to build improvement capability and capacity within their own healthcare workforce.

Evaluating the value-added impact of teaching assistant-based reading programme

Current Projects

This project is a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a reading intervention aimed at Key Stage 1 in primary schools, running from Sept 2014 – July 2016.

Beyond Booked Up

Current Projects

The Centre for Research in Psychology, Behaviour and Achievement have been commissioned by the BookTrust to evaluate their initiative Beyond Booked Up: a suite of activities that aim to engage secondary school pupils in Year 7 and 8 with reading.

Financial citizenship: building financial security, capability and inclusion in communities

Current Projects

Centre for Business in Society

This research project will explore the concept of ‘financial citizenship’ and the extent to which credit unions are able to secure financial inclusion, financial capability and financial security of their members.  

OWLS - Off-Site Wrap-Around Large Scale Retrofit

Current Projects

Centre for the Built and Natural Environment

OWLS is a collaboration between Cogent Labs, Encraft, Solihull Community Housing, and Beattie Passive. This project aims to develop a rapid, highly replicable, and innovative approach to external insulation of walls and roofs by applying modern methods of construction to retrofit, complemented by innovative approaches to performance monitoring.

A Self Contained British Empire in Metals

Current Projects

Centre for Business in Society

This project explores attempts after the First World War to organise a British imperial minerals strategy, to ensure British control over the mineral reserves of the Empire.  

Empires in Metal: Corporate Political Activity and Business-Government Relations under “Anglo-Saxon Capitalism”

Current Projects

Centre for Business in Society

This project explores business-government relations and the political activities of leading firms by drawing on historical 'Anglo-Saxon' case studies.

Investigating the Scale and Structure of the Wild Flower Harvesting Industry in South Africa’s Cape Floristic Region

Current Projects

Centre for Business in Society

This three year project will address challenges such as supply chain transparency by providing insights into the scale and structure of the wild harvesting industry in The Cape Floristic Region (CFR).

Inclusive Cities

Current Projects

Green Entrepreneurs in Cuba – Evaluation of a collaborative initiative to strengthen Small Scale Private Sector Initiatives in Rural Cuba

Completed Projects

Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience

To evaluate the project participatory action learning cycle and the focus on small scale entrepreneurship in order to provide guidance and recommendations to donors for project follow up.

Beyond Ecosystem Services: Brokering Agrobiodiversity Management Enterprises in Europe and Internationally (EcoBroker)

Current Projects

Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience

This Fellowship aims to explore innovative business models and learning approaches that will increase sustainable agro-biodiversity management and reconnect food chain players and civil society with agro-biodiversity values.

Putting diversity back together

Current Projects

Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience

Understand the processes that influence the success or failure of ecological restoration effort and make robust predictions at regional scales.

Slavery Compensation and The Highland Clearances

Current Projects

Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience

This project investigates whether the revolution in land ownership was fuelled by compensation money received in 1834 by slaveowners for the loss of their 'property' when slavery was abolished in the British Empire.

Making Space: The Geographies of Minimalist Practices and Sustainable Consumption

Current Projects

Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience

The purpose of the study is to explore the motivations and practices of self-defined minimalists (or those who associate themselves with minimalist practice) and to explore minimalism’s potential link to sustainable consumption practices.