Dr William Darler

I am a practice-focused academic leading the business engagement and knowledge exchange strategy for 9 departments (around 800 academic staff) at the University of Leicester. I deliver lectures and manage research projects which span the disciplines of marketing, management, innovation, AI and data science. I have recently led, and co-led a range of funded projects including:

- Programme Lead for Help to Grow Management at the University of Leicester School of Business (a government-funded leadership programme run by universities across the UK. I was responsible for 50% of this £2 million project through the management of 20 members of staff and delivery of leadership training to 500 businesses). Please visit www.le.ac.uk/helptogrow for more information.

- Academic lead for ULSB at Leicester Innovation Hub (a £5.1 million European Regional Development Fund project to accelerate the growth of businesses in the UK. I was responsible for delivering 15% of this project).

- Principal Investigator for a Fintech project with financial software company, Draycir (a £185,000 Innovate UK funded project where I manage the development of AI software for a credit-chasing tool). Draycir website: https://draycir.com

- Principal Investigator for a Customer Intelligence software project with The Audience Agency (a £200,000 Innovate UK funded project where I manage the development of AI software for customer segmentation). The Audience Agency website: https://www.theaudienceagency.org

I am happy for companies to contact me to collaborate on grant applications, research projects, enquire about consultancy services, or the creation of professional development courses.

Please find details of recent funded activities below:

2021

• Help to Grow Management: A £3000000 project from the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) and department for Business Enterprise and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to run the Help to Grow Management training programme for 750 UK businesses between 2021 and 2024.

• Artificial intelligence in finance: A £185000 project funded by Innovate UK to develop a piece of AI software for a fintech company which increases the speed at which companies get paid.

• Interactive dashboards for CPD material: A £20000 ERDF Funded project to create interactive dashboards to visualise user behaviour for digital training company Sporting Edge.

2020

•Leicester Innovation Hub (Co-I): A £3000000 project funded by the European Regional Development Fund to accelerate the growth of UK businesses. I am responsible for delivering 15% of this project.

• Director of the Small Business Leadership Programme (SBLP): A £635000 government-funded project to run a small business leadership programme for around 200 participants from SMEs across the UK.

Darler, W.; Goulding, J.; Smith, A.; Roberts, D. (2017) 'A Framework to Segment Life Events Using Customer Transaction Data', 2017 Winter American Marketing Association Conference (AMA), Orlando, Florida.

Roberts, D. and Darler, W. (2017) 'Consumer Co-creation: An Opportunity to Humanise New Product Development', International Journal of Market Research. (Nominated for the Market Research Society silver medal in 2018).

Beltagui, A.; Darler, W.; Candi, M. (2015) 'Measuring the Deliverable and Impressible Dimensions of Service Experience', Creativity and Innovation Management, 478-492.

Darler, W.; Beltagui, A.; Candi, M. (2013) 'Development of a Holistic Customer Experience Measurement Scale', 20th International Product Development Conference (IPDMC), Paris, France.

Like many lecturers, I receive a number of enquiries from prospective PhD students asking for supervision. I really enjoy reading all of the research proposals but can only supervise a limited number of people. I currently look for a match between:

- My research interests (AI, Analytics, Behavioural Science, Human Behaviour, Customer Experience, Innovation).

- The specialisms at the Research Institutes within the University of Leicester (e.g. Health, Space, the Environment, Digital Culture Link: https://lnkd.in/ejqEWzYB).

- Government funding priorities (e.g. innovation, growth/productivity, levelling up, responsible AI, environment/net zero, health/wellbeing).

Examples of PhD projects which might interest me (organised by topic):

- Environment (the use of AI/data to reduce the environmental impact of peoples' behaviour or nudge people towards sustainable consumption decisions, the use of AI to augment ESG finance investment decisions).

- Health (e.g. the use of health technology (or med-tech) to influence behavioural change, predicting health outcomes with health data, user/customer experience on health apps, AI and bias/discrimination in health data).

- Cultural industry (the use of AI to encourage participation in the cultural industry, AI and fairness in the cultural industry – enabling artists and creators to be rewarded every time AI uses their artwork, the use of digital technology to enhance customer experience in the cultural industry).

- Space (the use of earth observation data to stimulate startup activity in the space sector, the use of data in public communications (e.g. tv) in shaping public perceptions of the space sector and encouraging participation from underrepresented groups, place branding strategies to attract organisations to hubs of space activity across the UK/world).

The best PhD proposals will not only consider the advancement of human knowledge but also the wider impacts on business, government policy and society.

Contact me:
I would love to hear from businesses who wish to sponsor a PhD student or from students who have already secured funding (funding is available from a number of sources including UKRI, Leverhulme, Wellcome Trust).

Please feel free to contact me at William.Darler@Leicester.ac.uk or for more information about applying for a research degree at University of Leicester please visit: https://lnkd.in/eC8swSMz

Executive Education:

Help to Grow Management

Available for custom courses (specifically focusing on AI and digital technology)

Undergraduate:

Project (Marketing)

Business in the Digital Economy

Year in Industry

Artificial Intelligence in Business

Data Science in Business

Digital Business

Digital Marketing

Retail

Esports/Video Gaming

• Member of the Midlands Engine Observatory and Midlands Digital Steering Group: A consortium of academics industry and regulatory leaders working together to deliver regionally-focused research across the midlands (website: https://www.midlandsengine.org/our-programmes/observatory/).

• Head of Research and founding member of the Association for Continuing Education in Esports (ACES): A consortium of academics and industry leaders interested in esports education (website: https://acesuk.org). 

University Distinguished Teaching Fellow 2021

Shortlisted for the MRS Silver Medal 2018

2017 Winter American Marketing Association Conference (AMA) Orlando Florida.

Digital skills and lifelong learning (particularly interested in the creation of executive education programmes to meet industry skills needs)

Education in esports (Co-Founder of the Association of Continuing Education in Esports. Website: https://acesuk.org)

• Covid impact on retail (December 2020): Interviewed on Gem radio about the impact of Covid on UK high street retail.

• Evans D (2019). In any digital transformation IT offers a pathway to innovation Intel website. Accessed 4 May 2021 ( https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/it-management/cloud-analytic-hub/next-generation-of-data-scientists.html)

• Wooden A (2018). How do you play the perfect game? Modern esports is turning to big data to find the answers Intel website. Accessed 4 May 2021 (https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/it-management/cloud-analytic-hub/big-data-powered-esports.html).

Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (FHEA)

Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (MCIM)