Business academics from Northumbria University, Newcastle, have taken part in a Research and Knowledge Exchange Forum as part of a drive to engage more actively with the business community
Operating within Northumbria’s Newcastle Business School, the department for marketing, operations and systems (MOS), held the all-day event, which saw researchers and members of the North East business community come together to exchange research undertaken and discuss how to achieve the highest level of impact within business, education and other areas including community.
The result means Northumbria is the education sector’s largest riser in research power ranking for the second time, and well positioned to collaborate with businesses and other organisations through research and knowledge exchange
Key themes included tackling research barriers and how to create the most impact, the importance of consistently communicating key findings to stakeholders in order to reach the intended audience and boost impact and ways in which to make impact the central proposition in all research and knowledge exchange activities.
Invited to speak at the forum was Toby Bridges, chairman of NBT Group, a leading supply chain management solutions company. NBT Group has been in partnership with Newcastle Business School and industrial software business Senseye Ltd since 2021, when the trio was awarded in excess of £250,000 to conduct a feasibility study. The undertaking of which, was to assess the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) systems to further develop smart factories.
Also speaking, was Jane O’Mahoney of Bradley O’Mahoney Public Relations, who is working closely with MOS to help communicate key findings and the real-time impact that can be achieved for businesses that enter in to a knowledge transfer partnership with it.
As part of the day, academics and PhD students submitted posters for a departmental competition, detailing their current area of research and the impact of their findings. The winners, PhD student, Caroline Sutherland and Modupe Mary Ferreira, also a PhD student, were decided by external speakers at the event, Toby Bridges and Jane O’Mahoney.
Prithwiraj Nath, Professor of Marketing and Director of research at MOS, said: “Research and Knowledge Exchange Forums are a vital part of our department, bringing together some of the country’s finest academics to discuss their current areas of research and share what has helped them create the most impact via their research.
“It is not by coincidence that Northumbria has risen up the ranks so highly for the research it conducts and within our department, we are committed to ensuring research undertaken creates the highest amount of impact possible, be it for business, education, communities or other areas.
“It is important to highlight that one of our biggest priorities is to engage with external groups so that we can learn from them where help is most needed and use open dialogue and knowledge transfer to fuel our areas of research, be it in pinpointing behavioural patterns within community cohorts or identifying solutions for business, for example, addressing operational inefficiencies.
“MOS is a champion of research and knowledge transfer partnerships and they are equally as valuable for us internally, sharing knowledge academic to academic via the Forum and with the insights of those we enter in to partnerships with externally, such as NBT Group, so that we can create the most impact.”