How is your institution promoting responsible research?

Our vision is of Edinburgh Business School being a business school that transforms lives and organisations for the betterment of societies globally. This is reflected in our mission to be a global leader in high-quality, accessible, practice-oriented business education and research.

As a School we are committed to undertaking excellent, and critically impactful, research with particular focus on themes such as Corporate Sustainability, Ethics, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Climate Change and Corporate Social Responsibility. Through our research we aim to transform practice and shape the future of society. Our research is engaged, multidisciplinary and focused, from conception to outcome, on improving society. The School’s research centres (the Centre for Networks and Enterprise Excellence, the Centre for Social and Economic Data Analytics, the Centre for Employment, Work and the Professions, and the Centre for Logistics and Sustainability) are focused around key themes that connect the School’s expertise with a number of the major challenges facing societies globally. Critically the research centres place an explicit emphasis on knowledge exchange with our research underpinning engagement with business and policy communities across the regions where we operate.

Our research strategy has as its core a focus on maintaining and enhancing the research culture that we define as “the behaviours, values, expectations, attitudes and the norms of responsible research communities”. Edinburgh Business School values a research culture that has integrity, equality and diversity, career paths, reward and recognition, open science and a collaborative ethos, with clear frameworks for the expectations, communication and support for responsible research integrity and ethical practices. Reflecting this commitment, the School’s former Director of Research has been appointed as the Associate Principle for Research Culture and People for the University.

It is significant in terms of our commitment to responsible research, that the Director of the Centre for Employment, Work and the Professions is the PI on a £4.2m research grant addressing issues of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion within UK academia and has been appointed to Research England’s EDI expert advisory group.

Reflecting our global footprint, particularly in the global south through our campuses and online provision, having in excess of 2500 students in sub-Saharan Africa, we are committed to ensuring that our research and teaching is directly linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In 2023, on completion of our first Sharing of Information Report (SiP) we became a PRME ‘Communicating Signatory’. Similarly, reflecting our commitment in the global south, we have joined the Global Business School Network in 2023 and are currently engaged in a range of initiatives focused on developing academic capacity in developing economies in conjunction with major philanthropic organisations.

Prof Angus Laing
Executive Dean
Edinburgh Business School
22/08/2023