Partner Article

UWE academics to engage regional businesses

Academics from the University of the West of England Bristol are leading a programme to discover what businesses need to boost their competitiveness.

The programme is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, and aims to help regional firms who may never have considered universities as a source of support.

A team led by Professor Nicholas O’Regan, including marketing expert Dr Tim Hughes and business transformation specialist Dr Glenn Parry, will raise awareness of the knowledge and skills available from UWE and provide access to academic thinking across the disciplines.

The project will identify firms with growth potential, arrange workshops with international experts and distinguished professors from the UK, and put together an annual Business Summit where all firms will get a chance to hear from contemporary high profile experts on business enhancement and growth.

Professor O’Regan said: “This is an innovative approach where academic–business engagement can co-create ideas and knowledge. There will be opportunities for regular meetings and networking, and opportunities to share knowledge.

“For example business may want help understanding how best to approach an activity such as applied marketing and we will be able to look at the available research, provide them with the most up to date knowledge in this area.

“In addition, they will have access to academic and practitioner marketing experts. Other examples might relate to dealing with recent legislative changes in the Human Resources field to budgetary issues from the finance arena.”

Those interested in the free scheme, can find contact Nicholas O’Regan at the UWE on 0117 32 86433 or e-mail: BBS.events@uwe.ac.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .