School of Business

Collaboration with the Growth Hub

Begin a collaboration with the Growth Hub today

Who we work with

We welcome collaborations with organisations that want to partner to make growth more sustainable, inclusive, resilient and well-governed.

  • Businesses and employers: From start-ups and SMEs to larger organisations.
  • Public bodies and policymakers: Local and combined authorities, government teams, public services and regional partnerships.
  • Entrepreneurs: Founders and aspiring entrepreneurs developing, testing or growing a business idea.
  • Industry and membership bodies: Chambers, professional bodies, trade organisations and business networks.
  • Charities and social enterprises: Purpose-led organisations tackling economic, social or environmental challenges.
  • Business advisors: Advisors, coaches and support professionals working with businesses on growth and change.

Ways to collaborate

Research, evidence and insight

Commission or co-develop research that gives you a stronger evidence base for decisions. We can design qualitative, quantitative or mixed-method work around business, organisational, market, workforce or place-based questions. Our research experience includes:

  • Interviews, surveys, focus groups and data analysis
  • Business diagnostics and evidence reviews
  • Research translated into clear recommendations

Consultancy and problem-solving

Bring your business or organisational challenge to specialists in management, economics and responsible growth.  We can help frame the problem, explore options and turn relevant research into practical action.  We have experts in:

  • Strategy, productivity and execution
  • Responsible AI and digital transformation
  • Sustainability, governance, finance and supply chains
  • Marketing, management or strategic insight
  • Accounting and finance
  • Micro or macro economics

Project development and funding

Develop your idea into a collaborative project.  We can help define objectives, partners, work packages, evidence needs and routes to funding, and contribute academic expertise to bids where there is a strong fi.  We can assist with:

  • Partner and project design
  • Collaborative funding applications
  • Cross-university and cross-sector teams

Evaluation and impact measurement

Build evaluation in from the start of your programme, intervention or partnership or assess an ongoing one.  We can help you understand what changed, for whom, why it changed and what should happen next.  Our researchers are experienced in:

  • Baseline and outcome measures
  • Qualitative and quantitative evaluation
  • Learning, reporting and recommendations

Skills, leadership and executive education

Develop practical learning around the priorities of your organisations.  We can create masterclasses, workshops and tailored executive education that connects current research with real operating decisions.  We have experts in:

  • Strategy and growth
  • Innovation, AI and digital change
  • Leadership, people, finance and sustainability

 

Policy research and development

Use research and evidence to understand change, develop policy and test how interventions work in practice.  We can work with public bodies, industry and other organisations on responsible growth questions, producing material for decision-makers and, where useful, for wider publication through the Hub.  We can assist with:

  • Policy briefings and evidence reviews
  • Consultation, co-design and stakeholder insight
  • Evaluation reports and learning from interventions 

Events, engagement and stakeholder consultation

Bring the right people together to discuss a responsible growth questions, test an idea or develop a shared agenda.  Events and roundtables can share research, gather practitioner insight and develop material for later content or policy work.  We can arrange:

  • Roundtables, workshops and events
  • Stakeholder and practitioner insight
  • Business and policy engagement

Student experience and placements

Create opportunities for students to experience real-world business situations while bringing new perspectives into your organisations.  Depending on your needs, this could take the form of placements, live briefs, or involvement in projects.  Our students can be involved with:

  • Placements and work-based experience
  • Student projects and live briefs
  • Talent, skills and early-career engagement

How to begin a collaboration

You do not need a fully project, but a useful starting point is a growth questions that could benefit from research or policy work.  The first conversation is about the issue, who needs to use the evidence or material, what you want to learn or change, and the timescale.  We can then decide what form of work would be useful.

  1. Set out the question: Tell us what responsible growth question you are trying to to understand or change.
  2. Match the expertise: We match you with our world-leading researchers, expertise and in-house evidence.
  3. Agree the work: We define the work, outputs, responsibilities, timescale, budget and funding considerations.
  4. Deliver and reflect: We deliver the work, share findings and consider what should happen next.

Talk to us about a collaboration

If you have a research, policy or growth question that could benefit from the Hub's evidence and expertise, get in touch on [email protected] and tell us what you are trying to understand or change and we can discuss collaboration.

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